Now a bill
is before the Alabama legislature--surgical castration for sex offenders.
EEEK! The Daily Beast has an insightful report, below.
While the
public hears much about sex offender registries, lengthy prison sentences,
residency restrictions and other very harsh punishments for sex offenders –
castration is rarely discussed in mainstream media. Some jaw-dropping
information comes from an essay by Charles Scott and Elena del Busto in a 2014
book edited by Richard Wright, Sex Offender Laws: Failed Policies, New
Directions.
“On Sep. 17,
1996, California became the first state to authorize the use of either chemical
or physical castration for certain sex offenders who were being released from
prison into the community…Although this legislation was considered extremely
controversial at the time, at least eight additional states have subsequently
passed laws that provide some form of castration for individuals who have been
convicted of a sex offense and are being considered for parole or
probation. Of the nine states authorizing castration, four (Georgia,
Montana, Oregon, and Wisconsin) permit the use of chemical castration only,
four (California, Florida, Iowa, and Louisiana) allow either chemical
castration or voluntary surgical castration, and one (Texas) provides voluntary
surgical castration as the only treatment option.”
Making an
offender pay for their own castration? “Four of the nine statutes require
the state to pay costs, four require the offender to bear some or all of the
financial burden, and one state (Wisconsin) does not specify who pays for
treatment.”
The Alabama
bill sure is cruel but it ain’t so unusual.
Daily Beast
| March 4, 2016
Alabama
Lawmaker Wants Sex Offenders To Pay For Their Own Castration
Only one
small problem—Alabama has wrongfully convicted at least nine men of the kind of
sex offenses that would qualify for this lawmaker’s bill.
By BRANDY
ZADROZNY
An Alabama
lawmaker known for parading around on a giant gun-shaped barbecue grill has
once again taken up his pet project: the surgical castration of sex offenders.
“This bill would provide that any person over the age of 21 years who is
convicted of certain sex offenses against a child 12 years of age or younger
would be surgically castrated before his or her release from the custody of the
Department of Corrections,” HB 365 reads. “This bill would require that the
cost of the procedure be paid by the adult criminal sex offender.”
CONTINUED:
Navarre
