Reverend Huang Ming-chen (黃明鎮) yesterday urged authorities to gain a better understanding of what former inmates, especially rapists, need during rehabilitation, instead of simply continuing to restrict their freedom by using radio frequency identification tags.
Huang made his remarks when asked by reporters about convicted rapist Yang Tsung-yen (楊宗諺), who destroyed his electronic tag and was on the run in Hualien on Thursday.
Huang has long been involved in trying to rehabilitate criminals. In the past he has tried to help offenders such as Chen Chin-hsing (陳進興), who kidnapped and raped entertainer Pai Bing-bing’s (白冰冰) daughter Pai Hsiao-yen (白曉燕) in 1997; the “Huakang Wolf” Yang Wen-hsiung (楊文雄), who committed a series of rapes in Taipei’s Shilin and Beitou districts in 1995, and Hung Hsiao-hui (洪曉慧), who murdered her love rival before mutilating her body on the campus of National Tsing Hua University in 1998.
Hualien police said Yang Tsung-yen was paroled last August and was required to wear an electronic device so the authorities could track his whereabouts. He was scheduled to have the device taken off on July 8.
On Thursday officers discovered that Yang Tsung-yen had destroyed the device and left it at home before fleeing. His parole was immediately canceled.
Police were still looking for him as of press time.
Huang said that care and love from friends, family, society and authorities were more useful than electronic devices. The objective for him and other prison guardians was to help former inmates face up to their faults and try to change.
“When you ask the person to wear the electronic device, it reflects that you still do not believe in this person, and that is hard for the parolee to take,” Huang said.
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