Too soft on crime

When a child molester is sentenced to “life in prison,” you think this person will be locked up for the rest of their life. Sorry, not in Washington.

The Washington attorney general gave this opinion in response to a question posed in 1955: “Can the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles consider for parole a person who is serving a mandatory life sentence under RCW 9.95.115 after he has served 13 years and 4 months in continual confinement?” Their answer was affirmative!

Life is 13 years and four months. Most criminals in Washington don’t serve their full sentence. Most cases, an offender becomes eligible for parole after serving one-third of their sentence.

I’ve been asked to vote for a lot of things, but more prisons is never one of them. I would pay for more prisons.

Sociologists reflect on the growing prison population. Society can figure out why later. I say if you do the crime, you do the time – the whole time. We need to lock violent people up. Punishment versus reform: I say punishment. I don’t see reform working for most criminals. Child molester? Someone with 40 convictions? Reform? Oxymoron!

Legislators need to hear us demand protection from criminals.

Doug Bacon

Spokane