NewscomOregon is about to enact one of the country’s most draconian, carceral, and unnecessary “public safety” measures. Beginning on January 1, 2018, certain sex crimes committed in the state will come with a presumptive sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole or release. Full Article
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I actually agree with this law if it only applies to the people who have gotten caught a second time. If they abolish the registry along with this that would be a better outcome. That way the recidivist 1-5% would be put up and the other 95-99% would be able to live constructive lives.
They would have to refine who it applies to, as sodomy shouldn’t be as this would strictly target the homosexual community. I may be a bit biased on this because I was raised on the “you only get one” system growing up.
As in break the rule/law once you should be allowed to be alotted that one mistake, pay for it then, don’t do it again. If you do it again then you didn’t learn and you’re on your own.
Here we have the reaction to the mounting losses in courts over the registry. I’m sure this will cause the rate of sexual crimes to plummet… In fact, the reported offenses will probably go *down*, as nobody wants Aunt Susie, or Dad, or Cousin Jim to go to prison for life–so they’ll keep mum. They *can* at least guarantee the recidivism for the covered offenses will go to zero.
I don’t know the right answer here but is locking more people up the right way to go? It’s always for us, not for them. Out of site, out of mind. Meanwhile, they rot, become better criminals, become hardened..etc. I wish the US could more efforts into prevention and rehabilitation. I find it humorous how everyone wants sex offenders locked away forever…okay, fine but who’s paying for that? Shouldn’t these people be first in line to open their wallets when taxes have to go up?
With a law like this the, “grave threat” to vulnerable persons will INCREASE.
Ironically, the measure was put forward by the gentleman from SALEM!
GOD has sense of humor.
For what it’s worth, I don’t have a problem with the law as summarized in the article. It even makes sense in some respect – true sex offense recidivism would drop, it probably wouldn’t add much cost to the prison budget, and the purported “need” for the registry would diminish even further. (Note: don’t take that to mean I think the registry is “needed”. I fervently believe the public needs a sex offender registry like a fish needs a chair)
Nonetheless, I don’t think it should have passed. The biggest problem as I see it is that the three crimes it applies to now – 1st degree rape, sodomy (likely included for homosexuals, but will be applied across the board), and unlawful sexual penetration – at some point will be expanded to include all sex crimes and non-sex crimes mandating sex offender registration.
The U.K. just has slightly different ways of being completely batshit insane. Their laws are better in some ways and worse in others. For one thing, you don’t really have the option of not speaking to police there. If you don’t answer their questions, it can be used against you. If you watch police procedurals from there you will see that their suspects are not necessarily being stupid by agreeing to be interviewed by the police (as they would have to be if they were in the States) but that they have little legal choice. Their criminal sentences are shorter than our’s but they are the longest in Europe. They don’t have quite the bright-line distinction between community supervision vs. non-supervision as the U.S. has and they value autonomy from such supervision less. An English friend of mine now must allow the police to enter his house several times a year to do a search and be interviewed for the rest of his life even though he is not on probation or parole. On the other hand, he finds them to be easygoing enough and he makes them a pot of tea while they chat. They have the Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) to which they can be subjected with what would appear to us to be a lack of due process, etc. It’s easy for them to impose no-travel bans in a way that is more difficult here.
However, I think that they seem to accord more importance to mens rea than does the U.S. I’m thinking particularly of cases where a girl lied about her age and the adult male was prosecuted. It seems that ignorance is a defense in the U.K. for this sort of case whereas, in the U.S., no one gives a damn. I just ran into this today from “FACT U.K.” a group somewhat similar to ours: https://factuk.org/2017/12/20/isaac-itiary-another-victim-of-non-disclosure-of-vital-evidence/
I do agree with this law multiple sex offenses sounds like you already had your chance to be a productive member of society and you blew it.. so yes you should be locked up for life BUT !! the problem with that is what if someone lies on you…. the state of California thought about passing a similar law but quickly back out because they felt that once A offender cames to the realization of what he/she has done and what he/she is facing the offender might kill the victim out of desperation knowing he/she is facing life in prison