Thoughts on Cashman's sentence
Toolbox
Published: January 18, 2006
Reaction to Judge Cashman's recent sentencing of a sex offender has been fast and furious. How can this judge have been so stupid? It's an easy call isn't it? A guy commits a terrible crime against a young girl, scarring her psychologically for life. What do you do? It's a "no-brainer": you throw the so-and-so in prison and lose the key. What's wrong with this idiot Cashman that he lets the guy walk with 60 days?
Maybe Cashman is nuts — or maybe not. Maybe that half-lifetime on the bench has taught him something that the rest of us missed getting our jurisprudence from Judge Judy on television. Maybe the problem is that the "no-brainer" is just that – no brains, just gut. Perhaps the judge has come to realize that punishment does not produce correction, it produces more crime.
In the right place, of course, punishment works. Crimes committed by rational people, such as the fraud perpetrated by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, may well be deterred by the fear of punishment, but crimes committed by a deranged or unbalanced mind, such as the crime in question here, most likely are not.
I can well understand the family of this young girl demanding revenge, but why do those remote from the personal anguish of the victim and her family, feel the need to punish? How will it help this young girl? Consequences there must be (and consequences Cashman has demanded), but I, for one, can't see the usefulness of punishment for punishment's sake.
I must admit that, were it my daughter who had been abused, I would want to personally take revenge on the abuser, harsh physical revenge. But society cannot condone that sort of response. As a society, we need to control our gut reactions and think carefully and rationally about what action will best protect us and our loved ones from such terrible crimes. In cases such as this one, rehabilitation of the criminal, not punishment, may better serve our interests. I would hope that this current unpleasantness would lead to more discussion about the importance of rehabilitation as opposed to punishment throughout our penal system.
Vincent Rossano
Montpelier
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