The Austin Statesman reporter, Ryan Foley, has a very interesting article out that proves America really is that land of opportunity. It seems as though just about anyone, who is willing to, can get an education. This includes sex offenders nationwide. . The national government gives us unemployment benefits, social security, Medicaid, WIC and the list goes on. All these programs are controversial, but even after argument one can make sense and need to keep them. But there is a fine line in sense when it comes to funding education for a sex offender.
The Pell Grant is a nationally funded resource which gives low income students up 4,000 dollars for educational purposes. This premier grant bars those who are prison inmates and those with drug offenses, however, sex offenders have found a way to dip into these funds. If a sex offender is in prison he cannot receive aid, once transported to a treatment facility he has now made himself eligible for the national grant. One treatment facility in Florida 54 offenders received a combined total of $20,000 in financial aid. That is quite a large amount of money for someone who has made him/herself a predator to society.
Some argue that this is help for offenders, similar to a treatment that will better that person for society and it does make sense; offering education will help make work them to normalcy in our society, but what about the offenders with a bachelors or masters? Are we suppose to provide them with something as well? And if taxpayers are already funding for the treatment facility, what sense does it make to give more money to someone who has made him/herself a danger to everyone, particular children?
The article also points out that several offenders don’t even use the funds given for learning purposes, but rather to purchase miscellaneous entertainment goods like DVDs and CDs. Without a way to track their progress, it is impossible to prove that this is for the better good of an offender.
As a taxpayer, I would rather fund someone who is a cocaine addict for higher education and then a sex offender. At least if the drug addict went back to doing drugs it wouldn’t hurt society nearly as much if a sex offender went back to preying on children. Providing a place for treatment is more then enough help to give a sex offender. Paying for their education is asking for a smart predator.
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5 comments:
It seems like the more one messes up the more America babies them. The fact that the government is willing to supply "Education funds for Sex Offenders" is absolutely ridiculous. I disagree with funding education for prison inmates and those with drug offenses too. I am sick and tired of my taxes cleaning up other peoples messes. It is time people clean up their own mess and if they don't, then they have to live with the consequences. It is called "get a job". For some reason people think if they go to school, then they cannot work. I am able to work full time and go to school full time and make decent grades. I have tried for the past five years to get financial aid, I was denied every time. I guess they figure since I work, I can take care of myself. They are mainly concerned about the students who are too irresponsible, lazy and unwilling to take care of themselves. I think it is time America's citizens are individually held accountable for their own mistakes. I believe mistakes can be used as a learning tool for the individual who made the mistake, not me. As a responsible citizen I should not be held accountable for the errors other citizens make.
I totally agree with your opinion with the sex offenders; I would also like the money to go to a drug addict then the sex offender. Like the article said we can’t track what they do with the money for all we know they can be using it to buy products or using it to for fill their needs on preying on children and woman. I say let them struggle to find money to go to school , let them find a job and let them save money , and do it the hard way instead of getting the easy way out .
Let me apologize in advance for playing devil's advocate here... I agree sex offenders are heinous and have no place in our society. Unfortunately they are Americans too. People slip through cracks, are wrongfully convicted, and at times people can change. Who knows, maybe focusing on education and expanding their mind a person can find a way to become free of the chains holding them into their patterns and keeping them stuck in lives benefiting no one and hurting others. I have never committed a crime, nor do I plan to do so. I have family that I love and would give anything to protect. That being said, anyone you or I know could fall in to a circumstance that seems wrong to us, we don’t always have all the facts, just because it seems that way does not make it a reality. A 17 year-old boy consensually dating a 15 year-old girl doesn’t warrant losing a future to me. I’m not defending rewarding criminals or condoning any hurtful behavior, I am defending each of our individual rights to try and make our lives better. Sex-offenders must register with the government and it is public knowledge where they live. They are and always will be persona non grata to the whole world. And some may waste the money provided to them, but I know a number of students that do the same with their college grants. Yes, I would much rather that $20,000 go to a student that works hard and is motivated and honest and worthy of our tax dollars. But it’s not my decision to determine who is worthy of what. I don’t know the situation of every sex offender, rightly convicted…or wrongly. I prefer to give people opportunity rather than to take it away.
I would like to comment to this article as well as the comments to this article. My comment is to put this forward: educational assistance has nothing to do with sexual offense.
I feel the same anger at these crimes as anyone else, and I think that the nature of these offenses should have DUE reciprocations, reciprocations that will protect the society. These people will have popsickle's chance in Riyadh for getting a teaching, theraputic, legal or political job. Their presence is announced in national databases and alerts whenever they change residence, so neighborhoods can be aware. Many have restraining orders set by the people over whom they have obsessed. These controls are right and good (and can be improved) and have absolutely everything to do with keeping our society safe. Some attended mandatory rehabilitation which may also prevent further offenses.
Being disallowed to receive educational benefits has nothing to do with their prior offenses. This would be the moral equivalent of banning them from taking advantage of 50% off clearance sales at book stores.
Criminal legislation is for society's safety. Some laws, like the restraining order, are protective. Some, like rehabilitation are preventative. Execution is even supposedly in both categories.
Restricting someone's eligability to receive a Pell grant because of sexual offense is retaliatory. It is revenge. Revenge, now this is only an opinion, should have no place in criminal, or any other, legislation. What's next, they can't get food stamps?
I completely agree with my classmate’s blog about financial aid for sex offenders, in that I, too, would rather fund a drug addict’s education than a sex offender’s. I think that it is outrageous that these people are getting things from the government when they have already proven that they are a threat to other citizens. I find the very idea to be disgusting.
While I do agree that this could potentially cause some injustice with sex offenders charged with statutory rape of a technically consenting underage teenager, what they have done is still illegal in the eyes of the government and many of these people are still predators.
I volunteer with a rape and domestic violence crisis center. There are many barriers to proving and convicting a person of a sex crime in the United States, and in fact, most predators get off scott free. It is terrible to think that those who have committed a crime vicious enough to have actually been convicted are somehow given a leg up by the society that they have harmed.
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