Divina Genao was born about seven years ago, by all accounts to a warm, loving family. The life they planned for her was snuffed out by a predator--a predator who should never have been uncaged. Conrad Jeffrey, age 40, was charged with sexual assault of a minor, a 14-year-old girl. Allowed to plea bargain to mere weapons possession and criminal restraint, he was released after serving only a portion of a five-year sentence.
Just six weeks after his release, he snatched little Divina from a crowded street and fled to his furnished room in the neighborhood. By the time the police knocked down his door, the child was dead.
The sexual psychopath has continued to confound society for hundreds of years. Unremorseful, relentless, and apparently unamenable to rehabilitation, this monster in human form has induced more debate than solutions. One currently fashionable solution is the "sexual predator law" that now exists in Washington State.
Would this law have saved Divina? Most likely not. The sexual predator laws are, essentially, a form of postsentence civil commitment.
When an offender has served his (or her) full sentence, he is evaluated to determine if he is presently dangerous to society. If such a finding is made, the offender may be retained until pronounced safe to walk among us.
FLAWED PROTECTION
Even leaving aside the (considerable) civil liberties issues of retaining a prisoner past the completion of his sentence, the sexual predator laws will ultimately fail to protect society. That is because they are founded on the same basic conceit as is a parole board, to wit, that a group of individuals can predict future conduct.
This conceit has, tragically, proven to be one we can no longer afford--the body counts tell us otherwise. Simply put, if a parole board believed that Jeffrey was safe to release, would not that same group have failed to retain him for commitment under a sexual predator law?
The sexual predator laws are as illusory as a sentence of 150 years (with parole eligibility attaching after only 10). That is, they are media-genic, but lack teeth; they satisfy the public with a false promise of safety, but deliver much less.
Arthur Shawcross killed at least one child. Allowed to plea bargain down to manslaughter, he was sentenced to an indefinite term of up to 25 years.
Despite an original diagnosis that was highly indicative of dangerousness, he eventually persuaded the parole board to
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