When will our justice system get it through their collective heads that sex offenders don't get rehabilitated in prison? The story of Jaycee Dugard, her abduction in June of 1991 at age 11, and her subsequent imprisonment and rape over the next 18 years, is as compelling an argument for stricter sex offender laws as we are likely to hear anywhere.
Philip Garrido and his wife, accomplices in this nightmare, kept Jaycee locked in a sound-proofed shed in their backyard for most of those 18 years, during which she was forced to give birth to two daughters by her rapist, now 15 and 4 years of age (the first born when she was herself just 14). Neither of her children has ever been to a doctor or to school, and we can well imagine to what horrors they have been subjected, as well as their mother.
Nobody knew. Nobody could see the sheds and tents in the backyard over the 6' fence, nobody heard anything because of the soundproofing; nobody had much contact with the Garridos. A neighbor said he had a conversation with Garrido once, years ago, about "mind control," and shrugged it off as harmless weirdness.
Along with everyone else who saw the TV news coverage of the chance encounter between a parole officer and the "family" on the Berkeley campus this week, I asked myself why this guy was ever paroled, even with a GPS monitoring bracelet strapped to his ankle. It doesn't seem to have hindered him in the least. Why aren't paroled sex offenders subjected to routine searches of their homes and vehicles? Is it enough to say that we can't continue to punish someone who has "paid their debt to society"? Don't we owe a bit more protection to their past (and future) victims? When a person harms a child in such a devastating way, they've given up their membership card in the human race, they no longer deserve to see the light of day. When there was incontravertible evidence that Garrido committed a kidnapping and rape in the 70s, why was he ever allowed out of prison? It was no great feat for him to "behave" in prison, where there are no helpless women or children to rape.
I read that Jaycee is feeling some guilt for having developed a bond with her captor. As a victim, one cannot blame her for surviving as best she could in a horrific situation. The monster who held her captive for so long succeeded in deluding himself that he had "turned his life around," and told the authorities they would see "the most amazing, heart-warming story" unfold if they just went to the very beginning and traced it "step by step."
Well, Mr Garrido, I'm afraid there's no such luxury in store for you. I hear our prison system includes quite a match-making service for kiddie rapists. Your date for the next 10-25 years will prove a willing listener, I'm sure, as he's wreaking havoc on you, the same way you wreaked havoc on Jaycee Dugard for the past 18 years. I'm not ashamed to say that kind of justice, for you, suits me just fine.
