It took a little longer than I expected, but the statewide campaigns are now all about child sexual predation – at least this week. It’s likely that challengers were moving cautiously to gauge the mood, but the first in, predictably, was Jim Douglas – whose call for a renewed Death Penalty and chemical castration laws shared the front page with reports that his Corrections Department supported alleged Brooke Bennett killer Michael Jacques’s release from probation only the year before last (no coincidence there). Since then, Douglas has essentially provided cover for others against any charges of politicizing the issue, given his ill-considered, naked exploitation of the matter through his anti-Symington push polling over the weekend.
So, we’re off, as the candidates fall over each other to get in front of the issue on this Monday…
Symington – who is gradually, finally into some control of the headlines, came out with an uncharacteristically strong statement:
The decision by the Douglas administration to release convicted kidnapper and sex offender Michael Jacques from probation seven years early and to leave him without supervision has raised serious questions about whether the Department of Corrections is adequately protecting the public. The Governor has acknowledged the decision was a mistake, but he has not called for a full investigation of the matter. All he has requested is that his commissioner of Corrections “look at the procedure” for making these decisions. This is an unacceptably weak response in light of the tragic consequences of his department’s failure in this case.
With the safety of our children at stake, it is clear that an outside body must to conduct a full investigation of every aspect of this case and our parole system to determine how this failure occurred. Because I do not want my status as a candidate for Governor to be a distraction in this process, I’ve decided not to call the House Judiciary committee back to conduct this investigation. I have spoken with Senate President Peter Shumlin, and understand that he is planning to head in this direction, and will provide details on his plans tomorrow.
I urge my colleagues in the Senate to get to the bottom of this failure without delay. Vermont’s citizens and lawmakers must know exactly what went wrong in enforcing our current laws so the necessary steps can be taken to prevent another tragic failure like this from occurring.
Among the questions that must be answered are:
1) Why did the Department of Corrections argue for setting a convicted sex offender and kidnapper free despite the opposition of prosecutors?
2) Does the Douglas administration have tough enough standards in place for deciding who qualifies for early release from probation?
3) How have the Douglas administration’s job cuts affected the ability of his Corrections department to protect Vermonters?
4) What is the caseload of parole officers, and is that a factor in this case?
5) How many positions in the parole system are unfilled?
6) What other key elements of our laws to prevent sexual violence are not being adequately managed?
7) Have the Special Investigative Units that have been budgeted for been put into action, and if not, why not?
8) What can be done through better management of the Department of Corrections to make sure our children and our communities are safe?
Regarding calls for a special session: if the Governor calls a special session, I will be there. Legislative leaders set the agenda for special sessions, and I want to assure Vermonters that I will demand any special session addresses why our current laws are not being enforced by the Douglas administration before we talk about adding more laws. We must do first things first. It is much more important right now to find out why this convicted sex offender was set free and fix the problems that lead to his early release so that we don’t have a repeat of this failure. I also want to know why the Douglas administration is moving so slowly on appointing special investigators that could play a critical role in solving these cases.
Pow! That’s a change.
Brian Dubie was actually first up this morning, at a press conference on the Statehouse steps. From Barlow:
Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie endorsed a full slate of reforms to the state’s sex offender laws Monday morning and called on Gov. James Douglas to bring lawmakers back to Montpelier for a special session this summer.
Dubie, a Republican running for reelection this year, called for a comprehensive review of Vermont’s criminal justice system and said lawmakers should pass proposals such as Jessica’s Law and chemical or physical castration for habitual sex offenders.
I happened by the presser on the way to work and lingered for about two minutes to listen. Dubie is not the deepest thinker on policy, and his legislative recommendations in calling for a special session can basically be reduced to “this is terrible and somebody oughta do something” with a clear favoritism given to the reactive, easy-to-get-ones-brain around, big ticket punitive measures that the Governor suggests (and that would do nothing to actually solve any problems). Still, listening to the guy stammer and reach for vocabulary, he did strike me as fairly sincere.
Nate Freeman feels differently:
“Brian Dubie and Governor Douglas are reaching new lows in how they are manipulating Vermonters’ emotions on the subject of sexual molestation of children. The fact is, this phenomenon is far more widespread than we want to acknowledge, and that strong measures in primary prevention are the best way to educate families, community members, and Vermonters as a whole about the signs and signals of childhood sexual abuse. Not only do I find the current conversation dubious in it’s real intent, I also find it personally offending as literally tens of thousands of Vermonters have suffered, are suffering, and will suffer from the tragedy of sexual abuse in their pre-pubescent and pubescent years.”
Freeman points to the Governor’s press release dated April 17th as an example of Jim Douglas talking about the work he is doing without any follow-up. From that press release Jim Douglas says the following:
“Vermont is leading the nation in developing innovative, proactive approaches to ending the epidemic of sexual and domestic violence in our state,” Governor Douglas said. “These crimes exact an enormous toll on the health and well-being of survivors, not to mention the impact on health care, corrections, education, social services, and so many of our state resources. The more attention we focus on preventing these crimes ? on teaching our children about healthy, respectful relationships and nonviolent means to resolve conflict ? the better.”
“It is interesting to note that the Douglas Administration is not focusing on the efforts of primary prevention of sexual abuse against children at this critical time. Instead, both Brian Dubie and Jim Douglas are preying on Vermonters’ natural emotional impulse for vengeance. The tragedy in Randolph will never find restitution and the community will never find healing in Brian Dubie’s angry , dubious, political posturing,” Freeman said.
Nate Freeman is a candidate for Lieutenant Governor from the Democratic Party. He is the owner of Freeman’s Upholstery Shop and Green Mountain Kitty Litter in Northfield. He is also a male survivor of early childhood sexual abuse by a female perpetrator.
Expect that last bit of personal history to garner him some ink on the issue.
As I said above, I definitely was inclined to think Dubie was sincere – particularly in his insistence that we should all be working together constructively and not demagogue the issue – but I suppose there’s be one way to find out: somebody should ask him if he condemns the Governor’s abhorrent push polling program on the issue and rejects his attempts to tar Symington as soft on child predators.
Haven’t seen anything from Tom Costello… at all, really. He doesn’t seem to have a website yet.
Call it a hunch, but I’m not going to be shocked if we find out, come the deadline, that Mr. Costello hasn’t turned in signatures. That’s just a hunch, but… well, we’ll see…
UPDATE: Barlow caught up with Costello, who is supportive of the Douglas/Dubie policy approach:
“The prosecutor in the case knew that (Michael) Jacques should not be released from probation early,” Costello said. “It’s clear the prosecutors don’t have enough tools for this fight and should have mandatory minimums and civil confinement as options to use.”