Thoughasweak, with the recent discussion on Daily Strength about the endless sentences give out to any and all sex offenders (young or old) I appreciated reading this. Thanks. The more we know the more we understand why it's so important to stand together and reach out to one another no matter which "stage" of the (in-)justice system our loved one (and our family) are traveling through. Thanks again. JanetM

I'm in the UK & about to do a Circles course - 'women as protectors'. It's designed for women with a SO partner, or significant family member. The idea being that you can identify triggers and spot warning signs for re-offending. A very different approach...

One thing that bothers me about this is that fantasies are not deviant at all - even a rape fantasy is not considered deviant. Of course acting out and committed the crimes the first person described did is a crime - but to measure arousal based on fantasies is inhumane. Even for someone that has committed a violent sex crime having a fantasy is not a crime!

"Certified" evaluaters" are approved by the system and then, after all the "treatment" they are aid to do... all their 'therapy' the "evaluaters" are afraid to put their name to a paper that OK's anyone's release because they know their stuff is based on sham science and voodoo (how do they even know anyone is "having a fantasy" for them to "measure" unless the "dangerous offender" tells them? Maybe he "desires" his "evaluator"? and since they are both adults isn't that 'healthy'? Mind control is the objective but as Advocate2 says ...fantasy is not a crime (it's a genre and to quote Jimmy Carter "lusting in your heart" is OK?)"

My friend whose son is in Civil Commitment (and has been co-operative with "treatment" providers for 10 years was recently told that the Facility does not consider release before anyone reaches 50 years of age.. (and he's now 35 so...? Age Out or hope to die in the meantime? It's the same old stuff said ago...by prison admin and parole boards ...wait until the young Turks "age out" before parole but even they were thinking of releasing before death. . Some science...just a retread of myths from years ago but these facilities and these "evaporator's" get paid more...

Bottom line is that civil commitment is premised on the principles of a police state whereby the state asserts the right to do whatever it damn well wants to do to people.

The class action suit in Missouri proved that state officials deliberately lie to courts. They do this by telling the judge or jury that the person is not capable of being treated because they are too far gone mentally, but then deny them treatment in civil commitment. It was also proved that the state was deliberately not providing the guys civilly committed licensed practitioners who are actually qualified to treat sex offenders. And yet, civil commitment is based on the argument that a person will be treated in civil commitment to be able to return back to mainstream society.

Despite this being proved, of course, no state attorney for the Missouri Attorney General's office who has prosecuted civil commitment cases has ever been disbarred or criminally charged for perjury, fraud, or lying to a public servant, and no state employee operating the civil commitment facility and Department of Mental Health has ever been removed from their job for refusing to provide people civilly committed treatment ad thereby prevent their being held to punitive measures in violation of clearly established laws.

Wow insane. Thanks for the article

Why do those convicted of sex crimes get locked up forever?

The answer to this perplexing question can be stated in one word----FEAR.

The United States and its citizens have been so filled with fear and terror by the media that we no longer arrest and lock people up when they have committed a crime, but now we punish people who "might someday, maybe, possibly, commit a crime."

And since many still believe the re-offense rate among sex offenders is still somewhere in the stratosphere, it seems to be acceptable. Another factor is that since we have been so demonized by the media, to many people we have become some kind of subhuman creature and no longer deserve any fairness or expectation of humane treatment.

We see---and live this----every day with the sex offender registry and the misguided practice of Civil Commitment in this country. These are two dreadful concepts that could not have prevailed without fear.

Fear is an excellent method to control the masses. Just look what happened after 9/11. People were running around, frightened half to death, wringing their hands, and begging the government to do something---ANYTHING--to stop those evil terrorists from another attack.

And we all see what happened. All this unbridled fear led to the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the wiretapping, the watering down of our privacy laws, the act of starting a foolish war in Iraq, etc. I could go on and on, but we gave away our freedom because of fear.

This fear also hastened this nation's plunge in the quasi Police State we have today. The militarization of our law enforcement with the SWAT teams were already in force by the time of 9/11, but the attack on the Twin Towers just placed the proverbial nail in the coffin of freedom.

