MASPAL Solutions




So, the world is a big, bad scary place, and there are big, bad scary people in it who like to hurt innocent children. You probably already knew that, right? So what exactly do we propose to do about it? Well, that's what we're going to talk to you about on this page. We are not just about raising a hue and cry about bad things happening, we're also about fixing the problems and preventing future problems, about being not just reactive but also proactive. Let us tell you about our ideas!

1. Educate and Inform




Now that we are beginning to see the results of Megan's Law, we are able to clearly correlate the numbers and recognize the issues. It is up to us here at MASPAL to keep everyone as informed as possible to this ever changing and growing problem. It is up to every individual who has the information to help spread the word!!

Please!

Log on often to your states sex offender registries (it is a simple process now through MASPAL) and even download names, addresses and pictures. Share these with your friends and neighbors!!

If your sex offender registry is NOT current, please inform your local officials of your dismay!! (For example, one of the states it is hard to get this information from is Washington, who only has two or three counties listed on line for access to the public. The State of Washington is very behind with this necessary public information! There are other states as well.)

Talk to your neighbors and spread this information so people can have a feel, at least, for the safety regarding school bus stops and routes their children take.

Please remember some of the examples in our recent past. When there are over 50 registered sex offenders in a neighborhood, the likelihood of a child disappearing to the hands of one of these predators is as likely as having a child devoured if there were 50 cougars from the city zoo in that neighborhood!!

At this time, because of our present laws and statutes, we cannot legally control where these paroled individuals live, so we have to band together to protect our children from them. However....

2. It would be more effective to place locaters on the pedophiles than on our children!




There is a man in Washington who is working at this time on an electronic tracking device which he hopes to present to the department of corrections there for their consideration in the near future. Other states should be considering this same option.

If these perpetrators are to be paroled, and set free to roam the neighborhoods, then they should be equipped with a surgically implanted chip. This chip would sound an alarm at the 911 headquarters should one of these individuals wander "out of bounds". These boundaries would consist of school grounds, parks, and other places that are frequently crowded with children.

The MASPAL position on this is very positive. We do not believe we should have to teach our children Karate or surgically implant devices in our children! We believe the children should not have to suffer for our societies maladies. We would rather be able to spot a predator "out of bounds" than to be assured that we will be able to find the body of a child. Even more ideally,

3. We need special facilities built to house sex offenders and provide lifetime supervision!




Many states are in the process of building special facilities for drug and alcohol offenders. The logic behind this is that they do not belong in the prison population. That they have a disease that needs to be addressed in its own environment.

In this process of becoming specialized in our approach to incarceration, and in the attempt to facilitate rehabilitation, however futile it may seem at this time, we at MASPAL strongly feel that there needs to be special facilities for sex offenders.

Tax hikes would not be an issue because there are literally millions of dollars in federal monies set aside for the purpose of rehabilitation projects.

A special facility would provide an arena for psychological studies surrounding this malady to take place. These facilities could offer LIFETIME supervision for offenders. They could provide an outpatient program whereby these convicted felons could, with the protection of ankle bracelets, be on work programs to help offset the costs of their incarceration.

A program for such a facility has already been designed by a noted psychologist in Montana. When the option for such a facility was placed on the Montana ballot, it was voted down.

You may ask yourself, "Why did this happen?"

Because people did not want a facility full of sex offenders in their fair city. They did not want to think of a concentration of these sorts of felons nearby. They did not realize that their only alternative was to have these offenders salt and peppered out in their neighborhoods, free to perpetrate their crimes at will!

Special facilities can be the first link in the process of stopping this particular cycle of violence. This particular crime is a result of learned behavior. Psychologists will agree that the people who commit these crimes are fractured individuals. In short, people who were abused as children and grew up to perpetuate the abuse.

Sex offenders in almost every case were sexually abused as a child. When a victim of sexual abuse does not get the help they need, they sometimes grow up to become offenders themselves. Then, if and when they are charged and convicted, they are placed into the prison population where they are further brutalized. When they are paroled, they eventually evolve to murdering their victims so there is no witness. Sex offenders violate an average of 50 t0 60 victims before they are ever caught, charged, convicted and sentenced. Not every victim grows up to be an offender, but if only two of them do, the number has increased by one!

Even with a 40 year sentencing, they are, in most cases up for parole before 2 years of that sentence has elapsed. Prison is not a deterrent! All it does is reinforce the negative behavior and refine the offender's tactics. Paroling, re-incarcerating, abusing the abused, perpetuating the crime, around and around we go.

The only certain solution is lifetime supervision within specialized facilities. The result would be no more victims for the convicted. Since it is a learned behavior, there would be, in the next generation, fewer and fewer new perpetrators. And therefore, fewer and fewer victims. More and more children protected.

Until we face this social problem head on, incarcerate and supervise sex offenders for life, and by so doing, meet the needs of the offenders, and societies need to isolate them from society, we cannot begin to protect the children.

We have to come to terms with the unpleasant truth that this society created these people, and this society must deal with them. Humanely and effectively, not vengefully. We need to stop the cycle, not spin it faster. For the love of children.

ALL children!