Ending cycle of abuse: Rutland Herald Online

Ending cycle of abuse

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The fury over the light sentence given to a child rapist by Judge Edward Cashman has reached the kind of emotional pitch that often produces bad laws.

Cashman sentenced Mark Hulett to 60 days in prison, to be followed by a long period of probation and sex offender treatment. If Hulett fails to complete the treatment, he could be sent back to jail for life. He received the sentence for the abuse of a girl during a four-year period when she was 6 to 10 years old.

It is the kind of sentence that is easily inflated into a cable television sensation, and Cashman has been excoriated in comments from people all across the country. He is a menace to our children — that is the kind of statement being heard.

In fact, Cashman issued the sentence precisely to protect children. It was the only way to provide Hulett the treatment he needs in a timely manner in order to deter him from committing similar offenses in the future. At least, that is how Cashman saw it.

In weighing the several purposes of sentencing, Cashman placed greater importance on deterrence than on punishment, which has angered those who believe that it is the function of the criminal justice system not just to rehabilitate, but also to draw clear lines about behavior society judges to be criminally destructive. Child sexual abuse is one of the most destructive outrages our system must deal with.

Cashman's sentence causes further outrage because it comes after a string of incidents in Florida and elsewhere in which sex offenders released from prison have gone on to attack and murder children. People are worried for their children's safety, and a 60-day sentence does not send the message that we mean to protect them.

So members of the Legislature have responded with varying degrees of anger. There is talk of impeaching Cashman, which is an excessive response. The 60-day sentence was too light, but it served the purpose of calling attention to flaws in our corrections system that the Legislature has failed to correct. Unless those flaws are addressed, the length of Hulett's sentence won't matter; sex offenders in Vermont will fail to receive the treatment they need, prolonging the danger to Vermont's children.

There are also calls for mandatory minimum sentences for sex offenders. Some sort of mandatory minimum is appropriate, but the Legislature should not get carried away. One of the reasons our prisons are overcrowded, creating the problems that made it difficult to provide Hulett with treatment, is the rush to mandatory minimums in previous periods of outrage about other crimes. It is still important for judges to have the flexibility to provide the kind of sentence best suited to preventing future abuses. Vermont is learning about the cost and the self-defeating result of a corrections policy of warehousing inmates.

The best way to respond to the sentence of Mark Hulett is to correct sentencing policies that have crowded our jails and to make sure treatment is available to offenders who need it. We also need to make sure sex offenders know the state of Vermont views sexual abuse as a heinous crime. They must be punished for their crimes with appropriate severity, but we punish ourselves and endanger our children if we do not do everything possible to make sure offenders get the treatment they need finally to end the tragic cycles of sexual abuse.

READER COMMENTS

My children were raped by their father. They told police officers, social workers, and Judges for years. Judge Alden Bryan, Judge Amy Davenport, Judge Richard Norton, Judge Mahady all decided my children were lying. They gave him custody of my children then 4 and 7 years old boys. After 6 years of being raped, sodomized, intimidated and physically, sexually and emotionally abused. My seven year old ended up in the childrens ward at DHMC where he was kept due to a PTSD psychosis. My then 12 year old had tried to kill himself several times. After 6 years of abuse, Judge Amy Davenport decided to allow me to have custody of my children, and to basically terminate my ex-husbands rights to his children, and contact because my children were so damaged by the ongoing sexual assualts that they were not capable of having any contact with their father without becoming in danger of long term Psychological damage. I stood in front of every Family Court in Vermont with children, victims of sexual assualt, mothers of children who were slain by childmolesters in Vermont, remember Gary Shaffer killed three little girls in Springfield, Vt. Remember Paulette Crickmore? There are thousands of raped children that have suffered in Vermont. We drew the Crime Dog, the Sweet Pickles characters, we had nationally known victims advocates protest with us. We begged for changes to the Rule 804, we asked for the sex offender registry, we asked for a DNA data bank, and Children's Bill of Rights. This all fell on mostly deaf ears. Well Judge Bryan, Judge Davenport, Judge Norton, my children did not fare well. The oldest is a Heroin addict with several felonies pending before Judge Pat Zimmerman for drug related roberries. My youngest has just gotten out of the Psychiatric Hospital for another Psychotic PTSD episode. My oldest has left the State and taken his five year old daughter to the home of my ex-husband with the blessing of Judge Kevin Candon of Rutland Probate Court. She will most likey be raped there like he was, but he felt he had to take her there to avoid the Holyoke, drug gangs that were pursuing him and are now stalking him due to his work as a CI. DCF did an investigation and came to court to testify for my heroin addict son that my grandaughter was not in danger living with her sex offender grandfather. I don't get it, I just don't. I thought we had resolved this years and years ago, but now we have generational crime, created by the judiciary. I think the Judges need to look within, your not living up to what the Vermont Public expects or needs from you. There are far reaching scocietal consequences to the decisions you are making on child rape cases. Within the Judiciary, the Corrections Department, the Department of Children and Families, all of it. I have gone to Steve Dale, Mike Smith, Jim Douglas, Kerry Sleeper, William Sorrell for protection for my grandaughter. They will do nothing. Nothing. I am so hurting because of all of you. I work for an agency that protects the rights of those who need protection, on a Federal Grant. Why can't we protect our children?

-- Posted by Rita Phelps on Tue, Jan 24, 2006, 10:57 am EST

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