Interview with the Washington Post on predators, punishment, and parenting:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-parenting/post/child-predators-is-our-punishment-misguided/2011/08/26/gIQAZZAQlJ_blog.html

The Last Pariahs

(from the New York Times, Sunday Review, Op-Ed)

STARTING in the 1970s, lawmakers across the United States enacted punitive “lock ’em up” policies. The prison population more than quadrupled, and the United States became first in the world in both the total number of prisoners (about 2.3 million) and the rate of imprisonment (1 of every 100 adults is behind bars).

Now, budget pressures, court orders and a recognition of the social costs of incarceration have prompted America to reconsider some of these draconian laws. Incarceration rates may be topping out.

But most criminal justice advocates have been reluctant to talk about sex offender laws, much less reform them. The reluctance has deep roots....

READ THE REST AT: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/opinion/sunday/sex-offenders-the-last-pariahs.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss