Land of Oz

Sex Offenders and others

This subject bothers me in a lot of ways. I just read where Ohio wants to make their convicted sex offenders use a fluorescent-green license plate on their cars. They already have to register in most states as well as having limits to where they can and cannot live.

Here's a couple of the things that bother me. First, they (and I'm generalizing here) seem to be unable to control themselves. They know it's wrong, they know they're going to get caught and they still do it. The NBC show, "To Catch a Predator" shows that with its repeat offenders that show up on multiple episodes. These are folks who have been processed through the legal system.

Obviously the system, somewhere, is very broke. It seems that a person who's convicted and sentenced of a crime, and then serves that sentence has paid their so-called debt to society. However, for these people it's just the beginning.

The other problem is that a jail sentence doesn't seem to do much. You let them loose and they do it again. Which means that we probably shouldn't be letting them loose. It's like leaving a sharp knife on the floor of a room full of kids. Either lock the knife up or put it in a sheathe to protect or make it so dull it won't hurt. Something like this needs to be done to sex offenders. And I'm not sure what that is.

As creepy and disgusting as the crime is, most of the violators don't seem to be able to control themselves even after being convicted, sentenced and released.

Actually, this seems to be true of most criminals. Really, how many criminals only do it - whatever it is - once? So why do we keep letting them out? Jay Leno commented last night that some state wants to give multiply-convicted drunk drivers pink license plates - why give them a license plat at all!! You're always reading about drunk drivers or rapists or muggers or whatever with multiple convictions. That's why I like the three strikes rule. Let's just acknowledge that we can't fix a lot of criminals and they aren't going to fix themselves. Give them a second chance and then slam the door on them. And like I said before, I don't care if the third strike is shooting some guy in the thigh or stealing a pizza - it's a crime and obviously the criminals can't get it through their heads that it's wrong. And until we figure out how to cure these folks, we need to lock them away where they don't have a chance to swing at strike number four.