For civil libertarians, the gradual de-evolution of our criminal justice system just got a bit more medieval. Virginia Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger is upset about the prison budget so he has found a way to trim costs by simply castrating sexual offenders. This is the same proposal vetoed four years ago, but there is now a conservative Republican governor in office and some believe it could pass.
The bill would apply to sexually violent predators. Hanger objects to an increase in the civil commitment program to $70 million over the next two years.
Of course, the bill would also cost millions in legal challenges after being challenged as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
Hanger insists that he is only proposing a “partial cure” to help these men and “It’s just something that’s not typically the thing you want to bring up in polite conversation.”
Eight other states allow for castration and two allow for physical castration.
The question has only been dealt with tangentially by some courts because castration programs are often voluntary. The Ninth Circuit noted in 2008 in United States v. Cope:
We have no doubt that chemical castration would, if prescribed against the will of a defendant on [**26] supervised release, implicate a particularly significant liberty interest. Like antispychotic medication, chemical castration interferes with mental processes and alters behavior. See, e.g., People v. Gauntlett, 134 Mich. App. 737, 352 N.W.2d 310, 314-16 (Mich. Ct. App. 1984); John F. Stinneford, Incapacitation Through Maiming: Chemical Castration, the Eighth Amendment, and the Denial of Human Dignity, 3 St. Thomas L.J. 559 (2006). It may also cause serious side effects, such as cancer and depression. Gauntlett, 352 N.W.2d at 315; Physician’s Desk Reference 2624 (61st ed., 2007) (discussing Depo-Provera, a hormonal drug used for chemical castration). As a result, chemical castration is certainly as intrusive as antipsychotic medication or penile plethysmograph testing. See Weber, 451 F.3d at 561-64;Williams, 356 F.3d at 1054. In fact, chemical castration may be found at the extreme end of the spectrum of intrusive medications and procedures, and there may well be other conditions of supervised release that qualify for Williams and Weber findings without reaching that level of intrusion. We do not doubt that there will be other types of medication or procedures designed to rehabilitate or deter, either extant or not yet in existence, which, if forced upon a defendant as a condition of supervised release, would implicate particularly significant liberty interests. Cf., e.g., Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (W. W. Norton & Co. 1962).
Hanger would start with a study on the use of castration in the Virginia penal system.
Source: Washington Times
Mike S.,
Well said!
Maybe the people in the bible belt have a higher level of STD’s and pregnancies because they have unprotected sex more often. I know they know what condoms are, they aren’t that ignorant.
They are commanded to love their neighbor after all. So religious people have more sex than atheists, sounds about right.
Buddha: “Castrating 99% of Congress to keep their malformed sociopathic genes from propagating and ending the cycle of “my daddy was in Congress so I’m automatically entitled to and qualified for office” sounds like a good idea.”
J. Holmes: “We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 , 25 S. Ct. 358, 3 Ann. Cas. 765. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927)
Still good law…
“since neither deals with the root causes, which in turn is a result of American’s juvenile and puritanical attitudes toward sex in general.”
Culheath is absolutely correct and L.Chan as usual exposes his inability to think outside his particular and claustrophobic box. While it was correctly stated that most sexual offenses, such as rape, are more based on the need to feel powerful than sexual drive, the immature outlooks and attitudes about sex in this country feed to these power fantasies.
When Bill Clinton stated “I did not have sex with this woman” he was correct in the context of about 60% of Americans polled around the same time, that believed the definition of sex was only intercourse. It is this type of immature thinking, combined with a society that takes a young males overwhelming sex drive as the standard of sexuality, while disregarding the needs and preferences of femal sexuality, that causes much woe in US sexuality.
Much of this ignorance is religious based and to my mind is the main reason that the bible belt has a greater incidence of STD’s and unwanted pregnancies. When America can learn to understand sexuality, relax with it and realize the range of non-coercive possibilities, it may be able to deal with some of this problem. However, due to individual psychopathy and sociopathy humanity will never eliminate sexual misconduct.
I never took “Animal Husbandry” while in high school, some friends of mine did, for I lived in two small rural cities, Sturgeon Bay, WI and Detroit Lakes, MN, and “Animal Husbandry,” was the safest way back then for boys to learn the realities of sexual reproduction in other than abstract ways.
When I found use for clamps to repair cracked Bakelite (phenol-formaldehyde) knobs on older electronic equipment, I found Elastrator (TM) bands to be absolutely ideal, they work much better than other rubber bands, being much less likely to break while the adhesive or cement used to repair a knob is drying, setting, or curing.
I have a bunch of those bands left, they make a great electronics repair tool. I first learned of such from my “Animal Husbandry” student friends.
When, by 1985, I had figured out that I almost certainly was (and now certainly am) a member of a family with genetic proclivity for fatal cancer, I knew that my dad nearly died in the fall of 1957 from prostate disease and did die from cancer in the fall of 1972.
In 1985, my wife and I had a six-year-old daughter, and I realized that, if cancer risk for me was similar to the risk of my dad, I was very likely to abandon my daughter before or during her teen years. As my wife and I decided that our family as complete, with two children, one adopted and the other born to us, I decided to do what my bioengineering training indicated would leave me alive to help my daughter through high school, college, and graduate school, as her life allowed her to pursue her formal education.
