Jeff C,
I was being sarcastic, btw. I workded for 3.5 years in corrections (federal) and worked (for six years) for a company that employed inmates (metal fabrication) in a prison. The <i>employees</i> of our factory were predominately sexual predators/offenders. I worked closely with the program specialists who were funded to rehabilitate (this is an elective program) the offenders.
The sex offender classification system:
level 1 (least likely to reoffend)
level 2 (high likelihood of reoffense)
level 3 (probable reoffense)
...is a political game of dancing around the legal system and the Constitutional rights of the convicted, in an effort to reduce the prison population. The program specialists all confided that there has NEVER been a level 2 or level 3 released back into the population that has not only NOT reoffended, but did so at an increased level (incorporating atrocities or murder).
The ACLU has been the biggest supporter of sex offender's rights by way of litigation and financial support to ensure their rights are protected...knowing that the rights (to protection) of the civil population were being severly eroded.
As Caymen pointed out, there are those special cases that seem to get raked in with the classification, incarceration, and stigmatization as with these obviously dangerous predators...and that needs to be addressed. Organizations such as NOW want to increase punishment for people like Caymen's cousin (as if this were preemptive, stopping a progression to more sever offenses) while ignoring the true predators.
People need to wake up and start pressuring their legislators with their feelings on this. Violent sex offense and offenders represents one of the fasted growing criminal classifications in our society. This is not due to more reported cases...it is due to the ever increasing pool of victims...victims are most likely to become offenders themselves.
