Corrections Sentencing has a very interesting post about the problems with mandatory minimum sentences in Utah. Part of the post focuses on the issues related to the sentencing of sex offenders:
None of the points made by the Commission about child sex offense mandatory minimums is new today. In fact, those difficulties account for many DAs and some of their state orgs coming out against the more extreme versions of the same stuff. But Utah's been out there with these findings for a decade now. If sentencing policy in this country were in any way guided by research and experience, there's no way any state should have passed a "Jessica's Law." But we did, with some denying experience and research, others just ignorant of it. And this is about laws actually detrimental for the young people for whom they were intended. We know they are hurt in the long run, yet we do these sorts of things anyway. Since we're all symbol and no learning about child sex offenses and their perpetrators and victims, then why would we ever think that knowledge and intelligence will guide any corrections sentencing policy except under very special conditions? As Wendy Kaminer said about the time UT repealed its man-min laws, "Knowledge isn't power in criminal justice debates. Knowledge is irrelevant."
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