
On McNeil Island, the only residents are dangerous sex offenders - prawn
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/03/dangerous-sex-offenders-mcneil-island-commitment-center
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adam-a
The moral situation around sex-offences does seem to lead to some weird and
unpleasant situations. This reminds me of the Julia Tuttle Causeway "colony",
a group of sex offenders who were released but forced to live under a highway
because they were legally not allowed within a certain radius of any school
and this was the only spot in the state that would allow them.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Tuttle_Causeway_sex_offe...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Tuttle_Causeway_sex_offender_colony)

~~~
kevinmchugh
Many states also bar sex offenders from living near public parks, and then
jurisdictions will create tiny parks out of odd bits of land, to chase sex
offenders away: [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/us/building-tiny-parks-
to...](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/us/building-tiny-parks-to-drive-sex-
offenders-away.html)

Louis Theroux has done two documentaries on the subject, both very
interesting.

~~~
hyperbovine
Isn't it odd that you can _murder_ someone, do 20 years, and have paid your
debt to society, while a sex offense follows you around for the rest of your
life. The punishment does not fit the crime in some cases.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Usually a murder targets a particular person; whilst sex offences target
categories of people.

~~~
hyperbovine
Sorry, but this makes no sense whatsoever. We don't convict people of crimes
based on the category of people they target.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I fear you've misunderstood.

People often murder because of who the victim is, but they sexually attack
because of what the person is.

There are contradictions both ways, however.

For example, a rapist attacks a man they met at a club, generally that's
because they're looking for a body to use sexually. There are lots of people
with those bodies. When they leave prison they can still find many bodies to
use sexually; the chance of recidivism is relatively high.

A woman kills her partner after years of abuse, when she leaves prison that
person no longer exists and she's unlikely to ever be in a similar situation.
The chance of recidivism is relatively low.

TLDR You can't murder the same person again; you can assault another person
who fits a general profile.

~~~
Chris2048
You've chosen very different examples:

"A woman kills her partner after years of abuse"

Are you justifying murder? Why wouldn't the woman kill another partner?

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bashallah
The title is misleading. There’s 9-ish residents that live on McNeil, and they
all work for the prison. Buddy of mine used to date the wardens daughter. Had
to ride the prison ferry to their dope-ass house that was on sex offender
island

~~~
bashallah
Holy fuck this island costs WA tax payers $39,619,104 _just_ for the “inmates”
per year

~~~
throwaway5752
That's, what, a bit less than $200k per inmate?

Food, shelter, plumbing, facilities upkeep, medical/psychological care, and
very high security costs? That really isn't a surprising figure. Prison are
incredibly expensive. It's a great argument for minimizing prison populations
to only people that pose immediate threats to others and focusing as much as
possible on reducing recidivism.

~~~
NullPrefix
How did you arrive at that 200k number? 39.6 / 9 = 4.4 millions each

~~~
throwaway5752
I clicked the link to the story, and read the article's title which is, "On
Washington's McNeil Island, the only residents are 214 dangerous sex
offenders"

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simplicio
Seems sort of bizarre that the review hearings are done in front of a jury,
rather then some sort of panel of people with relevant expertise. The person
has already been found guilty, so there isn't really any judgement call to
make as far as the facts are concerned.

The cynic in me thinks this is done just because no-one wants to take the
responsibility of releasing these people, since if even one goes on to commit
a sensational crime, the person who made the call to release them will get
pilloried by the public (and probably, by their own conscience). So the jury
provides a way to pass on the responsibility for the call.

~~~
testvox
Well yes, no politician wants to become the next Dukakis.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton#Horton_in_the_19...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton#Horton_in_the_1988_presidential_campaign)

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stickfigure
I had never heard of this device before:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph)

It conjures to mind one of the scenes from A Clockwork Orange.

I have to wonder if this really works, or if it has an especially high false-
positive rate for people with weird medical fetishes.

~~~
blattimwind
> though only 32% accurate, had the highest accuracy among methods of
> identifying which sexual offenders will go on to commit new sexual crimes

i.e. a random number generator is more accurate.

~~~
folli
So if you invert its output, it will be more accurate than a rng?

~~~
arcticbull
No because then you have to invert the question too, and you’re back where you
started.

~~~
p1esk
What? No.

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FireBeyond
One of the more practical challenges as an EMS provider nearby is that it is
relatively "isolated", requiring ferry or boat transport for sick patients as
there is no hospital on the island. This requires staffing challenges for
escorting etc, and the logistics of transport.

On more than one occasion, delays in getting to definitive emergency care have
resulted in liability for the State, including heart attack victims who took
to long to get to the hospital.

~~~
tomc1985
No life flight helicopters?

~~~
FireBeyond
The state has little interest in a $35K airlift ride for non-life threatening
conditions.

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setgree
Totally not on-topic but the attorney's name -- Kelly Canary -- is unusual
enough that I googled it. Is she the former lead singer of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickless](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickless)
?

~~~
petepete
Looks like it, yes

> People may have heard of Kelly Canary because of her work Seattle grunge–era
> bands such as Dickless and Earth, but she now spends her days more often in
> front of a jury instead of a crowd of concert goers. From bartender at the
> Cha Cha to staff attorney for the Innocence Project here in Washington, she
> has led an unconventional life.

[http://www2.kuow.org/program.php?id=24366](http://www2.kuow.org/program.php?id=24366)

~~~
smrq
Incidentally, for those not familiar with early Earth, she is a guest on their
debut EP, Extra-Capsular Extraction, along with a friend of the band you might
have heard of named Kurt Cobain.

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fouc
This isn't about Pitcairn Island of the HMS Bounty descendants that I
initially mistook this as.

~~~
Uberphallus
Yep. Some time ago I did some research on which was the most remote place on
Earth, to travel just for the checkmark of "yeah I've done it". Pitcairn
Island was one of the top contenders, noped it out of the list after learning
about the stuff that happens there.

