No Good Answers

Corey Lee Claflin, when he was 24, sexually assaulted a 6 year old girl.  He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May of 2003.  After he served two-thirds of his term, he was put into a supervised program with strict rules.  He was labeled at that point a Level 1 predatory offender.  While in this supervised environment, he violated rules relating to having a device with internet access, having pornography, and, most disturbing, having contact with children in some form.  He was sent back to prison for the violations, but he did not receive any additional time to his original prison term.  He was re-assessed as a Level 3 predatory offender, the level with the highest likelihood of re-offending.  Next Monday, Corey Lee Claflin is scheduled to be released after serving his 12 year term.  He'll be free, and he'll be moving into my neighborhood, living a block away from my house.

There are no words to summarize my frustration.

How is this guy even getting released?  Aren't there supposed to be far harsher penalties in cases like this?  When he was sentenced to 12 years, it probably seemed like a long time.  If someone told you today you had to go away until 2027, it'd sound like an eternity, but in reality, it's not that long.  Politicians talk about getting tough on crime but imposing life sentences for sex crimes usually runs into three problems.

First, cookie cutter solutions rarely are effective.  If you create a life sentence for sex crimes, you're saying a 21 year old guy, who walks into a bar, has a few drinks with a woman, goes back to his place for consensual sex, only to find out she was 15 and using her sister's ID at the bar, that he should somehow serve the same amount of prison time as a serial rapist.  We need to have guidelines which allow our judiciary to sentence accordingly, but it's still a head scratcher how a guy who sexually assaulted a 6 year old only got 12 years.

Second, if you start making sex crimes life sentences, people are going to start asking why other crimes are not life sentences too.  Bankrupting thousands of people through a Ponzi scheme, beating your wife and kids, drunk driving for the 2nd time, cheating on your taxes.  I guarantee I can find someone who could make a decent argument why the people who perpetrate those crimes should get far harsher penalties too.  Do we really want 3-7% of the population serving life sentences behind bars?

Thirdly, AND the main reason we don't have far harsher mandatory penalties for sexual offenders, is because the harsher the mandatory penalty, the harder it is for wealthy people to buy their way out of it.  There are just as many sexual predators who live in wealthy white suburbs as there are in the inner city.  With a good lawyer and some big checks, wealthy people can make their cases disappear before a trial.  Even if they're convicted, they can use their money to argue their sentences should be served in a treatment/spa facility in Florida, not a prison.  And, with money, they can contest their predatory offender status, getting released as a Level 1, where few in a community are aware their neighbor is a predator (more on that later).

The Hopkins Police and the Minnesota Department of Corrections had a community meeting about Mr. Claflin, giving some basic background information and fielding questions from the masses.  The numbers are disturbing.  One in five girls are sexually assaulted, 1 in 7 boys.  One in six women, and 1 in 33 men.  This is an epidemic in this country and these crimes are not just being perpetrated by the same five or six people.  There are far more predatory offenders in the US than we realize, and, very likely, one within a few blocks of you right now.  Reminder, once these criminals are released, without any further supervision, there are limited restrictions to where they can go.

Are we going to tell criminals upon being released they're not allowed to go home, to live with their parents, their family, on their own property?  This is what is happening in our neighborhood.  Claflin has family who still lives here, in a house which is a cliche; dark brown, unwelcoming, not a lot of windows, unkept yard, creepy.  The corrections officers said the best chance for him to not re-offend is to be in a supportive environment with family.  I'm not going to argue that point, but I just wish his supportive environment wasn't so near my house.

Some aren't shy about threatening him.  I've heard people suggest they'll attack him, release their dogs on him, and one person sitting next to me at the meeting eluded to "whatever it would take" to get him out of the neighborhood.  The police took a beating in the meeting as well, with angry residents accusing them of somehow being complacent in Claflin's return home.  I imagine some people's ferver is being fueled by sexual assaults they'd endured themselves years ago, and they don't like the calmness of their lives being disrupted with a reminder of their own violation.  If twelve years is not long enough for them, why should it be long enough for Claflin?

I stood up at the meeting and saluted the police for letting us know about all of this, and reminded the audience we should be thankful they disseminated this information.  Law enforcement is promising to be diligent, insisting they will act immediately if Mr. Claflin steps a millimeter out of line.

The Department of Correction's spokeswoman pointed out the improvements they've made in regards to treating Level 3 offenders.  In the early 90's, the rates of recidivism were around 16% after three years.  Today, 98% of Level 3 predatory offenders have no relapses of behavior in the same three year stretch.  That's impressive, but it doesn't stop fear, something pointed out with scary glee by one woman at the meeting.  "This guy could come out of prison and rape someone within minutes of coming home.  What if Claflin is that guy???"  She had a little too much eagerness for her potentially being the person who gets to say "I told you so!"

I like to think of myself as rational and educated.  I strive to be logical and think things through, but in reality, I'm just a scared and freaked out by Mr. Claflin's violation potential as anyone else.  I've a 13 year old son, daughters 10 and 8, and a wife.  I don't want to see them attacked or violated.  It's easy to have a calm debate about something when you're standing a safe distance away.  It's far harder when it's a block away from you.

Let me get back to the comment I made about sexual predators being everywhere.  They are.  It's just a fact, but as I've told some west metro friends who don't live in my neighborhood about Mr. Claflin's return, the reaction has been jaw dropping.  "Oh, Hopkins is falling off the map, it's the ghetto, it's a slum, it's a shame at how bad things have gotten in that town."  These reactions are similar to the ones many of my neighbors have gotten too.

Let me explain something; Hopkins is not only middle class, it's an upper middle class community.  It really is.  Is it as gilded as the self inflated provenance and mansions of Edina, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie or Wayzata? No, but because it's surrounded by such wealth, the perspective is skewed.  It does have a slightly higher representation of lower income families and minorities, but it's still not even close to a fair representation of the race and class breakdown which is America.  As much as the more pricey zip codes and school districts look down upon Hopkins, there are far more communities looking up at the wealth Hopkins has.

Ghetto and slum?  When I hear people use such terms as ignorantly as they do, it tells me far more about them.  If you have zero experience with ghettos or slums, it's probably best to not loosely brandish the term, like you're an authority on the matter.  Frankly, you look like a stupid, racist jerk.

Sexual predators are everywhere, in every community.  The important thing is to be safe and use common sense.  Talk to your kids.  Have them use the buddy system when they are going somewhere.  And most important, give your kids the attention they deserve.  The predator's most effective weapon to lure victims, regardless of whether it's in the lowest income area or in most gold plated of opulent communities, is to give potential targets the attention they are starving for, the attention the potential victims are not getting in their lives.  Pay attention to your kids!

I love my neighborhood.  We have very good property values, near non-existent crime, some level of economic and social diversity, and it's welcoming, clean and beautiful.  Last night we had a block party and it was full of warmth and friendliness.  We're not going to allow one individual to define our neighborhood or who we are.  I'm proud of where I live.

But, I'm still extremely frustrated.  At the end of the day, there are no good answers.