Why You Need to Vote Yes on Proposition 83
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For those of you voting in California, one of the propositions on the ballot this year is Proposition 83, Jessica’s Law, which is supported by both the Democratic and Republican Parties. To refresh your memory, Jessica’s Law is the one that strengthens punishments for sexual predators. Among the improvements are new laws requiring GPS devices, altering parole and sentencing rules, and dictating minimum distances sex offenders must live away from schools or parks.
Jessica’s Law will extend the safe zone around these areas to 2000 feet, an area in which convicted sex offenders cannot live. Opponents to this law feel that this part of the law is useless since many—if not most—sex offenders commit their crimes against their family members. However this is not a reason to abandon all the other children. There are still a good number of offenders who use the children’s park as their playground.
Also, sexual predators will be required to wear a global positioning system (GPS) device. Our current system of tracking sexual predators consists of the predators registering their addresses with the Department of Justice. However, any system that relies on all criminals updating their own addresses so that the public can look them up on a website is bound to have errors, especially due to offenders who don’t want their information to be accurate; they simply fall through the cracks. Indeed, many sex offenders don’t register and thus cannot be found. Jessica’s law will help solve that problem, as new offenders will be issued GPS locators as they are released from prison.
It may seem that providing GPS devices to all the sex offenders would be costly, but the law uses the financial resources of the sex offenders to our advantage. The state only pays for the GPS device if the offender cannot pay for it.
Another weak point of the current system is that some offenders are sent to state hospitals after their release, where they concurrently get treatment and serve parole. Yet, the entire purpose of parole is to observe how a criminal acts upon returning to society. It also allows them to be sent back to prison more easily if they cannot behave. What good is it for these sexual predators to fulfill this obligation while at a hospital where almost every aspect of their life is controlled? The current law thus makes the whole concept of parole useless. Prop 83 will instead make it so that the parole period does not start until after those predators leave the hospital.
If none of these reasons change your mind to vote yes on Prop 83, here is another reason. Currently, most prisoners can get out early through “good behavior.” Sex offenders also qualify for early release, but Prop 83 will change that. I am of the firm belief that time served should be based on what the criminal did to get into prison, not what he does while serving time. It is easy for a sex predator to behave when surrounded by armed guards and other prisoners who hate child molesters. It is out in the free world that the temptations start getting to them. Let’s keep that from happening as long as possible. Vote yes on 83.
