News of the Day, Tuesday, May 29, 2007

An oldie but still goodie TECHNOCORRECTIONS favorite--chemical castration of sex offenders. This time in OR. Doesn't matter if the record isn't all that it's hyped up to be. What's important on these things is the precedent being set for applying chemical/pharmaceutical remedies to any and all offenders and offenses. As we noted yesterday, if we have registries for sex offenders, why not for them all? If we drug and chem one type of offender, what logic says we can't do them all? . . . New corrections officials in FL (treatment programs) and IA (director), both chanting the same mantra, "it doesn't do any good just to keep warehousing these guys as they cycle through our prisons over and over." Wanna bet if those states are still increasing prison bedspace 5, 10 years from now? . . . One reason they will be will be from treating juvies as adults and making them into better criminals. Yet another thing we have the evidence for and that policymakers and media types downplay and ignore. This time, the plea for applying real knowledge comes from folks who know in MA. Might have a chance there, I suppose, but the reason they're writing is because the state is in the same mess as everyone else. Good luck, guys.