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A sad but true story: I spent about 6 years in federal prison, and at my last prison location, I made a really good friend, Jeff. He could play guitar as good

A sad but true story: I spent about 6 years in federal prison, and at my last prison location, I made a really good friend, Jeff. He could play guitar as good as Slash (he ran the prison music room), he was funny, and could run a D&D game like the best DM's out there. I knew him about 19 months before I release d to the halfway house. He was supposed to release about a year after me. He had gone into the Army when he was 18. Because he could play the guitar, he got into a band unit, and they would march in parades and such. He molested his first victim for which he was caught while in the Army, and they gave him a hard 20 (20 years with no parole or probation). They also never ordered him into sex offender treatment. He spent most of his prison time in the military brig, but was eventually transferred into the Federal Prison system for being a troublemaker (brewing alcohol, getting drunk and fighting). That's how I met him. I always wanted to be his friend after we got out of prison. I never expected him to re-offend, after knowing him pretty closely for a year and a half. When I asked my Supervision Officer if I could write to him while he was still in prison, I was ordered to not have any contact with any former prison acquaintances while on probation. I though, "Okay, I'll just wait until I finish my probation. No problem." A few years after my release, I thought I would at least check up on him without contacting him. When I found out what he had done after he got out of prison, it was like I had been punched in the gut. I was in a state of numb disbelief for days. Here are a couple of articles about Jeff: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-missing--year-old-girl-from-poplar-bluff-mo/article_7862c855-eb03-5833-b3fa-f5748dde0173.html https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-... https://www.kfvs12.com/story/19996812/jeffrey-dean-shelton-faes-additional-kidnapping-charges/ https://www.kfvs12.com/story/19996812/jeffrey-dean-shelton-f... https://www.courthousenews.com/child-molester-gets-120-years/ https://www.courthousenews.com/child-molester-gets-120-years... Prison is the best place for him.

Faaak 7y ago
If he would've been correctly re-integrated, this would've maybe never happened. This proves it: all this prison time alone, without good programs in place, was just "vengeance" and it didn't work.
- nick_kline 7y ago
  You can't draw conclusions from one case. Treatment could have helped him, but he was a menace in that state and shouldn't be released. So you can use this one case to argue either way. I'd sure not want him released. Most people aren't like this.
  - Faaak 7y ago
    You don't know either if he was a menace or not. People change, believe it or not.
    - Grustaf 7y ago
      Is there any evidence that it’s possible to “cure” violent sex offenders?
      - butteroverflow 7y ago
        Or psychopaths, for that matter. I would very much like to see the attempts to "cure" someone like Ted Bundy.
        King-Aaron 7y ago
        They cured him pretty well IIRC.
    - Fjolsvith 7y ago
      People can change, but it requires a lot. Most of the time, people will just follow their patterns of thinking and behavior, mainly because they are not aware of the patterns and do not have correctives to change their behavior when they recognize old patterns. Sex offender treatment tries to train them in this.
    - thejohnconway 7y ago
      I don’t believe there is any evidence suggesting successful treatment for these kinds of offenders. Known recidivism is quite high, and combined with the underreporting of sexual crimes, meaning the reoffending rate is almost certainly way higher. We’re taking a massive risk releasing them. I’m comfortable making the moral call that the freedom of a convicted child molester is worth less than the 25-99% risk that they will molest another child.

Faaak 7y ago

If he would've been correctly re-integrated, this would've maybe never happened. This proves it: all this prison time alone, without good programs in place, was just "vengeance" and it didn't work.

nick_kline 7y ago
You can't draw conclusions from one case. Treatment could have helped him, but he was a menace in that state and shouldn't be released. So you can use this one case to argue either way. I'd sure not want him released. Most people aren't like this.
- Faaak 7y ago
  You don't know either if he was a menace or not. People change, believe it or not.
  - Grustaf 7y ago
    Is there any evidence that it’s possible to “cure” violent sex offenders?
    - butteroverflow 7y ago
      Or psychopaths, for that matter. I would very much like to see the attempts to "cure" someone like Ted Bundy.
      - King-Aaron 7y ago
        They cured him pretty well IIRC.
  - Fjolsvith 7y ago
    People can change, but it requires a lot. Most of the time, people will just follow their patterns of thinking and behavior, mainly because they are not aware of the patterns and do not have correctives to change their behavior when they recognize old patterns. Sex offender treatment tries to train them in this.
  - thejohnconway 7y ago
    I don’t believe there is any evidence suggesting successful treatment for these kinds of offenders. Known recidivism is quite high, and combined with the underreporting of sexual crimes, meaning the reoffending rate is almost certainly way higher. We’re taking a massive risk releasing them. I’m comfortable making the moral call that the freedom of a convicted child molester is worth less than the 25-99% risk that they will molest another child.