Invisible to the naked eye.

[The Reclaimer]

You're talking about it as if they've spent a week in there, Reclaimer. A prison sentence of 40 or 50 years will change a person, because although they're segrigated from the outside world, they'll go through a series of reformative activities such as group lessons, hardship and socialisation with other inmates.

Too bad a lot of them aren't in prison for 40 to 50 years. In fact most of the information I've come across says they are out in only a few years, at least on parole.
Also, reformative activites don't always stick do they? Here's some fun facts:

Within three years of their release, 5.3% of national sex offenders were rearrested for another sex crime. When including all other crimes, the percentage of sex offenders that were rearrested is estimated at 43%.

Of those released sex offenders who were accused of another sex crime, 40% were arrested for the new offense with a year after their release.

Source: http://childprotection.lifetips.com/cat/...tatistics/

Will it happen with everyone? No. But if you've abused people then chances are good enough you'll do it again. (And the average amount of kids a sexual offender molests is fairly high though I don't have the stat in front of me)

I accept that you feel strongly about the subject, but i don't share your view of them never understanding what they children feel like because their relationships with guards and other cell mates will teach them. Another cell mate could talk to him or her about their children and how much he loves and misses them.

They will still never understand what the children feel like. Having an inmate feel bad about missing their kids is not even relatably close to the same as what a kid experiences being raped. Will the offender feel bad? Possibly. Does that mean they understand what the kid experienced? No. I'd feel better with someone that said "I screwed up, I know I did bad, and I know I'll never be able to understand what I did to that person." rather than someone that says "Oh, I understand what you went through."

Killing them is hardly a suitable nor a fair punishment, because a. it will NOT set an example rather more of an uproar and b. they haven't killed anyone or physically wounded them.

I think it would set a good example, as for an uproar...what doesn't cause an uproar? Let them out, people are mad. Kill them, people are mad. But at least when they are killed they can't hurt anyone else.
Rape is physcially wounding someone. You don't think a young man being anally violated by another man wouldn't hurt? Or a young girl by a man? What if a disease is transmitted?

Another fun fact from that same source:
* More than 40% of the child victims of convicted offenders suffered forcible, rape, injury or death as a result of the crime.

Emotional damage was caused and in many cases thats not repairable, but if you still want to kill them for hurting someones feelings, then surely divorce, adultery and verbal abuse should be punishable by death too, no?

No, because that's stupid. Divorce and adultery are not CRIMES. Verbal abuse is a terrible thing, however someone has the choice to take that abuse or not, unless its a child in which I think that child should be protected, the parent killed? No, but then again verbal abuse can more often probably be repaired more than rape.

You're not killing them for hurting someone's feelings. I support the death penalty in cases of sexual abuse of a child because not only did they think it was okay to force them self on an individual (on more than one occasion), but they did it to someone who was most likely unable to defend themselves, a child.

And here is why I think the death penalty would be the biggest help.

Over 75% of serial rapists report they were sexually abused as youngsters. (ttp://www.darkness2light.org/KnowAbout/statistics_2.asp)

So in a lot of cases the abused can become the biggest abusers. I think the death penalty would break that cycle a hell of a lot better than a few years in prison.