Is this a sign of our society?
I recently read a cover story from the Friday, December 2nd edition of the Vancouver Province, in which the article tells of the track record of a repeat sex offender named Richard Hector Major. According to the article:
[Major] has an extensive record of convictions for sex- and violence-related offences … poses a risk of significant harm to the safety of male and female children, as well as elderly and adult women. … [He] has about 40 convictions.
The article also speaks of an incident in which Major assaulted a 74 year old woman at knifepoint, raping her and beating her for two hours with her own cane, and that Major has been psychologically deemed to be an incurable individual with tendencies of violence, sexual deviancy, fantasies about hurting and killing women, and a high potential for homicidal action.
On Thursday, December 1st, Major was released, under a $1,000 peace bond applied for by the Vancouver Police Department. The specifications ordered by a Vancouver judge are:
– No contact with anyone under 16 years of age
– No contact with women over (or appearing to be over) 65 years of age
– Avoidance of homes and care facilities where people are over the age of 65, and facilities that sell alcohol
– No possession or consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs
– No possession of weapons
– Remain in his home between 9 PM and 6 AM, employment excluded
In short, I say … what the fuck?
According to the article, Major said following one assault that he did it "so he would get caught and go back to jail before he kills someone in a sexual attack"
That being said, the specifications of the Peace Bond are nothing shy of a joke for the sake of formality. Any individual who wants to return to jail will openly violate the bond in order to do so. Furthermore, the age specifications within the bond leave absolutely no protection for anyone within a 51 year age range, nearly anything can be used as a weapon, and there is no job in the world in which there is 100% chance of never encountering either a person under 16 or over 65.
Another point that should trip a red flag is the incompetence of the psychological evaluation system. To deem someone "incurable" without a formal diagnosis of a disease or a condition (sexual deviancy and violence are symptoms of something else), is a cop out, especially if the individual has enough mental stability to acknowledge those symptoms and make a formal plea to be imprisoned for the safety of others.
Imprisonment, in this case, opens an entirely different can of worms, igniting the argument of capital punishment vs. tax payers money being spent to keep the convicted individual confined. While I will not go so far as to say whether or not capital punishment is right (I will not step into the crossfire on a topic that has seen enough debate to rival the religion vs. science argument), I have family and friends in the lower mainland, and I personally would not be opposed to my taxes being utilized to keep him there … a few dollars, to me, is worth the safety and security of those important to me.
If a felon has done their time and can show improvement, effort, and desire to change, then I fully believe they deserve another chance (that is, after all, what correctional facilities are for) … What I fail to understand in all of this is this — why, when Major wishes to remain in jail, acknowledging his own potential to hurt or kill, is he being let out? Is our society so fucked up that we turn our backs on those who know they need something beyond their control, even if that something is confinement?