5-26-2009 Louisiana:Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration scrapped the centerpiece of his sex offender proposals on Tuesday after deciding the post-prison "civil commitment" program would be too expensive, a health department spokeswoman said.
Lauren Mendes, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Hospitals, said the proposal was dead for the current legislative session.
"It is a concept that DHH and the governor's office do support and will revisit when it's more financially viable for Louisiana," she said.
Rep. Fred Mills' bill would have provided treatment for certain sex offenders after their release from prison. Mills said the program would require about $12 million over five years — for surveillance equipment, medication and psychiatric evaluations — an expensive price tag in a year of budget cuts.
The idea was geared toward offenders deemed most likely to commit more crimes after being released.
Jindal is backing several bills this year to crack down on sex offenders, but Mills' was the most ambitious. The others are changes to existing law, such as lengthening certain prison terms for sex crimes.
"We know that Rep. Mills has worked hard on this bill and we support his work to find a more cost-effective way to pursue this legislation, especially as we face multiple-year budget challenges," said Kyle Plotkin, a spokesman for the governor's office.
Mills said initial estimates for the civil commitment program — $26,000 annually per sex offender — turned out to be low compared to a similar program in Texas. Most sex offenders in the program would also require the treatments for life, Mills said, compounding the future costs.
Mills told the House Appropriations Committee that he agreed with the governor's office and DHH that the bill is too costly.
"Between all of us, we got together and said, 'It's a good policy, but let's try it another year,'" said Mills, D-Parks. ..News Source.. by Daily Reveille news staff
Lawmakers question sex offender program in tight budget
4-15-2009 Louisiana:
BATON ROUGE -- Lawmakers are questioning why Gov. Bobby Jindal proposes spending $1 million to create a new sex offender treatment program while cutting other health care programs.
Democratic Rep. Patricia Smith says it's interesting the Jindal administration could find dollars for some new programs, while not for others that she says could help more people.
The sex offender program proposed -- which requires legislative approval -- would target violent offenders who are about to be released from prison, to force them into mental health treatment.
Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine says the program could stop some violent sex offenders from committing new crimes.
The issue came up Wednesday as the House Appropriations Committee continues to comb through Jindal's $26.7 billion budget proposal for next year. ..News Source.. by nola.com
Lawmakers like Jindal’s proposal on sex offenders
12-6-2008 Louisiana:
BATON ROUGE – Houma-Thibodaux lawmakers are lining up in support of a new law proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal that would essentially extend the time of incarceration for violent sex offenders.
Jindal has slowly made harsher penalties for sex offenders a focus of his administration and now says he wants the toughest laws in the nation.
“Here, you will be found out, shut down, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Jindal said recently during a press conference on sexual predators.
The governor plans on asking lawmakers to approve a new statute next year that would force violent sex offenders to be confinement in a treatment center after their prison terms end.
Offenders are only released from so-called civil commitment programs, which exist in at least 19 other states, when they are judged safe to return to society.
The concept has become popular among politicians nationwide. New York and Florida have used revamped prisons to medically treat their offenders.
While the constitutionality of civil commitment programs has been challenged repeatedly, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the various state laws because justices don’t interpret the program as a second punishment, but rather a new treatment possibility.
According to a recent report by The New York Times, roughly 2,700 pedophiles, rapists and other sexual offenders are already being held indefinitely nationwide through similar programs. Only 250 have been judged safe and released since 1990.
Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma, said Louisiana already has some of the toughest sex offender laws in the country, but that there’s always room for improvement.
Baldone is vice-chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee, which could likely have first crack at Jindal’s proposed law. If so, Baldone anticipates a warm welcome.
“I think the bill would get a positive reception from the committee,” he said. “It has already passed laws calling for tougher treatments and this shouldn’t be much different. The issue of more treatment, though, has added merit, especially since these crimes often have a psychological aspect.”
Rep. Jerry “Truck” Gisclair, D- Larose, is of the same mindset. Earlier this year, he unsuccessfully pushed legislation that would have forced convicted sex offenders to take lie-detector tests and possibly pay for them as part of their probation and parole.
Amid confusion over who would actually pay for the tests and how much they cost, lawmakers shelved the legislation.
Gisclair said that the random tests are needed to make sure sex offenders aren’t revisiting the scene of their crimes, such as playgrounds or schoolyards, or even worse, repeating their crimes.
Additional time behind bars, though, even in a treatment setting, could accomplish the same, Gisclair said.
“I think we all want to see the state step it up when it comes to punishing and treating sex offenders,” he said. “I’m in favor of putting more of a focus on this.”
