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	A Chance to Do Right, and Wrong The Advocate May 18, 2010 http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20100518/OPINION/5180312 A U.S. Supreme Court case handed down Monday is at once a troubling and promising. It hints at some ill-conceived use of mental health arguments to keep people in prison even after their sentences expire. And it offers the hope, if legislators and judges exhibit wisdom, for treating sex offenders in a way that prevents them from doing harm to others. Had something like it been in effect at the state level 15 years or so ago, it might have changed the outcome of at least two notorious cases involving Lafayette. The ruling upholds the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, which allows U.S. authorities to seek the civil commitment of sexual offenders after their prison terms have ended. Those authorities must persuade a judge that the offender will continue to pose a threat of sexual violence or child molestation after leaving prison. A federal district judge and appellate court had ruled that the law was unconstitutional -- not for the reason that springs to mind, but because it intrudes on the prerogatives of the states. The Supreme Court disagreed and reinstated the law with a 7-2 decision. "The statute is a 'necessary and proper' means of exercising the federal authority that permits Congress to create federal criminal laws, to punish their violation, to imprison violators, to provide appropriately for those imprisoned, and to maintain the security of those who are not imprisoned but who may be affected by the federal imprisonment of others," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority. The contentious issues involved are demonstrated by the fact the dissent came from Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia -- two justices you'd expect to take a law and order stand. The two Lafayette-area cases involved the former priest who served 10 years for molesting children before being released on good time in 1995, only to be arrested soon after and accused of touching a 3-year-old in Texas, and a Jefferson Parish man who sexually assaulted a young boy in a Lafayette city park soon after completing his prison sentence for a similar crime. In both cases, the system dealt with these offenders as they would with any other. A long prison sentence was a fitting punishment, and it certainly kept them off the streets for a while. But if we expected the punishment to prevent a recurrence of the crime, we were wrong. Congress, state legislatures and the courts should consult and pay heed to mental health professionals. They should develop guidelines to prevent the abuse of civil commitment. They should seek and order the most effective treatment. But they should also recognize society's right to protect itself and stop pretending that a few years behind bars will prevent a compulsively violent sexual offender or a compulsive child molester from harming others.
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