Christopher Hubbart
Over the holiday weekend, our friend and correspondent Monica Larson, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, called my attention to the upcoming release from prison of one Christopher Hubbart. Hubbart, dubbed the “Pillowcase Rapist” because of his method of muffling his victims’ screams, is responsible for at least 38 sexual assaults.
As Monica wrote, “He should not even be considered and is not reformed. I feel that those who are a danger to society, not rehabilitated and still pose a threat should not even be on the table. There are individuals who have not committed violent offenses that were given life terms. The entire system needs an overhaul.”
We could not agree more.
The basic facts are these: The 62-year-old Hubbart was in prison for a series of sexual assaults dating back to 1971. In 1979, state doctors determined that he was no longer a threat to the public and he was released in the San Francisco Bay area, whereupon he went right back to rape and sexual assault. He was declared a “sexually violent predator” and committed to a state prison hospital for treatment, whatever the term means in this case.
Now guess what? After hearing from state mental health professionals, a Santa Clara County judge has ruled that Hubbart is once again eligible for release, this time in the Los Angeles area.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey issued the following statement: “We aggressively pursued and exhausted all legal avenues to stop the release of sexually violent predator Christopher Hubbart to Los Angeles County. We now are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that all terms and conditions of Hubbart’s release from custody are strictly enforced. We will do everything within our power to keep all members of our community safe from harm.”
This is laudable, but as was shown in the Bay area, there is only so much law enforcement can do. And don’t think for a minute that because this guy is 62 years old, he is “over” his criminal sexual propensities. It doesn’t happen that way. And if he is being let out as part of the court-mandated alleviation of California prison overcrowding, it is not Hubbart who is insane but those who selected him, including any “mental health professionals.”
We pose the same question we have posed many times in the past and will continue to do so as long as this kind of nonsense persists: If you take 100 men with Christopher Hubbart’s record and release them back into society, what is your acceptable failure rate? How many women are you willing to sacrifice for this experiment in “rehabilitation”?
We say zero. And we’re sure Monica Larson and other such citizens with the public’s welfare in mind would agree.
How many times have we heard about violent sexual predators being released from prison only to rape/murder again? Too many. These ‘mental health professionals’ and parole board members should be required to take National Academy classes or confer with the real experts on CRIMINAL behaviour before making decisions with some innocent victims life.
You are absolutely right about this rehabilitation ‘experiment’. Psychopathic killers, rapists and pedophiles cannot be rehabilitated and should never be released after demonstrating their danger to the public. Reform the system so that there is ample room for those deserving of incarceration by releasing those that are not violent. There must be priorities and keeping these types of dangerous offenders behind bars is a priority. Shameful.
L.A. is historically too busy conducting witch hunts on young rich female celebrities to put or keep a violent offender in jail. May I remind you this is the same town who stalked and harassed Paris Hilton for years (who was her victim?) and yet couldn’t find room for Mel Gibson after the smorgasbord of evidence against him for domestic violence and racist outbursts on a police officer. L.A. isn’t about locking up violent offenders; it’s about the paparrazi and studio clout and a special ire toward young rich women.