Much Tougher Laws on Sex Offenders Needed Until a Better Solution is Developed

Sex crimes should have a mandatory life sentence.

There is good reason for this: sex offenders who do not serve their full sentence are at least four times more likely to commit another sex crime after they are released. Unfortunately, due to early release programs, there are TOO MANY who are not serving their full sentences and it is increasing the danger to communities after they are freed from jail.

Low-risk crimes (like indecent exposure) would have to be judged on whether or not there were other crimes committed at the same time AND if a "low-risk" crime like indecent exposure would be included on the mandatory sex crimes list. Other lesser crimes would also have to be decided on by the legal system if they were to be included on the list of sex crimes that would require a mandatory life sentence.

A life sentence would eliminate the need for sex registries that the states would have to maintain and track. This is something that many states have been TOO lax on already. Tens of thousands are already unaccounted for under the current system. No one knows where these people even are or if they are keeping out of trouble.

It would also eliminate the need to have laws on the books that ban convicted sex offenders from living near schools and day-care centers. The future of those laws (which fourteen states and many municipalities across this country have enacted) is uncertain due to untested waters of constitutionality of those laws. A group of convicted sex offenders are challenging such a law in Binghamton, New York, that sets a quarter-mile "exclusion zone" for them around schools. Until these laws stand up in court, they (the laws) should not be relied on as they could be overturned at any time.

This would also eliminate issues related to people who are convicted of sex crimes against family members who are released and wish to return to their families. Family members would then have a choice of visiting their relative in jail IF they wished.

Plea bargains would be out the window, and so would early releases due to overcrowding. There would be no more need for probation officers to keep track of offenders anymore, nor waste taxpayer money on GPS tracking of offenders. Short sentences would be eliminated.

Until someone comes up with a better way to deal with sex offenders, this is the best solution.

It seems kind of ridiculous that illegal drugs can earn someone a life sentence depending on how much dope a person has in their possession, but raping a child will only earn someone a fourteen-year sentence and then they are released have more opportunities to rape other children in other states.

Our laws need to be fixed.