Wisconsin, what are you doing?
By Sandy Rozek, NARSOL board member and communications director
First published at narsol.org
Sandy writes, “It is a given that if one is convicted of a crime, some sort of punishment will follow…But what, then, what if the lesson is not learned?…Then harsher punishment is meted out.”
We, as a society, have always seen the need to deal with first-time offenders in a more lenient manner, with harsher penalties for repeat offenders. That is why a recently-passed law in Wisconsin is disturbing.
Thank you, Sandy, for this well-thought-out article.
The Wisconsin law will actually be counterproductive in terms of public safety. While most will shoulder this burden and muddle through the rest of their lives, a small percentage will simply give up. They have no incentive to not reoffend, and may even find prison preferable to life on the outside; three hots and a cot. The state has forgotten that hope is necessary for rehabilitation.
@EdC…
You are assuming that rehabilitation was ever the goal of lawmakers.
I currently live in FL, but am someone that is going to be caught up in this. I was removed from the WI registry last year after the WI supreme court ruled that 2 instances were 2 separate instances. So what do they do? Just change the law. The hate and the punishment they want to inflict is just out of control.
So, if this new law applies retroactively, as Sandy seems to indicate, will Wisconsin be re-sentencing people for the same crime (additional counts) retroactively, and or, extending registration for those additional counts. Will folks who have finished their registration be forced to start registering again? Do double jeopardy laws (5th amendment) have anything to say about that? Or, will Wisconsin say that they’ve only been tried once, it’s just the sentence that needs to be adjusted?
Here’s something to think about. They don’t want to put us all in prison for life, because there would be no reason for a list. They need the list to survive re-election. They need to be able to say, yes we’re following normal rules, but these people don’t deserve normal punishment. So the laws have to keep some on the outside to keep there money wheel turning. Because we all know there’s ways for law makers to make money off us. To begin with, lobbyist.