Crosscheck wrote:
I think this is bullshit.
I consider it cruel and unusual to tell a person they'll get out of jail on a certain date, then 20 years later when that date comes, not letting them out.
If the problem is with high risk offenders, make that distinction BEFORE sentencing.
Lock em away forever, I don't care, just be up-front about it.
I have to agree with this, basically.
As a hypothetical though, suppose in the years this guy has been in jail there have been studies done that confirm that his 'illness' isnt curable, and that he's simply not compatible with society. If we then change the sentences of new offenders to reflect this new found evidence, ie, longer/life sentences, is it not somehow morally acceptable to retroactively lengthen the terms given out to past offenders? Why should the date a crime was committed have anything to do with the 'proper' sentence once all the 'science is in'? Of course thats a slippery slope, are we going to go put people who have already served their sentences BACK to jail, even if they've served their sentence?
Fuck if I know. But if I had a kid who was molested/kidnapped/killed by some pervert who HAD been in jail for some crime against a child, and was released after his sentence, and then did that shit to MY kid...I'd have no problem with all released pedophiles being put back forever. Assuming we had some sort of panel able to judge the circumstances...like someone else mentioned, i'm not talking about some 20 year old mutual-consensually banging his 17 year old girlie in the back of his car, i'm talking about the kid touchers.