America's state legislatures are beside themselves about sex -- offenders that is.
In at least five states, legislatures are acting on the Freudian urge to punish those with freakier sexual proclivities than theirs, and are taking to new lengths efforts to make life difficult for sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences and may be rehabilitated.
Often these bills merely add years to statutory sentences or augment the list of everyday activities prohibited to convicted sex offenders, and rarely do they introduce substantive policy innovations. It's an easy way for a mediocre legislature to win points by passing these bills, because, as I noted a few days ago, it takes considerable courage for a legislature to vote against such a law, no matter how blatantly unconstitutional or ineffective it promises to be. (Imagine the attack line: "Representative Jones voted for lighter prison sentences for people who want to molest your children"). Building coalitions to pass real, substantive, controversial policy is a lot more difficult.
State legislatures across the country are in session now, and many could not resist the low hanging fruit.
In the Arkansas state house, Republican Donna Hutchinson has filed a bill that would expand the number of convicted sex offenders barred from entering school grounds. Never mind if their children attend school there. Or that a lobbyist for the state's criminal defence attorneys said that after years of practice he still cannot understand how the state determines the risk level of the offenders. Or that, as Hutchinson acknowledged in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Jesus can change lives".
Typical of the Solons that inhabit that chamber, Republican Representative Davy Carter dismissed the relevance of such nuances: "If we sweep up a small minority of people who shouldn't be included ... I don't think that's an issue at all." (Didn't Benjamin Franklin write: "That it is better a hundred guilty persons should escape, than that one innocent person should suffer"?)
Meanwhile, the Georgia state senate yesterday unanimously approved a bill forbidding registered sex offenders from running for or serving on school boards.
According to the Associated Press, via the Athens Banner-Herald:
Sen. John Douglas, R-Social Circle, said he was spurred by a 2008 incident in his Newton County district where a convicted pedophile in his district who unsuccessfully sought a seat on the local school board. He said the legislation would stop sex offenders from using the seat to gain access to children. [My emphasis]
It sounds to me like Georgians already have a remedy for this situation: Don't vote for the sex offender. That avoids the troubling (and possibly unconstitutional) precedent of the state legislature restricting who can run for local office. And what is the honorable Senator Douglas worried about? That a coalition of perverts will win a majority of the Newton County school board seats and pass a measure restricting school children's right to wear pants?
In Iowa, the state legislature is considering a bill that would extend to up to 10 years the punishment for people who attempt to entice minors over the internet to commit sexual acts. The penalty is currently two years. According to the Quad-City Times newspaper:
Opponents of the bill argue that it could open the door for felony charges to be brought against suspects who have not yet taken any actions beyond using a computer.
A committee of the Minnesota House has approved legislation that would ban sexual predators from social networking Web sites. According to Minnesota Public radio, the ban would extend to sites like Facebook or MySpace, and participation in Web-based chat rooms would also be banned. Never mind that social networking sites (do job-search sites like Monster.com count?) are becoming more and more integral to 21st century communication.
The committee also approved a bill to prevent sexual predators using any electronic device, including cell phones, to solicit children.
A few days ago I wrote here about a lawmaker in Alabama who proposed the state chop off the testicles of convicted sex offenders before releasing them from prison.
