What this woman did was undoubtedly horrible and has done a lot of irreperable damage to this poor child, but I think it’s staggering that she received 60 years – essentially a life sentence at age 32 – for this. I’m not saying that Western Europe is a perfect model for sentencing, but comparing theirs to ours is night-and-day and is illustrative of why our prison population is so high. Something like this is likely 10x what any given Western European nation would’ve sentenced this woman to.
To do something like this almost has to be an indication of severe, untreated mental illness, and it feels like this sentence isn’t seriously being imposed due to the risk of recidivism but rather strictly as a form of punishment by Texas’ notoriously punitive criminal justice system. This being a so-called “3g offense” in Texas means that she’ll need to serve at least 30 years of her sentence before she’s eligible for parole. I have to wonder what could be done in even five or ten years toward treating her in a country with sane sentencing guidelines, helping to rehabilitate her and – if it’s determined to be safe by mental health professionals – releasing her with the stipulation that she can’t be around kids unsupervised ever again.
We don’t rehabilitate convicts in the US. We punish them, make them a labor force, and then dump them on the streets worse off than before with a knowing smile that says “see ya soon”
Yeah, I guess just to be clear, I think releasing her at all right now would be completely reckless and insane (and I can’t fathom how they were so lenient with her bond). I just mean that it seems reasonable that she may be able to be rehabilitated over several years by receiving mental health treatment that she almost assuredly hasn’t had access to as an inmate in Texas.
What this woman did was undoubtedly horrible and has done a lot of irreperable damage to this poor child, but I think it’s staggering that she received 60 years – essentially a life sentence at age 32 – for this. I’m not saying that Western Europe is a perfect model for sentencing, but comparing theirs to ours is night-and-day and is illustrative of why our prison population is so high. Something like this is likely 10x what any given Western European nation would’ve sentenced this woman to.
To do something like this almost has to be an indication of severe, untreated mental illness, and it feels like this sentence isn’t seriously being imposed due to the risk of recidivism but rather strictly as a form of punishment by Texas’ notoriously punitive criminal justice system. This being a so-called “3g offense” in Texas means that she’ll need to serve at least 30 years of her sentence before she’s eligible for parole. I have to wonder what could be done in even five or ten years toward treating her in a country with sane sentencing guidelines, helping to rehabilitate her and – if it’s determined to be safe by mental health professionals – releasing her with the stipulation that she can’t be around kids unsupervised ever again.
We don’t rehabilitate convicts in the US. We punish them, make them a labor force, and then dump them on the streets worse off than before with a knowing smile that says “see ya soon”
Based on this article, she’s been doing weird stuff with kids for years. She violated the terms of her bond - not being allowed around children - twice. There may be some mental illness involved, but some people are just evil.
Yeah, I guess just to be clear, I think releasing her at all right now would be completely reckless and insane (and I can’t fathom how they were so lenient with her bond). I just mean that it seems reasonable that she may be able to be rehabilitated over several years by receiving mental health treatment that she almost assuredly hasn’t had access to as an inmate in Texas.
Fuck that.
Lock her up until she dies
People like her don’t need mental care, they need to be removed from society.