READERS RESPOND:

‘Predators’ laws hurt redeemable kids

Zechariah Tuscanue, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Regarding the Las Vegas Sun’s Sunday story “Young, but ‘predators’ for life”:

I was disturbed to read about the new sexual predator legislation soon to take effect in Nevada. It demonstrates the draconian, fear-and-punishment-driven nature of our legal system and is a sad comment on how we view justice in society.

These new laws bring justice to neither the victim nor the offender while damaging both, and they make the state criminal by destroying the offender and providing nominal justice, in the form of state-sanctioned vengeance, to the victim. In particular, I was concerned about how these laws will affect children and punish retroactively those who have paid their debts to society.

The Nevada Legislature would be best served by repealing these unconstitutional laws and passing laws that provide adequate treatment and, when possible, victim-offender reconciliation. The infrastructure to provide victim-offender mediation and reconciliation services a far more effective way to provide justice to injured parties already exists in the state; why do we not utilize it?

State Sen. Dina Titus, who championed the laws, is quoted in the article as being unaware of the laws’ potential (and dire) ramifications for juvenile offenders. Sen. Titus needs to be held accountable for this. In her role as legislator, we look to her for careful deliberation before supporting legislation. If she cannot be entrusted to deliberate carefully before passing laws that will destroy many of Nevada’s redeemable children, with what if anything can she be entrusted?