Jindal said his proposed law would only build on the bills he has signed since taking office, which included measures that:
n Required lifetime registration for all sexual offenders.
n Increased the area where sexual offenders are prohibited from being from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, including public or private school property, school busses, daycare facilities, playgrounds, youth centers, public swimming pools, public parks and recreational facilities and video arcades.
n Increased the penalty for unlawful presence of a sexual offender from $1,000 to $2,000 and the sentence from one-year imprisonment to two years.
n Increased the minimum sentence for computer-aided solicitation of a minor from one year to a five-year minimum when the victim is 13 or older and increase to a 10-year minimum when the victim is 12 or younger.
n Increased the minimum sentence for molestation of a juvenile from one year to a five-year minimum when the victim is 13 or older and increased to a 10-year minimum when the victim is 12 or younger.
n Allowed Internet sites like Facebook and MySpace to link up with Louisiana’s sex predator database to ensure that offenders aren’t setting up profiles to prey on children.
n Closed a loophole in existing law that would allow an offender to utilize electronic communications to establish other forms of communications in order to persuade, induce or entice a minor to engage or participate in sexual conduct.
n Increased the time that Louisiana authorities can jail suspects from 60 days to 120 days, if a judge authorizes the extension.
n Prohibited a sex offender from wearing a mask, hood or disguise during holiday events and from distributing candy or other gifts on Halloween to persons under 18 years of age.
n Allowed for the chemical castration of certain sex offenders on their first offense, and to require the chemical castration of certain sex offenders on their second offense.
n Consolidated Louisiana’s sex offender database so sheriffs, state police and local law enforcement officials can all share information on sex offenders easily online – to make sure no offender slips through the cracks. ..News Source.. by Jeremy Alford
Jindal works on sex offenders’ civil confinement
12-4-2008 Louisiana:
Gov. Bobby Jindal is pursuing civil confinement for sex offenders after being thwarted in his efforts to keep a convicted child rapist under a death sentence.
Jindal said this week he plans to introduce legislation in the upcoming session to keep violent sex offenders off the streets once they have completed their prison sentence.
The goal, the governor said, is to have the toughest laws in the nation that protect children.
He said Florida already has a law that allows the state to confine offenders to a treatment facility through the civil court system. Offenders can be held indefinitely in a facility as long as they are deemed to pose a threat to the community.
Florida turned a former prison into a civil commitment center for violent sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences.
Critics complain that civil confinement is barbaric and basically means a life sentence.
Jindal has been openly critical of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling that states cannot execute convicted child rapists like Patrick Kennedy, of Harvey.
The Jindal administration fought to keep Kennedy under a death sentence. Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.
In October, the nation’s highest court refused a request by the state and the U.S. Justice Department to reconsider its decision based on military law that allows capital punishment for such crimes.
Jindal mentions the case often as he crisscrosses the country for speaking engagements. He talked about Kennedy last month to the Iowa Family Policy Center, telling the conservative crowd that sex offenders need to be locked up. He said Kennedy’s stepdaughter was injured so badly she will never bear children.
The issue resonated with an audience that prides itself on “family values.”
It was the only part of the speech that Iowan David Keagle, a father of eight, disliked.
Keagle said he wants sex offenders to be executed — not simply locked up — to protect families from perpetrators
However, Keagle said he is confident that Jindal feels the same way.
Jindal said he is not abandoning the issue even as he and his attorneys construct a civil confinement proposal.
The governor said he was encouraged by President-elect Barack Obama’s statement earlier this year that the rape of a child is heinous enough to merit the death penalty.
Louisiana was one of five states with a law allowing the execution of a child rapist.
A shift in the U.S. Supreme Court’s stance on the issue would seem to hinge on a change in the court’s makeup. The oldest justice, John Paul Stevens, is 88 but does not appear to be in a hurry to retire.
Kennedy’s attorney, Billy Sothern of New Orleans, said he doubts such a shift will occur.
“The Supreme Court itself, even with different justices, is expected to uphold its own precedents, especially when so recently issued,” he said.
For the moment, Kennedy remains on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
“It’s a matter of paperwork,” said Pam LaBorde, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
She said Kennedy will be transferred from death row as soon as the state receives paperwork from the courts authorizing the move.
Sothern said he expects Kennedy to be resentenced in January.
“The governor is focused on the resentencing hearing in this particular case and wants the harshest sentence possible to be delivered,” said Melissa Sellers, Jindal’s communications director.
Aggravated rape is punishable by life in prison.
The state Department of Health and Hospitals is studying ways to implement a civil commitment system.
Jindal said his executive counsel, Jimmy Faircloth, also is studying the issue in order to have a proposal in place for the session that begins in April.
The administration characterizes the effort as an attempt to “ensure that sex offenders are treated for their illness and are less likely to recommit their awful crimes.”
Florida’s law is named for Jimmy Ryce, a 9-year-old boy who was kidnapped, raped and killed in 1995 just a few weeks shy of his 10th birthday. ..News Source.. by MICHELLE MILLHOLLON, Advocate Capitol News Bureau
