Given that there was a Presidential election that wrapped up back in November (mid December if you’re looking at the electoral college vote), crime prevention, punishment and prison reform should have been a hot button issue in 2016. It came up from time to time during the campaigns, but Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spent time talking about Mexicans, Muslims, Wikileaks, the crumbling economy, and foreign policy when they weren’t busy taking potshots at each other’s character (or lack thereof).
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Of course, just because these two windbags didn’t spend much time on it, that doesn’t mean that the issues of criminal justice (and of course criminal justice reform) will go away (or have gone away) for the United States. The incarceration rate is still through the metaphorical roof and many prisoners are serving sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. A polarizing issue, one of the most important arguments is whether prisons should punish or rehabilitate, and of course, whether the perpetrators of certain, particularly heinous crimes can be rehabilitated.
All too often, whether they are just deemed to have served their time, or an official determines they have changed, a terrible person gets released from prison. It happens in all countries and is not just an American problem. It can be a terrifying thought, but sexual predators, killers, other violent offenders and of course white collar criminals get released all the time. Many do learn their lesson but others don’t. Then of course, there are those who should never be released at all for their crimes are beyond despicable. Here are thirteen of those repulsive beings who have committed crimes that should have seen them rot behind bars but got released and walk free in society today.
13. Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden
In a school shooting, more often than not, the perpetrators end up dead. The most common finales are either getting shot by police or that the shooters turn the guns on themselves. If they are captured, life imprisonment is the norm, with a few death penalties having been dolled out over the years.
These two young men carried out a school shooting in Joneboro, Arkansas back in 1998, leaving five people dead and ten more injured. On the day of the massacre, they loaded up a minivan with weapons (two rifles and several pistols along with over a thousands rounds), survival gear and food and drove to the school. Golden pulled the fire alarm, luring the students and teachers outside and Johnson took the weapons to a vantage point. They killed four students and a teacher.
They were eleven and thirteen when they did this, and having been tried as juveniles, they were released at ages eighteen and twenty one. Golden hasn’t been in any serious trouble with the law since his release, but Johnson has been back in prison for drug offenses and theft, most recently being released from prison in 2015 after a theft conviction.
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