Judicial Notice of Need for Prison Reform

[bagkitty]

I was checking the CBC News online this morning when I came across the following:

No prison time for molestor (http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/26/short-prison.html)

Strangely enough, my first thought was "It's about bloody time".

I am sooooo very tired of the state (not necessarily this particular state) pretending they have little or no custodial responsibility for those they have incarcerated.

I have often considered starting a Cafe Society thread about this -- the casual acceptance of violence in the prison system as portrayed / endorsed / celebrated by television and film -- but it is a real life situation that has finally prompted me to actually launch a thread.

The crime in question is not just disturbing, it is disgusting. But I think the judge was correct in recognizing that the prison system is so out of control that the risk to the offender who would have been incarcerated is too extreme to be sanctioned.

I only hope this case can be used as a precedent to force the state to accept responsibility for the conditions in penal institutions.

[casdave]

Given that he is 50 years old, one can only speculate at his offending career, I would be somewhat surprised if this were a first offence.

I suppose the judge evaluated the victim impact and regarded this at the low end of this type of crime, but there is still the old saying,

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime", at 50 years old a person should be well aware of the consequencies of criminal activity, and a prison term is one of them.

I think an offence that would normally have attaracted a 10 year award sounds fairly serious to me, are we going to treat all offenders in this manner, or just those who can make some case for being vulnerable, because I predict that the lawyers fwill find all kinds of ways to demonstrate their client is vulnerable and should not be incarcerated, and I can't imagine how this is likely to make society safer.

[Imasquare]

But if he isn't jailed isn't he going to be a danger to children? Particulary after the electronic surveliiance is removed after the first four months.

[bagkitty]

It looks like the discussion is taking place in the pit, so as OP I am going to abandon this thread.