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Keep rapists in prison to make our society safe

The blood of Annestacia Wiese and other murdered children is on the hands of the departments of Justice and Correctional Services.

The blood of Annestacia Wiese and other murdered children is on the hands of the departments of Justice and Correctional Services.

Richard Engelbrecht was out on bail for rape when he was arrested for Annestacia's murder. He was also under correctional supervision for stabbing American journalism student, Laura Wiens. He should never have been free to murder Annestacia.

In about two years, 669 children were raped by someone who had previously raped - 150 had raped more than once.

Prison officials make little effort to ensure that sexual offenders actually attend rehabilitation programmes or even measure the effectiveness of these programmes. It is a farce that the department is called "correctional" services.

Social workers are not expected to consider the risk to society's safety when drawing up an offender's parole report.

The departments need to say what they are going to do to ensure that:

l No one is released from prison unless it can be shown they are not a threat and have undergone appropriate rehabilitation,

l No one is released on bail or sentenced to correctional supervision if they have been guilty of a similar offence in the past, and

l Parolees are properly supervised.

Mike Waters, DA spokesman on child abuse

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