I have been following the Huckabee - Wayne Dumond case pretty closely over the past week. As many of you know, Dumond was convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl in 1984 and was sentenced to life in prison in Arkansas. First, this is a horrible crime, and I strongly favor long prison sentences for violent and sexual offenses.
After release Dumond sexually assaulted and murdered a 39-year-old woman in Kansas City. This is truly horrible and many letters have been posted on the web that suggest that the then Governor (and parole board) was warned of the sexual and violent risk of this individual.
Clearly, this is a horrible event and a grave mistake was made in releasing this individual. Here are some questions I have.
1) How much can we blame one government official (or parole board member) for this type of event? We have seen this type of event play out in a number of ways - Willie Horton and Dukakis. We are pretty abysmal at estimating recidivism (particularly given most of our actuarial risk insturments (post-release) are developed for a general offense class (not sex offenders)).
2) What effect will the publicity of this event have on states with discretionary parole? Many states have done away with parole boards, but I think that discretionary parole provides an offender an incentive to become involved in programming in prison. It also gives the victim an opportunity to have a voice in the parole release decision (this is not the case in mandatory parole when the release date is determined by statute). For a nice discussion of the merits, see Petersilia.
3) We simply do not have the funds to imprison all sexual offenders and violent offenders for the rest of their lives. We have made strides in developing reentry programming and implementing alternative control strategies in the community (electronic monitoring, depo-provera), but there will be failures. Some of the failures will be as horrific as the story mentioned here.
Where are all the stories posted for people who go to prison and do well?
4 comments:
Those are terrific questions, Beth.
IMO, we don't see those "good" stories because they don't sell. "Parolee finds employment and lives quietly in community" just doesn't entice people to read a story like "Parolee rapes and murders local woman," ya know? Or maybe I'm just too cynical! : )
Great points. If fact I think I am going to send your post to my intro class. We covered these issues last week.
Sorry Amanda but what are recidivism rates like? Don't know...50-70% or something like that. Your scenario might be the exception to the rule....
My name is Jennifer Murphy and i would like to show you my personal experience with Depo-Provera.
I am 41 years old. Have been on Depo for at least 10 years now. (started so long ago, can't remember) Pills had me lying in the floor crying. They had taken Norplant off the market, and the idea of glass under my skin spooked me. I'm now over 40, so weight gain can't all be blamed on Depo, but I know it's responsible for about 10 lbs worth. No periods in a decade. Can you top that??? No bleeding, no PMS, no cramps, no surprise pregnancies. Miracle drug, as far as I'm concerned. I am now level headed and not a jumpy bag of hormones every month. No mood swings. I refuse to take calcium, as I have had a kidney stone in the past, so going for a dexascan later this month. You MUST watch your bone density. Long term, depo can affect bone density and it's not 100% reversible. Posters here are fussing about doctors hiding the truth of side effects, but most of what's posted here is not listed as a side affect of Depo, so the doctors aren't going to mention them. Some of what's listed here sounds l
I have experienced some of these side effects-
Slight weight gain - 5-10 lbs. Extremeties swell with heat.
I hope this information will be useful to others,
Jennifer Murphy
Post a Comment