View source for Why current child porn laws imprison the wrong people

My friend was sentenced to five years in a federal prison for obtaining five pornographic images and one video that featured a minor. (This number is minuscule compared to the hundreds of thousands of images and videos that are collected by serious offenders.) [...] He was intentionally downloading porn, but he was not seeking out child porn. Once he knew the images and video file existed, he deleted them. [...]<br>
<br>
It has been nine months since my friend turned in his jeans for a pair of regulation khakis. Since he walked into prison, he has missed Thanksgiving and Christmas around his parents' dinner table. He has also missed standing next to his brother as the best man at his wedding. That's not to mention all of the much more trivial things he has missed like sleeping in a room with a closed door, going to the grocery store, and being able to talk to his friends and family for longer than 15 minutes at a time.<br>
<br>
All of this is time - and taxpayer money - that could be much better spent elsewhere. Instead of years of prison time, we could punish these minor, hands-off, first-time offenses with probation and counseling, for example.<br>
<br>
<i>source: Article 'Why Current Child Porn Laws Imprison the Wrong People' by Macie Melendez; www.huffingtonpost.com/macie-melendez/child-porn-laws_b_3307322.html; The Huffington Post; 20 May 2013</i>

[[Category:Macie Melendez]]
[[Category:Child pornography]]
[[Category:Kinderporno]]
[[Category:USA]]
[[Category:Prison]]
[[Category:Gevangenis]]