In 2015, Billingsley was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 16 years suspended, after he pleaded guilty to a first-degree sex offense, court records show.
The Maryland sex offender registry shows he was released from prison in October. The registry classified him in “tier 3,” which includes the most serious charges and requires offenders to register for life.
Why shouldn’t he have been out? Did he escape custody or something? Was he locked up and then processed out by mistakes?
Sounds like he pleaded guilty to his prior charges and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term which he served and was then released at the end. Nothing wrong with that.
If anything this is evidence that the way in which we are incarcerating is not working. We had this dude in custody for sounds like about seven years or something? What the fuck were they doing in that prison?
No, but the American prison system just makes people more violent and insane. So, this person was only going to get worse. Instead of asking why that is our politicians just think we should leave people in prison forever. #Murica.
Prisons overall seem to do that… Ditto with correctional facilities.
Not everywhere. This is what a maximum-security prison in Denmark looks like that is designed to promote rehabilitation over punishment.
Too lenient of a plea deal with such a violent offender.
Compared to what?
The full 30. This woman would still be alive if he’d been kept behind bars. How he worked it out to serve only 7 is going into a lawsuit, which unfortunately won’t bring this woman back but might send a message to prosecutors and prevent future tragedies.
This woman, yes, but him serving another 23 years could have just been delaying it happening to another woman in 23 years’ time.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but the key point here is that prisons should be about rehabilitating prisoners so that they’re fit to return to society. Just locking someone away for 30 years and assuming they’ll come out reformed is flawed thinking; the prison system needs to actively work towards making sure prisoners are safe to release into society and equipped to deal with society. And if one of those things isn’t true, the prisoner should not be released.
In this instance, it’s clear 7 years wasn’t long enough either way. But I doubt 30 years would have been enough either with the current attitude of prisons being for punishment rather than rehabilitation.
Partially agree, but people often age out of crime. Statistically speaking, a 55 year old man is much less dangerous than a 32 year old.