Where parental instinct to protect and the law collide - mental health reform vs ineffective legistlation

I’ve read and seen and heard law is reason without passion. While I believe that, it is often that very passion that incites people to practice law. (Well, that and the modicum of security a law degree and a card carrying bar holder have, along with a fairly decent pay check.- Sorry, tangent!) I am the mother of a BEE-YOU-Tee-FUL 4 year old. No, I mean, he's really beautiful. But it's not just that he's beautiful on the outside. More importantly, he's truly a kind little soul, who is sensitive and friendly and open.

Now, the first parts of these statements make me proud, in a narcissistic way. And I'd like to think that we're a pretty attractive lot. It's the second part that scares the hell out of me. It’s the intangible beauty in him. He's open and kind and approachable. This is where, in the worst of predatorial situations, he could become a victim. I know, you are all saying I'm being paranoid and thinking the worst. But the worst is out there:

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/520709.html

I’m torn between the rights of the criminal individual and the rights of sociatally normal people, who are should be able to live in a seemingly safe environment. Currently legislation exists in New York State allowing the state to impose additional confinement on sexual predators beyond the time they serve in a traditional prison environment. Essentially, as it stands, the state is authorized to hold a person on a permanent 5150 hold (I’m sure there’s a more appropriate term for this confinement but it’s simplest and most relatable term I could muster this morning) since these offenders are considered to be an on-going danger to their communities.

IF we’ve determined sex offenders to be a danger to themselves or others, as with any other person with a profound mental illness, institutionalization is expected. That’s the mom in me talking. However, if a person has “paid his debt to society”, it would stand to reason that a person should be released into our communities.

I support rehabilitation, however I question our methods. And can a person, whose brain isn’t chemically wired the way most of us are, be “rehabilitated”? It’s not a matter of law that we should examine but rather an issue of mental health. Sure the law is intended to protect us individually and as a whole. But issues of mental health problems are so prevalent amongst our nation’s criminals that I question whether putting humans into 6x9 cells is truly any kind of rehabilitation.

The Protective maternal instinct in me says hog tie these people and inject them with histamines as punishment for the damage they do, often to our children. (Yeah, yeah, I know, cruel and unusual). The advocate in me says a great deal of reform and approach to mental health care is required for rehab to even be possible, if it is at all. And for now, all we have is the law to help guide us into integrating this people back into whatever we deem societally appropriate for this subset of people.

I look forward to these discussions in the coming few years. And at some point, I may be asked to argue the opposite of the way my heart and gut tell me as a matter of exercise. Just some intense thought born of an article appearing on good ole buffalo.com and the sex offenders in NY.