I have helped her since she finished graduate school. I did what I thought I might wisely do, if I did not die first, and I did not die first.
Testosterone is a recognized carcinogen, this I knew early in my formal bioengineering studies. In some men, it is a very dangerous and potent carcinogen, because of diverse genetic factors and environmental factors.
As is mentioned in my Ph.D. dissertation, which may be found on the Internet as previously described, in 1986, I finally found a doctor who was willing and able to do a bilateral orchiectomy so as to reduce my cancer risk and risk of dying while I might yet be helpful to my daughter if I were alive.
The very next week, my brother was found to have terminal cancer, and, a few weeks later, my colon was removed to prevent colon cancer.
I have no way to know whether I would have developed cancer which was prevented by the orchiectomy any more than I have any way to know that I would have developed colon cancer without the colectomy.
The problem with cancer that is actually terminal, is, once one has cancer which is actually terminal, it is actually going to be terminal.
It will soon be 25 years since noteworthy testosterone levels and I parted company and since my colon and I parted company. I am somewhat surprised by the ed (not education in the usual sense) commericals on TV, and I am a little puzzled.
“Everything” works as it did before the orchiectomy except, were I accused of being the father of a child born within the past 20 or so years, it would take a jury at least as ignorant of biology as was the one that found Charlie Chaplin guilty in a paternity suit when a simple blood-type test absolutely excluded him as being the father.
If a man in in prison for sex crimes and freely admits to having committed them, and asks for castration, I would do as the person asks after a careful psychoanalytic study indicates it would plausibly be helpful. And not otherwise.
Sexual aggression is not sexual, it is aggressive, and only incidentally sexual.
On this, from personal and scientific experience, I may be as much of an expert as the world has yet known.
For politicians to play with this topic in an effort to collect points in an upcoming vote is, in my personal view, an utterly stark atrocity.
Rev. J. Brian Harris, Ph.D., P.E.
Wisconsin Registered Professional Engineer No. 34106-6
(I am NOT anonymous.)
Oops – culheath : “Some of it. yes”, but rape is not about sex per se, its violence as a means to control and power.” – was not meant to be italicized
Cgan L: “so violent sex against children or raping women is OK?
What? How did you get that from my comment?
“The root cause of rape is our attitude toward sex?”
Some of it. yes”, but rape is not about sex per se, its violence as a means to control and power.
“What is our attitude toward sex?”
Mostly furtive duplicity and guilt ridden obsession, topped with a big scoop of hysteria when things go awry.
What does he offer we do with FEMALE pedophiles? Super glue?
Can you castrate just the stupid…or would the results be to many….out in parts of the West…they still use Rubber-Bands…until they fall off…..ouch…..
Buddha, that TV show would have to be on cable in roder to pass the censors!
This Republican is doing what he knows best, spewing crap out of his mouth in order to sound important. Why would anyone think that forced castration would pass Constitutional muster? This is an idea that the Taliban could get behind, but do we want to be following the lead of the Taliban?
Rich,
Why stop at the VA house?
Castrating 99% of Congress to keep their malformed sociopathic genes from propagating and ending the cycle of “my daddy was in Congress so I’m automatically entitled to and qualified for office” sounds like a good idea.
And damn fine television.
It’s a good thing I’m not in the VA House. I’d propose castrating follow members who don’t know what they’re talking about.
culheath:
so violent sex against children or raping women is OK?
The root cause of rape is our attitude toward sex? What is our attitude toward sex? Most Americans I know tend to engage in it as often as they can in a non-violent way.
Blame the system and not the crazy, typical.
Copy that on pandering and ineffective.
Pure pandering and as mentioned above absolutely ineffective. But so too is execution or indefinite detention since neither deals with the root causes, which in turn is a result of American’s juvenile and puritanical attitudes toward sex in general.
Here’s the real problem – castration, whether by means of chemicals or by actually lopping off the member in question, doesn’t stop these people from re-offending. At all.
There are only two things one can do to make sure that a sexual predator does not offend again; you can either execute them or put them in a prison for the rest of their lives. And I am not sure that most people feel that the offense, while heinous, warrants such a dire punishment.
Pure political theater. Makes him sound tough on crime and fiscally responsible at the same time. But it could backfire. Is he going to release violent sex offenders to save money? Giving violent sex offenders their freedom is not a winning political strategy.
I love how politicians looking to curry favor with the public will try and take the most extreme stances on safe issues. “Hey, everyone hates sex offenders, why don’t I say to cut off their junk, that’ll make people love me!” Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily disagree with the senator, but right now I’m thinking there are more important issues, like university tuition: http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2011/01/25/why-law-school-can-still-be-a-good-investment-in-your-future/
So how does he figure this will trim the budget?? It costs money to do this, medical personal are not cheap, requires monitoring and you still have to feed and house them balls or not. Sorry cant see it making sense. Anyone out there care to enlighten me on this???
I think the Senator is focused on the wrong head:
“A calling for a new model and paradigm is made as well as taking the obvious steps to
incorporate the view of the sex disorders are very likely to have roots in “the wiring” of
the individual; the developing brain.”
http://www.ccoso.org/newsletter/whyunabletoprofile.pdf