Austrian Man Accused of Unspeakable Crimes

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

I cannot believe that this monster is only facing a maximum of 15 years in prison. I am not at all familiar with the Austrian justice system, but I would think he's probably facing charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, rape, battery, etc. My guess is the most serious charge is rape and the Austrians have screwy system where the sentences for each count run concurrent to one another, meaning that the convict only serves time for the most egregious offense (which, in this case, is rape). In any case, it stinks.

I'm not particularly fond of justice systems that emphasize rehabilitation. It would be nice if we could send criminals to some school and transform them into law-abiding citizens. But, the simple fact is rehabilitation rarely works. For centuries the U.S. justice system tried to rehab criminals, employing methods ranging from isolating, silencing and beating convicts to having criminals talk things through with counselors. Nothing has worked and, quite frankly, I doubt that any system is capable of taking the worst of the worst and turning them into decent people. Does anyone realistically think that a man who repeatedly rapes a child can be reformed?