Hi,
There is something else about that story that bothers me more than inmates getting good TVs. It is not a *prison* it is, according to the article, "The Minnesota Sex Offender Program at Moose Lake is one of two state facilities that house civilly committed sex offenders who are deemed such a danger that they are held beyond their normal prison sentences."
Now, you can tell me all about how dangerous these people are and how society must protect itself. But keeping people beyond their prison sentence is wrong. They committed a crime, they were tried, convicted, and given a sentence. Then when their sentence has been served, the state determines, without a trial, without due process, without even a new charge (and acting on the old one is double jeopardy) that they should be incarcerated longer. By what right? I have no problem locking the true sex predators up and throwing away the key, or feeding them to an endangered species (alligators come to mind), but let's do it right. If that's what we're going to do to them, then let's put a law in the books saying so. Let the incarceration period given as a sentence include whatever time they must serve in a sex offender program. Or make it a life sentence with the possibility of parole being contingent on being declared 'cured' in such a program.
And let's keep in mind the no ex post facto business. Yeah, if some of those scumbags are already in jail and there's no law on the books to keep them past their sentence, then you just can't do it. Sure, you can pass that law for when it happens again in the future, but you can't make it retroactive.
Of course, we could just do what they used to do. Very few sex predators, especially child molesters, ever made it to trial. Amazingly, they mostly tried to escape while multiple people held guns on them. And while we're at it, let's reintroduce wergeld.
--Pete
(09-01-2010, 07:52 PM)kandrathe Wrote: Here in Minnesota, there was a big political drama when it was learned that the 2 dozen 50" Flat Panel TV's were installed in the Moose Lake State prison for sex offenders. These really are the criminally insane people you don't want loose in your society, rather than the ones who merely shoplift video tapes, or have a large stash of marijuana.
There is something else about that story that bothers me more than inmates getting good TVs. It is not a *prison* it is, according to the article, "The Minnesota Sex Offender Program at Moose Lake is one of two state facilities that house civilly committed sex offenders who are deemed such a danger that they are held beyond their normal prison sentences."
Now, you can tell me all about how dangerous these people are and how society must protect itself. But keeping people beyond their prison sentence is wrong. They committed a crime, they were tried, convicted, and given a sentence. Then when their sentence has been served, the state determines, without a trial, without due process, without even a new charge (and acting on the old one is double jeopardy) that they should be incarcerated longer. By what right? I have no problem locking the true sex predators up and throwing away the key, or feeding them to an endangered species (alligators come to mind), but let's do it right. If that's what we're going to do to them, then let's put a law in the books saying so. Let the incarceration period given as a sentence include whatever time they must serve in a sex offender program. Or make it a life sentence with the possibility of parole being contingent on being declared 'cured' in such a program.
And let's keep in mind the no ex post facto business. Yeah, if some of those scumbags are already in jail and there's no law on the books to keep them past their sentence, then you just can't do it. Sure, you can pass that law for when it happens again in the future, but you can't make it retroactive.
Of course, we could just do what they used to do. Very few sex predators, especially child molesters, ever made it to trial. Amazingly, they mostly tried to escape while multiple people held guns on them. And while we're at it, let's reintroduce wergeld.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?