Perv to Reps
Stop us before we offend again. Just not in prison. Boston Herald:
One of Massachusetts’ most dangerous sex offenders stunned people at a State House hearing yesterday when he introduced himself and warned that the state is pushing sexual perpetrators to the brink of reoffending.
“My name is Joel Pentlarge, and I am a Level 3 sex offender,” he said, referring to the category the state considers “high risk.”
The room fell silent as the 57-year-old Jamaica Plain man told the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee that the more than 30 sex-crime bills it was considering would only further alienate offenders, who have been so marginalized that they often have nowhere to live or work, much less anyone to help ensure that they find and remain in treatment.
Pentlarge, who was convicted in July 2000 of rape and abuse of a child, referred to Corey Saunders, a convicted sex offender who had been freed by a judge before he was rearrested this month and charged with raping a 6-year-old boy in the New Bedford Public Library.
“The verdict is announced and, like me, he’s out the door: Here’s 50 bucks; see you later,” Pentlarge said in his wire-rimmed glasses, blue Oxford shirt and dark pinstripe slacks. “That’s not the way to prevent someone from reoffending.”
He recommended intensive, statewide parole supervision instead of the dozens of measures pending.
One of them, House Bill 1592, would eliminate the charitable immunity defense and the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children, two provisions of the law which allowed numerous clergy and their superiors to go without prosecution in the scandal that broke in Boston. The bill would also expand a victim compensation fund and increase the penalty for failing to report child abuse.
Another proposal, House bill 1688, would impose a mandatory, minimum sentence of 20 years for the rape of a child. Currently, judges may impose a sentence of zero years to life in prison. The average in Massachusetts is three to five years, not long enough for many victims to come forward, said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Karyn Polito (R-Shrewsbury).
“For 13 years, I’ve been coming up here and asking you people . . . to do the right thing,” Debbie Savoia, vice president of Community Voices, a Chelmsford-based, child-protection group, told the committee. “All I hear about is these people’s rights. When do our children have the right not be raped and molested?”
No unkind jokes about Massachusetts pols and Level 3 sex offenders, please.
Globe took the wire, which has more detail on proposals but seems to left the room before the heartfelt perv testimony.
Herald editorial: you can write all the laws you want, but someone will still have to enforce them. On that subject, re Judges, Pervs; It’s the Predatory Perversion, Stupid!
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:52 am on Wednesday, February 27, 2008
2 Responses to “Perv to Reps”
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February 27th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Given that pedophiles are almost never rehabilitated, parole supervision would have to be lifelong. Parole officers are already underpaid and overworked. Where’s the money going to come from?
In the long run, I think it’s more cost effective to keep them in prison. They’re pedophiles. I don’t care about their “rights”.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
That’s a speech worthy of any mafioso.
Give them the choice to either stay in prison or be castrated.