Posted 5/04/2005 05:06:00 PM by Douglas

Only in Texas would this headline be as subdued as this:

Castrated pedophile begins work release

A convicted child molester who told officials — and the public — that he would strike again if he wasn't castrated was released from prison with little fanfare Tuesday and escorted to San Antonio, where he'll remain under supervision in a work-release program.

Larry Don McQuay, 41, was granted his request to be castrated last year. He will be housed in Bexar County Jail's work-release facility because no halfway house in the county could accept him, jail administrator Amadeo Ortiz said.

McQuay, whose pleas for castration prompted the Legislature to allow the procedure in Texas, walked out of a side door of the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at 7:15 a.m.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said that to protect McQuay's safety, prison officials arranged for a two-vehicle caravan to transport the high-profile offender to Bexar County, where he had driven a school bus and worked at SeaWorld.

Look out, Bexar County. He's coming back. Apparently, I'm not the only one that has doubts about the usefulness of this procedure.

"Regardless of the procedure having been done or not, Larry Don McQuay should be considered the same dangerous pedophile he was before," she said. "Is this a cure? I don't know. Will it somehow reduce fantasies McQuay is experiencing? ... Maybe. Maybe not.

"Unless he's behind bars, I don't think children are safe. Bottom line," she said.

Allison Taylor, executive director of the state's Council on Sex Offender Treatment, said the focus on McQuay's treatment should be on his mental state, not on castration.

"The deviant impulses and fantasies start in the mind; the end product is arousal," she said. "All castration does is decrease the testosterone level. It doesn't mean their risk level has changed one bit."

That's kinda what I was thinking. The urge to diddle young children doesn't start in his balls, and the little head may hit the home run, but the big head is the one that gets him to step up to the plate. All castration is going to do is make him bat left handed. Sure it's more difficult, but he's still occasionally going to get on base.

I wasn't trying for the most disgusting baseball metaphor, but I think I've found it.