Magnitus: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/b-c-corrections-warns-violent-female-offender-plans-193817836.html

Sometimes, I think the law cares too much about punishment for offenses committed and not enough about keeping people safe and society functional.

I don't think keeping this woman jailed all her life (or until she is deemed not a threat to society) is fair given what she has done so far, but at the same time, are metrics that you would apply to the mainstream really applicable for someone who is so dangerously broken?

It's almost as if the law is not keeping up with advances in psychology.

Reading something like this, I can't help, but have this picture in my mind of zookeepers letting the tigers loose in the middle of downtown.

Technically, most tigers that are confined haven't done anything so far to warrant being confined, but you keep them contained, because you know that they are natural predators that will hurt people.

Magnitus: It's more than that.

Gratuitous cruelty against animals is a textbook symptom for psychopathy, usually escalating to cruelty against humans (you start with baby steps...).

She also had child pornography, had been violent and had taken steps to harm homeless folks (probably because of accessibility, they are outside by themselves and are unlikely to be missed).

This wasn't a sudden messed up urge (like getting drunk in a bar and stabbing someone or stumbling upon your wife sleeping with another man), this was premeditated and gratuitous.

If given the chance, she will harm someone.

langurmonkey: Yeah but most people don't care about homeless people, unfortunately. I forgot they found her with child porn. Yeah, getting caught with child porn will earn you the hatred of most people in this world because it reveals to the world, that you are a sick piece of shit. I think it is sad, she was never given the chance to live a decent life though because it is obvious, the reason, she is so fucked up is because she is an orphan. When a child is unloved, it messes him or her up for life(makes them mental). Maybe all she has done is for attention so she feels kind of loved by parents? I think she should be put in a mental hospital until she is safe enough for society, but not jailed for life.

Magnitus: I agree with you that it isn't fair and she wasn't given much of a chance.

Not putting her in the circumstances that molded her into who she is would be have been the best thing to do (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure).

Unfortunately, she is the way she is right now, not the way she could have been and there is no rewind button.

Ideally, she would serve her time for what she did and then be set free in such a way that she couldn't harm anyone, but that can't really be arranged.

And yes, mental hospital would have been largely preferable to prison.

Society failed her there, again.