By Matthew S.L. Cate
Staff Writer
Sex offenders convicted in Georgia will get longer prison sentences and see increased restrictions and tracking of their movements under a long-promised law Gov. Sonny Perdue signed today.
Leaders of the GOP-run General Assembly vowed last year to increase sentences and mandate satellite monitoring of people convicted for the most heinous sex-related crimes, like rape or aggravated child molestation.
They said the law will safeguard children from the most dangerous sexual predators and they hoped it will drive every sex offender out of the state.
“Our strongest obligation is to keep Georgia citizens safe, especially our children,” Gov. Perdue said in a written statement. “This certainly includes doing everything in our power to keep sexual predators away from our children.”
Critics said the law targets too broad a category of sex offenders and will likely lead to offenders “going underground” as opposed to living within the strict monitoring requirements.
“It doesn’t make us any safer,” said Sara Totonchi, public policy director with the Southern Center for Human Rights. “This legislation does nothing to provide treatment or rehabilitation for people who’ve been convicted of sex offenses.”
She said called it irresponsible for legislators not to have tried to estimate the law’s cost, even if they have said all along they’ll pay whatever it costs.
During the election year legislative session, the measure saw but 14 dissenting votes out of the 236-member Legislature.
Under the new law, which will go into effect in July, prison sentences for those crimes will be 25-50 years or life, an increase from the current minimum of 10 years.
It also increases the amount of a life sentence that must be served before a prisoner can be eligible for parole. Current law requires at least 14 years of a life term be served, but the change boosts the requirement to 30 years.
Legislators have said if they didn’t make that change, a rapist could have an “incentive” to kill his victim to get a life sentence and therefore be eligible for parole sooner than the now-mandated 25 years for a violent sex offender.
Also built into the law is a so-called “Romeo and Juliet” provision, which exempts teenagers engaging in some consensual sex acts from felony prosecution.
E-mail Matthew S.L. Cate at mcate@timesfreepress.com
See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.
Staff Writer
Sex offenders convicted in Georgia will get longer prison sentences and see increased restrictions and tracking of their movements under a long-promised law Gov. Sonny Perdue signed today.
Leaders of the GOP-run General Assembly vowed last year to increase sentences and mandate satellite monitoring of people convicted for the most heinous sex-related crimes, like rape or aggravated child molestation.
They said the law will safeguard children from the most dangerous sexual predators and they hoped it will drive every sex offender out of the state.
“Our strongest obligation is to keep Georgia citizens safe, especially our children,” Gov. Perdue said in a written statement. “This certainly includes doing everything in our power to keep sexual predators away from our children.”
Critics said the law targets too broad a category of sex offenders and will likely lead to offenders “going underground” as opposed to living within the strict monitoring requirements.
“It doesn’t make us any safer,” said Sara Totonchi, public policy director with the Southern Center for Human Rights. “This legislation does nothing to provide treatment or rehabilitation for people who’ve been convicted of sex offenses.”
She said called it irresponsible for legislators not to have tried to estimate the law’s cost, even if they have said all along they’ll pay whatever it costs.
During the election year legislative session, the measure saw but 14 dissenting votes out of the 236-member Legislature.
Under the new law, which will go into effect in July, prison sentences for those crimes will be 25-50 years or life, an increase from the current minimum of 10 years.
It also increases the amount of a life sentence that must be served before a prisoner can be eligible for parole. Current law requires at least 14 years of a life term be served, but the change boosts the requirement to 30 years.
Legislators have said if they didn’t make that change, a rapist could have an “incentive” to kill his victim to get a life sentence and therefore be eligible for parole sooner than the now-mandated 25 years for a violent sex offender.
Also built into the law is a so-called “Romeo and Juliet” provision, which exempts teenagers engaging in some consensual sex acts from felony prosecution.
E-mail Matthew S.L. Cate at mcate@timesfreepress.com
See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.
