K-Day On the Way

It seems that Karla Homolka has a knack for spawning catch-phrases.  When she made the deal with the Crown to serve 12 years for her role in the murders of Kristen French, Leslie Mahaffy and Tammy Homolka, it was described later as “the deal with the Devil”. 

Now, people are describing July 4, 2005 as “K-Day”.  That is the day that Karla Homolka is released from prison. She will have served every single day of her 12 year sentence.

Now that she is actually getting out, people are getting a little concerned.  The Ontario government is seeking some kind of order that would limit her freedom to some extent.

Nice try.  Good luck. Doomed to fail.

As she has served the entire sentence behind bars, there is no period of parole.  There is no halfway house, no gradual integration into society, just open the gates, take the handcuffs off, and let her go.

The section of the Criminal Code that the Crown relies on is usually used when someone has made a threat of some sort and the threatened person goes to court to ask for a “peace bond” or “restraining order”.  The concept of using this section to restrain the activities of a released prisoner is novel, if not a little far-fetched.

My recollection of the Homolka affair is that it was recognised that she was an intelligent individual.  She has obtained a university degree while in prison.  I think I recall that she has also learned to speak French. 

Do we believe that she is so stupid that she will go out and start kidnapping/molesting/murdering people again?  Or, is she intelligent enough to get on with life and start living as a responsible citizen?  I suppose there is a third option:  that she is psychologically ill and will commit more crimes because she is unable to resist the temptation to do so.

While we may not like the idea of waiting to see if she commits another crime, what choice do we have?  If someone has served their sentence, we can’t keep them in prison because a psychiatrist thinks they have not been totally rehabilitated and they might re-offend.  Some people might want to see the law changed to allow that.  If, so, we better build a lot more superjails, because we are going to keep a lot of people in jail for a long time.

Finally, what do we want to happen to her?  You might say that you want her to spend the rest of her life in jail.  Given that she will have to do some serious harm to someone else to have that happen, do you really want THAT to occur?  Are you willing to sacrifice your daughter/niece/granddaughter/friend for that purpose?  (I didn’t think so.)

She’ll have a hard enough time integrating into society without the reality that the press and citizens with the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mentality will make it difficult for her.

Wouldn’t it be great if she got a job, lived a normal life and never committed another crime?  How could we fault her if she did that? 

Shouldn’t she get the chance?