The radical Republicans who are ruining our state through their anti-public schools ideology, their desire to take government out of everything they can, from State Parks to prisons, and selling our state capitol. should be running scared. By making profits the incentive, they have made the Kingman prison so unsafe a murderer can just walk out unnoticed. I know people who are afraid to come to Arizona not because of "illegals" but because we no longer require background checks or training to carry concealed weapons, another of the wacky Right's ideas. We need moderates like Dalessandro and Camenisch who put the welfare of our children above the welfare of large out-of-state corporations who get more and more tax breaks. Wake up moderates in LD 30!
The radical Republicans who are ruining our state through their anti-public schools ideology, their desire to take government out of everything they can, from State Parks to prisons, and selling our state capitol. should be running scared. By making profits the incentive, they have made the Kingman prison so unsafe a murderer can just walk out unnoticed. I know people who are afraid to come to Arizona not because of "illegals" but because we no longer require background checks or training to carry concealed weapons, another of the wacky Right's ideas. We need moderates like Dalessandro and Camenisch who put the welfare of our children above the welfare of large out-of-state corporations who get more and more tax breaks. Wake up moderates in LD 30!
Great discussion. Real sex predators must be prosecuted and kept away from potential victims. But the zeal for prosecution has gone way too far. Take the case of the immature 18-year old UA student with no priors (never into drugs, alcohol, no porno web surfing, etc.) and a great high school record who was bored one day and put an ad on Craig's list asking for an experienced woman. He was caught in this first act by an undercover cop posing as underage who begged him to meet her in 26 text messages after which he finally gave in and biked to a park to meet "her."
9 months later, no longer a UA student, he still awaits prosecution for a felony and the sex offender label. Parents have gone deeply into debt to pay a good lawyer, the kid has lost his chance for a University education, and will have trouble finding a job or a home if he is convicted and labeled.
The kid made a really dumb mistake and benefitted from being caught, but to mark an 18-year for life for his first offense that didn't even harm anyone except himself is excessive. If convicted he will never be the fine science teacher he could have been. If his parents could not have scraped up the money for a good lawyer, lived out of state, or had minors in the home, he would probably be in jail today, learning to be a criminal.
Has society benefitted from this zealous prosecution/persecution? Wouldn't we all have been better off with programs that would help these kids head in the right direction after a really good scare? What would the impact of a jail term be on a naive kid in adult prison?
How many adults never made a dumb mistake when they were 18 or even older?
The laws need to be changed so that real predators, serial rapists and the like are convicted, but so that much less serious offenders are headed in the right direction and not turned into criminals with much less chance of becoming tax-paying members of society. We need to reward our County Attorneys and police officials not for how many people they put in jail, but for how many people they prevent from taking up a life of crime.
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9 months later, no longer a UA student, he still awaits prosecution for a felony and the sex offender label. Parents have gone deeply into debt to pay a good lawyer, the kid has lost his chance for a University education, and will have trouble finding a job or a home if he is convicted and labeled.
The kid made a really dumb mistake and benefitted from being caught, but to mark an 18-year for life for his first offense that didn't even harm anyone except himself is excessive. If convicted he will never be the fine science teacher he could have been. If his parents could not have scraped up the money for a good lawyer, lived out of state, or had minors in the home, he would probably be in jail today, learning to be a criminal.
Has society benefitted from this zealous prosecution/persecution? Wouldn't we all have been better off with programs that would help these kids head in the right direction after a really good scare? What would the impact of a jail term be on a naive kid in adult prison?
How many adults never made a dumb mistake when they were 18 or even older?
The laws need to be changed so that real predators, serial rapists and the like are convicted, but so that much less serious offenders are headed in the right direction and not turned into criminals with much less chance of becoming tax-paying members of society. We need to reward our County Attorneys and police officials not for how many people they put in jail, but for how many people they prevent from taking up a life of crime.