One thing that has baffled me for years is the sentencing of criminals.
I am trying to figure out what formulas do the courts use in determining what provides adequate justice for the victims, and adequate punishment to mete out to the convicted criminals.
In a perfect example of the system not working, a man, James Tubbs, began a gender transition from male to female after being taken into custody on charges of child molestation as Hannah Tubbs. Tubbs has been sentenced to 2-years in a juvenile detention facility.
Hannah Tubbs, 26 years of age, is a biological male who was convicted for sexually assaulting a child while he was 17 years old. Tubbs was not tried or convicted while a juvenile but has been sentenced to serve two years in a juvenile detention facility.
Tubbs will not be required to register as a sex offender because the offense was committed while Tubbs was underage.
In 2014, Tubbs assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the bathroom of a Denny’s restaurant in Palmdale California, north of the greater Los Angeles area. Tubbs was not charged with the crime, however, until 2021. Tubbs admitted to committing the sexual assault, according to the LA Times.
In line with other progressive prosecutors, who put criminals interests in front of their victims during sentencing, the prosecutor has never filed to have Tubbs tried as an adult, even though in most cases and in most jurisdictions, this would be de rigueur for such a serious crime with the defendant so close to the age of majority. Additionally, Tubbs, at age 26, is not a minor.
Judge Mario Barrera claims that he wished he could have done more to keep Tubbs off of the streets, but that he was “extremely limited” in his options, due to the decision by District Attorney George Gascon not to try Tubbs as an adult.
“I want to be clear,” Superior Court Judge Mario Barrera said at a hearing Thursday in a Lancaster courtroom. “The filing of a transfer motion is entirely within the discretion of the district attorney.”
Gascon has previously “argued that the brains of juveniles aren’t fully developed and that the proper setting to rehabilitate people who commit crimes while underage is a juvenile treatment facility,” writes the LA Times.
The LA County Probation Department, upon hearing of the sentencing of a 24-year-old biological male who has been convicted of molesting a child to two years in a juvenile detention facility, asked the judge to alter that sentence so that the child molester serves time in an adult facility such as the county jail.
But Barrera denied the request, saying that “the state Legislature had limited a judge’s authority to transfer someone who committed a crime as a juvenile to adult custody, even if the offender was no longer underage at the time of his or her detention,”
Barrera ordered Tubbs to be housed in either the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar or the Dorothy Kirby Center in Commerce. The prosecutor was also opposed to the location of the sentence, saying “You have a violent child sexual predator who’s been sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility.”
“As a prosecutor,” he said, “I’m not here to protect child molesters.”Yes, I know, the system is broken, maybe even beyond repair in today’s declining culture.
Is a 2-year stint with other small girls in juvenile justice center a just sentence for Tubbs and adequate justice for the 10 yr. old victim?
I say absolutely Not!
