FREED VIOLENT OFFENDERS POSE PROBLEM FOR SOCIETY.

Byline: Mike Feinsilber Associated Press 

His hands stained with the blood of the woman he just killed, Lawrence Singleton is confronting America with a predicament: what to do about criminals who pay the price society imposes but still remain a danger.

The Supreme Court is asking the question, too. It was voiced in everyday terms by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist two months ago:

``What is the state supposed to do? Just wait until he goes out and does it again?''

In that case, ``he'' was Leroy Hendricks, an admitted pedophile, convicted five times of child molesting, his 10-year term now served. He has said there is no guarantee he won't commit new crimes against children.

The state of Kansas wants to keep Hendricks confined on the grounds that he has a mental abnormality, although he has been found not to be mentally ill. The high court will rule soon.

Rehnquist's question is raised anew by the case of Singleton, accused of a gory killing in Florida and personifying the problem of what to do with repeat violent offenders who have served their time.

Singleton served eight years in California for raping a teen-age hitchhiker and chopping off her arms. Californians raised a ruckus to keep him out of their neighborhoods. He finally returned home to Florida in 1989.

Neighbors in Tampa learned of his grisly past just weeks ago. When arrested Wednesday for stabbing a prostitute to death, he said: ``They framed me the first time, but this time I did it.''

Such incidents are all too common. In Georgia, a rapist sentenced to five life terms but released in 1983 after 14 years raped again in 1992. In Rochester, N.Y., Arthur Shawcross, who had killed two children 18 years earlier, was arrested in 1990 and convicted of strangling 11 women.

According to Princeton University Professor John DeIulio, almost half of the country's 671,000 parolees and probationers are caught committing serious new offenses within three years.

Lawyer David Kuzmeski has considered Rehnquist's question for years. Kuzmeski has seen the criminal justice system from many sides: as a police officer, a prison guard, director of Massachusetts' police academy, now a criminal defense counsel and professor of criminal justice.

``No simplistic answer,'' he says. If society wants to protect itself from the violent sexual criminals, the best it can do is lock them up until they are over 30 years of age. As people age, they tend to control their rage. Singleton proved an exception; he's 69.

``Let them get old,'' Kuzmeski said. ``Essentially that's the answer. I am not aware of any treatment that has been particularly successful.''

Counseling can work, but chiefly with children, before their criminal lives start, Kuzmeski said. He notes a study that found that schoolyard bullies are more likely than other children to become violent criminals.

In search of a sure answer, 22 states and the federal government enacted ``three strikes, you're out'' laws. But a study by the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy, made up of criminal justice officials who want more emphasis on crime prevention, questions the effectiveness.

It found no deterrent effect and said such laws may induce violence - causing a suspect to kill a police officer, for instance, to avoid incarceration on a third crime that could mean a life sentence.

Another answer was ``Megan's law,'' named after a 7-year-old New Jersey girl killed by a twice-convicted child molester. Such laws require sex offenders to identify themselves to law officers when they move into a neighborhood. In New Jersey, 3,500 have been registered.

The answer, says psychologist James Clark who runs the Mental Health Clinic for Socio-Legal Services in Monroe County, N.Y., is for society to spend more money than it's been willing.

Ask citizens whether they'd rather see the potholes on their streets fixed or give mental treatment to prisoners, and they'll opt for fixing potholes, he said.

He's particularly harsh on plea-bargaining, ``a byproduct of the effort to contain costs.'' It results in light sentencing, he said. Short terms for first offenders, he insists, only invite repeat criminality.

``Hammer them hard up front,'' he advised. ``We let people get away with too much misbehavior before we clonk them.''