Wednesday 18 April 2007

Why do we let child sex offenders out?

The New South Wales government made a last minute bid to keep a child sex offender in prison but their attempts were unsuccessful.
A serial child sex offender is out of prison, despite the NSW government's efforts to keep him behind bars. Kenneth Davidson Tillman left Sydney's Long Bay jail on Wednesday afternoon, hiding his head in a black jumper, after serving 10 years for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl.

Tillman, wearing light blue jeans, white trainers and a grey T-shirt, was led out of the prison gates and driven away in a dark green Ford sedan.

He was released after the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the a NSW government legal bid to keep him in prison had not allowed him enough time to defend himself. The government had only applied seven days before Wednesday's release.

However, Tillman has been ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device for the next month. The government is continuing its bid to return him to custody for another five years, arguing that there is a high risk he will reoffend.
Of course there's a high risk that he'll reoffend...that's what the 'serial' means in 'serial child sex offender'. These people are among the sickest in our society and, when caught, should be locked away for life. We read story after story of convicted child sex offenders being released and not only reoffending but actually upping the ante and committing murder in order to not be caught.

The electronic monitoring device is really going to bother him, isn't it? A whole month! What were they thinking?

Sex offenders are a problems for those that think it's possible to rehabilitate everybody regardless of their crime. I might agree that thieves, drug addicts and the overly aggressive are able to become positive members of society even though the recidivism rate in that group is high. There are enough success stories for those categories to lead one to believe it's possible to turn miscreants around.

Sex offenders are a totally different kettle of fish, having a psychopathy more akin to mass murderers than normal people. I don't know why we let them out but I do know that by doing so many children's and families' lives will be ruined by these people.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very simple answer: Because the jails are filled to overflowing with people who have no more business being in jail than you do. People who are there for the "crime" of being an adult who chooses to use drugs mostly, or people whose crime of selling drugs SHOULD amount to nothing more than operating a business without a liscence. So they have a choice: Either legalise drugs and regulate them, or keep filling the prisons with non-violent "criminals" and furloughing and paroling people who murder and people who rape kids. They apparantly think it is worse for someone to be involved with drugs than being a murderer or paedophile. So either 1.advocate legalisation of drugs; or 2.shut the hell up about REAL criminals getting a light sentence and then paroled so they can rape and murder again soon. And your choice is...... ?

Jack Lacton said...

I wouldn't argue against legalising drugs. Equally, I wouldn't let people off the hook for crimes committed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. What about this for an idea? Allow workplaces to drug test their workers and fire anyone on the spot for testing positive. Make it mandatory that in order to receive federal aid you must be drug free.

I'm all for harsher prison sentences and a reduction in the release of prisoners so that they can transgress again.