Showing posts with label crimes against children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crimes against children. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Supreme Court rules "Sexually Dangerous" Prisoners can be kept out of Society!

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In a landmark 7-2 decision, the justices declared that a federal law allowing federal prisoners deemed "sexually dangerous" to be held even after they have served out their original sentences is constitutional.

The Court said Congress does have the power to keep such dangerous offenders out of society indefinitely.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented arguing that Congress went too far, and nothing in the Constitution permits this kind of extended confinement.

Re•cid•i•vism is defined as a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behavior. Back in the 1970's I was involved in a study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to review the behavior of federal criminals and the impact of rehabilitation on the recidivism rates of various types of crime.

At the time there was debate as to what types of crimes could be rehabilitated and whether certain types of criminal behavior like sexual predators, abusers and rapists who repeated crimes when released from prison could ever fit the mold of a criminal who paid their debt to society and could be rehabilitated.



I was among the advocates that certain criminals were possessed by evil, like a genetic coding, and no form of incarceration would result in reforming the warped mind of the abuser. They would be a threat to society every time they left jail and the only viable and safe solution for protecting Americans was to keep these demented criminals out of society permanently.

This could only be accomplished through life terms without parole or a special status that gave law enforcement the right to have them permanently imprisoned regardless of the sentence handed down by the courts. Over the years thousands of Americans, especially women and children, have been murdered and many thousands more permanently scarred psychologically by being victims to these heinous predators.



In areas where serial predators roamed fear was widespread and affected the quality of life of all people who lived by the law.

This ruling denies no one due process as those who will be designated as "sexually dangerous" have had numerous opportunities to avoid such a fate or have been so evil as to demonstrate they cannot exist in a society of laws. Too often judges have refused to impose maximum prison sentences or the states have not made the sentences long enough for repeat offenders of particularly vicious crimes.

It is a long overdue ruling to recognize that the argument "cruel and unusual punishment" does not apply to those who repeatedly deny other people the right to a life free from sexual predators. The fact both liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices agreed is a major victory for the people.

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

THOUSANDS OF KIDS MAY BE VICTIMS OF CULT CRIMES

America discovered just how weak our law enforcement system might be with the recent raid of the FLDS headquarters in El Dorado, Texas. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) is one of the largest polygamist denominations and one of America's largest practitioners of plural marriage. Founded in 1930 and led by a self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Steed Jeffs, currently in jail for being an accomplice in rape there are about 10,000 members of this religious cult.



The church currently practices the law of placing, whereby a young woman of marriageable age is assigned a husband by revelation from God to the leader of the church, who is regarded as a prophet. The prophet elects to take and give wives to and from men according to their worthiness. Wives may be taken from one man and reassigned to men that are more worthy.

Originally established in the border towns of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah there are also isolated FLDS groups in Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada, Mesquite, NV, Pringle, SD, and the new headquarters at El Dorado, TX. The colony of about 1,000 FLDS members living in Bountiful, British Columbia are almost all descendents of six men.

Reported criminal activity in the cult indicates a pattern of child marriage, sexual abuse and trafficking, in which girls from the ages of 13 to 16 have been married to older men and girls are being trafficked to Canada for marriage to polygamous men in British Columbia. Adult women have also described battering, intimidation and sexual abuse within polygamous families. Young women inside these communities are vulnerable to coercion by family members and religious leaders to enter polygamous marriages. Trained to obey religious teachings and denied any other education, they may see no real alternative.

The Colorado City/Hildale area has the world's highest incidence of fumarase deficiency, an extremely rare genetic condition which causes severe mental retardation. Geneticists attribute this to the prevalence of cousin marriage between descendants of two of the town's founders, Joseph Smith Jessup and John Yeates Barlow; one local historian reports that 75–80 percent of the double-communities' roughly 10,000 inhabitants are descended from one or both of these men.

The courage of a 16 year old girl, already a mother and pregnant again broke open the case against the FLDS when she called a hotline in town for help from beatings, rape and a forced marriage. Although the Texas sheriff had an insider at the cult reporting on their illegal activity it was not until the call from the girl that law enforcement could take action and what they discovered was bizzare as over 400 children were recovered from the one compound.



One 16 year old found in the compound had 4 children. Stories of the bizzare and immoral behaviour of the sect leaders abound including the fact over 400 young teenage males were banished from the cult in the past few years because of a shortage of girls for assigned marriages as each husband must have at least 3 wives. Perhaps this shortage is what caused 13 year olds to be married.

Now what is going to happen in the other compounds where this activity has been taking place for years? Can law enforcement officials in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, and Canada show the same agressiveness as Texas authorities in bringing this deplorable practice to an end? We shall see.