diagnosis was not made public . But we presume that someone who kills a little boy because he thought it might be “ fun ,” as Woodmansee once confessed , or makes a trophy from his victim ’ s bones , suffers from a profound mental illness . Imposing order on the chaos of mental illness and the law , public protection and punishment , compassion for the sick and for the victims trailing in the wake continues to challenge the system . Woodmansee and other notorious criminals — Craig Price , who stabbed four neighbors to death , Jeffrey Mailhot , who confessed to killing three prostitutes , and serial rapist Todd McElroy — were all sentenced to finite terms of imprisonment , even though most don ’ t believe that the danger passes once prison is done . What should we do with , as Sherman says , “ someone like this ?”
“ There are some cases that for understandable reasons generate fear and anger in the public ,” says A . T . Wall , then-director of the state Department of Corrections . “ It ’ s precisely because the atmosphere becomes so volatile that we need to take a deep breath and pause to make sure we get it right . The stakes in public safety are too high to make policy without a deliberate , thoughtful , inclusive process .”
Lawyers like to say this in five words : Hard cases make bad law . The prospect of Woodmansee ’ s homecoming inspired then-Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to propose amendments to the prison good time statute that would have eliminated earned time off for many violent and sex offenders .
“ The situation brought to light a shortcoming in the system . This was a statute that needed to be updated ,” Kilmartin says . “ From the criminal perspective , if we get a sentence that is less than life without parole , we need to adopt the changes I proposed so that we have more truth in sentencing .”
After the Department of Corrections determined that the proposal would lengthen the sentences of 650 inmates and add $ 12.2 million to the budget , a Senate committee crafted a revision that would narrow the exceptions , affecting forty-three inmates at a $ 540,000 price tag . Not everyone finds comfort in this bargain .
“ We should be decreasing the number of people in prison and be increasing the
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