The Case for Castration, Part 1
McQuay, Larry Don
The Case for Castration, Parti A convicted child molester argues for the only treatment which he believes will prevent him from re-offending BY LARRY DON MCQUAY Childrens' nightmares are haunted...
...I'm one of the real ones...
...tured, ravaged, and often found dead and mutilated, or never found at all...
...That's because prison is not a deterrent for most sex offenders, and it definitely will not be a deterrent for me...
...In the United States, thousands of kids meet monsters like me each year...
...Mandatory castration of sex offenders, whether for their first, second, or third conviction of a sex offense, is currently a violation of the United States Constitution because it is considered "cruel and unusual punishment...
...It should scare you, too...
...In doing so, she turns a deaf ear to the children who are my future victims...
...Lately, many of my dreams and fantasies have become more violent...
...Listen carefully to that next report...
...Now, some good and decent citizens claim that castration itself is barbaric...
...Voluntary castration is not unconstitutional, but no state allows it...
...We could wear the caring face of a baby-sitter, or a teacher, or a priest...
...That scares me...
...Where once we would "playfully" undress a victim, we now roughly strip them...
...In fact, in many cases, prison intensifies sex offenders' conditions by making us more savage...
...The governor of Texas, as well as many other state governors, is well aware of the statistics and other information regarding castration, but she turns a deaf ear to my pleas...
...Who is punished more...
...We wear the innocent-looking masks of a father, step-father, uncle, cousin...
...Thus she's pushing for more of a solution that does not work, a solution that only means I will take up bed space in one of the many new prisons she is spending millions of dollars on so that later I can commit the same crime...
...Our victims, meanwhile, retain the searing, ghastly memories of abuse, memories that can last a lifetime...
...I do not write as a scared or worried parent...
...We substitute young-looking partners for children and let our imagination do the rest...
...I have—thankfully—no children at all...
...You see, sex offenders who've been to prison not only emerge with an appetite for violence but also learn a lesson about how to stay out of jail: make sure that the next victim can't ever report them...
...When they have nightmares, let them be about the ghouls they see in horror movies or on the Saturday morning cartoons...
...Without the right treatment, I believe that eventually I will rape, then murder, my victims to keep them from reporting me...
...The fact is, prison is nothing more than an oversized, overpriced homeless shelter...
...What was fondling and masturbation becomes dehumanizing sodomy...
...But we can get child pornography, we can fantasize about the children we watch on television, and we have the memories of our past crimes...
...To reduce these crimes against your children, Texas Governor Ann Richards, for example, advocates more prisons and "harsher" sentences for sex offenders, especially repeat child molesters...
...And most child rapists get away with raping many children, some over and over before being caught...
...I am scared for your children...
...I do not want to return to prison...
...To sex offenders, loss of freedom simply means there are no children available to rape...
...The system returns a child molester to prison after he is captured by the police, after the child-victim has suffered the torture and savagery of being abused, after the child-victim has endured a grueling and humiliating interrogation by strangers...
...But no punishment is crueler or more unusual than the pain I have caused my victims...
...Moreover, sex is plentiful in prison...
...He is serving an eight year sentence for child molestation...
...Returning us to prison makes us stop—but getting us back in jail means that another child must first fall prey...
...Our justice system, by releasing criminals like me into communities without effective treatment, now dooms countless children to abuse...
...Scarcely a week goes by without another disturbing news report about another poor soul victimized by a child rapist...
...Criminals who want to be rehabilitated are rare, so it is inconceivable to me that those who volunteer to be castrated are denied this treatment...
...My next parole date is June 1995...
...We prowl your communities, stalking, pouncing when possible, forcing children to endure degrading, violent acts...
...What was once inappropriate touching and "caressing" escalates to a full-scale invasion...
...The Case for Castration, Parti A convicted child molester argues for the only treatment which he believes will prevent him from re-offending BY LARRY DON MCQUAY Childrens' nightmares are haunted by demons, some imagined, others real...
...You'll find me in a Texas prison serving an eight year sentence for molesting a single boy...
...I haunt the dreams of scores of children...
...All to molest unsuspecting boys and girls...
...But the threat of being incarcerated for the rest of my life—and the threat of spending, as I believe I will, an eternity in hell—will not stop me from re-offending when I am released...
...There is a civilized alternative to this tragic cycle: castrate repeat sex offenders...
...But a grotesquely high percentage of all untreated sex offenders rape again...
...I speak from experience...
...That's all the court convicted me of, but I have abused close to 200 children...
...Inmates are well fed and clothed and have warm beds to sleep in, all for free...
...What used to be a cultivated "relationship" that took time and preparation becomes an unplanned kidnapping and rape where children are beaten, torLarry Don McQuay is prisoner #547825 in the Coffield Unit Penitentiary in Tennessee Colony, Texas...
...They shouldn't have to have nightmares about me...
...I myself have worn various masks: brother, cousin, step-father, uncle, school-bus driver, family friend...
...According to Texas statutes, as well as those of most other states, child molesters currently in prison can be paroled...
...Odds are that you'll hear that this same sex offender had a past conviction for molesting at least one other child...
...My sleep is plagued with fantasies of raping kidnapped children in a way that renders them unable to identify me...
...refusing to castrate me is barbaric to the children I will molest...
...What is barbaric is what I have done to so many children...
...I would like to be a law abiding citizen...
...Always after, and always too late to save the child...
Vol. 26 • January 1994 • No. 5
