Xkot puts his disgust over this better than I can
In Jacksonville a man was convicted of molesting three boys. His sentence? One year in jail. ONE YEAR. Let’s not even think about time already served or good behavior. Get caught with a small amount of drugs for personal use in the privacy of your own home and you’re locked up under mandatory sentencing. Molest three boys and you’re out before your next birthday.
Does anyone see how absurd this is? How can we justify locking up non-violent drug offenders for mandatory terms while letting three-time child molesters free after a brief visit?
Granted, the molestation charge was plea bargained down to keep the victims from having to testify. And the guy is now a registered sex offender for life.
Still. The contrast to mandatory time served for (ostensibly) victimless drug crimes is more than a bit infuriating.
At any rate, it’s just as well that I’m not the Lord that this “former deacon of First Baptist Church” professed to serve. I’d have a warm welcome for him at that prison he’ll be doing time in.
Or maybe he’d be better off if I were. I suspect whatever the Lord has in mind for Mr Edmonds is a lot more … profound and imaginative than anything I could work up.
The more I learn about the criminal justice system, the more inclinded I am to believe that the prime motivator is money. I strongly believe that drug laws are so strict because that enables the government, be it local or federal, to seize property and increase their coffers. I don’t think there is much money in child molestation, so it is not sentenced as harshly.
I don’t think it is the prime motivator, but it, along with politics, can be a significant distorter.