Punishment by cane in Singapore is NO laughing matter. A horrible punishment, doled out for offenses that one might think could more respectably dealt with by fines. But who are we to judge other countries when our own prison and legal system routinely subjects alleged sex criminals to horrible punishments? Still, this bizarre news item and the truly Draconian punishment for the fetishist's misbehaviors caught my eye. Frankly, it sounds like a scene that could be played out in a pro-dom's dungeon....except the caning wouldn't be nearly as painful, the jail would be a hot little cage and the whole ordeal would be over in an hour.

Armpit sniffer gets jail and cane

A Singapore man with a penchant for sniffing women's armpits was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims...

He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings and their homes, the paper said....

The court meted out the jail term, normally reserved for hardcore criminals, saying the man was likely to commit crimes again, the paper reported.

The paper also reported the poor fetishist was mentally ill. Obviously rehabilitation is a foreign concept in Singapore.

So what would be a fairer way to deal with people who are mad or severely mentally challenged and commit crimes which are petty but nonetheless may be deeply disturbing to the victims? I am completely opposed to placing the insane in standard prisons alongside hardcore criminals: psychologically, and perhaps physically, it IS a death sentence. Yet we do it all the time, essentially locking away problems that seem too complex and expensive for the system to deal with. Much more humane, of course, would be providing opportunities for them to be helped and rehabilitated. Many mentally ill people would have a chance at a productive life IF they had proper treatment: they are not as doomed as popular sentiment might lead you to believe. I am not opposed to separating them from society -- but being forced to live among brutal thugs can only make them sicker than they've ever been before.

June 16, 2008 in Sex Laws and Crimes | Permalink

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