[Vision2020] Kevin Coe commitment

[Donovan Arnold]

I knew Kevin Coe's family. And all I am going to say is that a lot of people will be irreparable harmed if that monster is released on the community. 
 
Some people cannot live among the public, they just cannot. And to release Coe into the public is dangerous to every woman and child in the area. 
 
This isn't about time served, it is about putting innocent people into the path of direct harm.
 
Best Regards,
 
Donovan

--- On Fri, 10/17/08, Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Kevin Coe commitment
To: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Friday, October 17, 2008, 4:12 PM








I'm torn, frankly.  Kevin Coe seems to be the worst kind of predator and a danger to the community.  Still, he served his 25-year sentence, and I'm concerned about the idea of "civil commitment" and its application in other situations.  The civil libertarian in me says that he's served his crime and ought not be incarcerated for what he might do, no matter how likely it is that he will commit another attack.  The public-safety concerns about unrepentant, untreated, defiant rapists out on the street, though, give me a measure of comfort in his commitment, even though it seems not to represent the very best of American jurisprudence.

So long as the confinement is:

(1) Based on the independent medical judgment of professionals not fully beholden to the state, and;
(2) Not punitive confinement, which is to say: designed for treatment and harm reduction, rather than to discourage future negative conduct, and;
(3) Has provisions for periodic reassessment of the incarcerated person's rehabilitation, 

I'm perfectly willing to support civil commitment. However, there's good evidence that the civil commitment process is just a way to sneak life sentences for rape in through the back door with a lower standard of evidence -- and to effectively extend sentences that have already been handed down. I'd be far more willing to support this sort of thing if life sentences for rape were more common.

-- ACS

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