Years ago, during the Cold War with the USSR, we abhorred the Communist state, with their spying on citizens, the mass executions, the totalitarian government, and the prisons in Siberia.

We hated the USSR back then.

Now we have, in many respects, embraced the same policies as those used by the USSR in the Cold War.

In short, we, as a nation, have become what we once hated----all because of a single four lettered word----FEAR.

At a time when our brave men and women shed blood, sweat, and tears to defend this country and preserver our freedom, we have just thrown it in the trash.

A sad commentary on a nation which was established on democratic priciples.

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I think the answer goes deeper than just fear.

For example, take gang members, murders, drug dealers, etc., each class is well known to harm children, but we do not have a registry for them, we do not civilly commit them, and we do not give them the sentences we give to sex offenders on a consistent basis.

Secondly, because civil commitment targets those with a mental illness or severe personality disorder, we do not see them as people; we never have and we never will. We are conditioned by laws, media, and in our up bringing to look at those with such disabilities as inhuman as if they are from another planet and by doing this, we absolve ourselves of any responsibility to treat them as we want to be treated.

Third, when you combine sex offender and mental illness together in one sentence, society is eager to let those in government do as them damn well please with them, an we will quickly turn our backs on any and all illegal acts that those in government do with these people. We simply do not care.

You could have a hundred mainstream media reports on sex offenders with mental illness being tortured, murdered, or used for medical experiments and society as a whole would not give a damn nor would they demand that the government officials doing such be held criminally accountable for their actions or loose their job, or anything. Rather, you would have a long list of public comments praising government officials for doing such to these people -- keep in mind that in Missouri so far 88 men have died in civil commitment because the state refused to give them the statutorily and constitutionally required treatment and no one gave a damn about any of those 88 men who were murdered by government officials.

It is precisely as I wrote about in my letter to Representative Elijah Haahr, in that we are so consumed with the thirst to hate others that we simply do not give a damn when an unpopular class is murdered.

You don't and never will see any so-called civil rights organization or group of people marching to their state capitol, or sending protest letters to elected officials, holding rallies, or giving interviews on TV to demand such civil right violations stop and that those in government be held accountable who are violating the law.

This is what we have become as a society, as a government, and as a species and its' not going to get any better only far, far worse.

I think Fear is still the root of the problem. Justification for the things that you want to do to something that you fear is where the sticky wicket comes in. The consensus that drugs are all around bad is not a widespread thing. There is not nearly the consensus for that like there is for 'sex offenders' they are the new Jew or maybe the old muslim? I guess it just depends on who is getting persecuted the most recently. The SO is such an easy target.

This is what happened in Germany, when the third reich was rising. They experimented on the mentally ill, to come up with the best and most economical Final Solution. They started with media campaigns about the evils of the jew, how they were stealing your money when you weren't looking that they were taking away from the "Germans" to line their own pockets. Acquiring land and power essentially, the politics in power took great aversion to all of that, so the subtle changes to the rules, they started taking their land, their livelihood and their homes. Shipped them all off to walled off "ghettos" where they were to stay until the Final Solution could be hammered out.

So my point is that, the players change each time these games are played, but the results are always the same. As a species we just don't learn well or quickly. We repeat mistakes, even those we see as egregious and the epitome of all things evil. We allow ourselves to be dumbed down and led around by our noses, because it is easier to do that than to question what we are being told to do?

I am going to stop there, cause I am having a bad day, my attitude is bad, my morale is in the shitter and no I don't really want to talk about it, it is work related and basically there is nothing I can do about it. Out of my control. My only point is why people don't care when they hear someone is getting locked up for life in a program that says it is rehabilitating but there is never any release, they will never understand it because most people I know these days won't understand until it hurts them. I see it more and more in the generations behind me, the nature that if it isn't about them then it isn't all that important. The refusal or inability to see the big picture, thus leaving them with really only half the information needed to make a good decision. It is why we are stuck with these laws, if the message can't be fit into 160 characters then it isn't worth hearing or passing on.