Few would argue that non-consensual sex of any sort is not a crime. Individuals who commit these crimes should be quickly processed through the judicial system, spend 20+ years in prison, and afterward hopefully move on with their lives a changed person. If the crime involves an act of murder, these individuals should never see the light of day again.

Those who have completed their sentences and eventually win a released from prison should be required to complete a parole period of several years in order to gauge whether or not the individual has adequately recanted his actions, and truly wishes to become a productive member of society again.

For the most part, this is how we treat the people who pass through our judicial system. They pay the price for their crime, and in so doing pay their debt to society. After the terms of the punishment are fulfilled, the individual is free to live their life within the bounds of the law as a (hopefully) productive member of society.

This is not however how we treat sex offenders. Instead of even giving lip service to the idea that we may allow then to once again join society, we instead force them to register as sex offenders, inform state and local agencies of there whereabouts at all times, and in many cases, announce to the community that there is now a sexual predator active in the neighborhood. (This last is only a slight exaggeration)

When a sex offender leaves prison, they are labeled forever as such and continue to be punished for their crimes years after their sentence has been completed.

They cannot find employment; who wants to hire a convicted rapist?

They cannot find a place to live; who would rent to a sex offender?

Even if the individual is able to find a profitable job and a willing landlord, it is not uncommon for communities that discover a registered sex offender in their midst (often from the many websites that list current addresses of known sex offenders) to force the individual out.

Offenders should not go unpunished for their crimes. However permanently ostracizing offenders for those crimes after the original sentence has been completed appears to be a violation of both the eight and ninth amendment rights which protect against cruel and unusual punishment as well as the removal of rights that are retained by other citizens (individual liberties).

When an individual commits a crime and is punished through due process of the law, that person should be made to pay the price of that crime. That price should not include the inability to ever lead a “normal” life again. By extending the price to include the revocation of private life outside of the penal system is not only unjust, but also in humane. If the individuals are never given a chance to prove themselves, how can one expect them to move on?

Granted, this philosophy is not be to applied to every case. Individuals convicted of date rape, statutory rape or a single instance of inappropriate behavior should not be treated the same as serial rapists or habitual child molesters. In these cases, permanent incarceration or, in extreme cases, the death penalty should be applied.

Forcing individuals to registered as sex offenders can be counter productive.

Ross Wollschlager is homeless. He lives in a tent and is guarded by a full time security guard stationed in a nearby vehicle, all at the California taxpayer’s expense.

The reason for Wollschlager’s current predicament is that more than 20 years ago, he was convicted of two rapes, and later, of molesting a child while she slept (and he was drunk). He has spent the past 23 tears paying for those crimes, committed when he was 19.

Is it right that this individual, and hundreds, maybe thousands like him, must continue to pay a price for their crimes, even after the prescribed punishment has been completed? If the answer is yes, then Wollschlager should have never been released from prison in the first place. Being a multiple offender, this is probably a just resolution. However the judicial system released him, therefore proclaiming that he is a changed man who has paid his debt to society.

Further punishment for the same crime in unwarranted, and a violation of Fifth Amendment guarantee to not be tried for the same crime twice.