German high court rules against detention of sex offender

This article is about the recent ruling of the German high court against the preventative detention of a sex offender. The article explains how "Karl D." could not be put in preventative detention because his 1995 offense ruling did not contain any measures for him to be in preventative detention. The community where he lives is very concerned about his person being in their neighborhoods.

In 1985, Karl D. was sentenced to 5 1/2 years for raping a 14 year old girl. After his time in jail, he raped two other girls in 1995. His 1995 ruling sentenced him to 14 years in prison. It was this sentence that did not include the additional detention.

I was not sure what exactly "preventative detention" . When I looked it up, I was informed that it is assigned to a criminal in addition to a determined term in prison. It is regarded as the harshest punishment. Preventative detention is reserved for the most dangerous criminals. In 1998, the clause specifically including sex offenders was added.

Karl D. was released less than a year ago and he is living with his brother. The police have placed him on 24-hour surveillance. This surveillance is costing approximately 100,000 euros per month. The mayor warned the citizens to be on alert.

I think that it is absurd for the community to waste that amount of money the watch a person that court-appointed evaluators deemed dangerous. The man has proven to be a repeat rapist and now he is released into an area that is assuredly going to have young girls around. The American system is not much better I suppose. We run out of room in our prisons and set felons free. There are often stories about a criminal who was caught, served time, released, and committed another crime.

I chose article because I was curious about how other countries handle their sex offenders. I think that "preventative detention" is similar to what we call "life sentence" combined with the release of information when a sex offender moves into a community here.

This article can be found at:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5124202,00.html

This article was edited by Michael Lawton