The Flat-Screen TV Kerfluffle

The recent kerfluffle about the flat screen tv's put into the new Moose Lake sex offender unit is pretty ridiculous. Long ago television moved from luxury item status to a necessity in the American home. Those responsible for designing the new facility and those charged with administering the treatment program both agreed that televisions were a necessity in the facility. I an imagine they tried to the televisions that would work the best for their population and for the layout of the facility. I do not believe they would have tried very hard to find traditional analog sets to put in the corner. Even if they had tried to get such a set, where would they look? There are no other kinds of televisions in the stores or available for purchase. What should they have done? Maybe they should have skipped having tv's at all. Of course, that would have been outside the treatment program and then those responsible would have been lambasted for not having television sets for the inmates.

Suddenly, because Ms. Kelliher-Anderson does not have a brand new set in her home, why should the inmates have them? Because the inmates in this controversial lock up program have some creature comfort, the rest of should be outraged. Ridiculous. The idea behind the sex offender program is that some of our citizens have what has been determined as a mental illness or defect that causes them to behave in what most civilized people call perverse ways with other more vulnerable people. Putting them in the treatment program is the alternative to the prisons and is intended to rehabilitate them. While in the program they are treated as human beings - not garbage. Providing them with basic amenities should not offend one's sensibilities.

What we should be doing is looking into the debate over whether confining citizens for indeterminate sentences is actually allowable under the US Constitution. We should be looking for ways to reduce our prison populations - both regular and sex offender facilities. We should be looking into providing basic services for the State's veterans instead of providing television hand-me-downs. We should be putting our money into education so that our citizens have opportunities other than crime and into health care so that our citizens can get adequate care for what ails them, both mental and physical.

The flat screen tv kerfluffle is unfortunately too indicative of what is wrong in Minnesota and in the US.