Alabama recently passed a bill requiring criminals convicted of sex crimes with children under 13 to undergo chemical castration.
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The Alabama State Legislature passed a bill on Tuesday that requires criminals convicted of sex crimes with children under 13 to undergo chemical castration as a condition of their parole.
The bill, known as HB379, would require sex offenders convicted of child abuse to receive several injections of a testosterone-reducing drug to deter future predatory behavior. This punishment would be in addition to any jail time served or fines the person has already paid.
State Rep. Steve Hurst (R), the man who introduced the bill, told WIAT-TV “[Pedophiles] have marked this child for life, and the punishment should fit the crime,” Hurst told WIAT. “… What’s more inhumane than when you take a little infant child, and you sexually molest that infant child when the child cannot defend themselves or get away, and they have to go through all the things they have to go through?”
The law has been sent to Governor Kay Ivey to be either signed or vetoed. Here’s what you need to know about the proposed law.
Bill HB379 applies to people convicted of “A sex offense, as described in Section 15-20A-5,3 Code of Alabama 1975, that is committed against a person who has not attained the age of 13 years.”
The law gives child sex offenders the option of parole which was not previously available. “Under existing law, a person convicted of a sex offense involving a child which constitutes a Class A or B felony is not eligible for parole.” The bill reads, “This bill would provide that a person convicted of a sex offense involving a person under the age of 13 years who is eligible for parole, as a condition of parole, shall be required to undergo chemical castration treatment in addition to any other penalty or condition prescribed by law,”
The bill does not apply to criminals convicted of sex crimes involving people over the age of 13.
Under the new bill, sex offenders would be required to visit the Department of Public Health who would administer the “medroxyprogesterone acetate treatment or its chemical equivalent” Chemical castration blocks the production of testosterone rather than removing the sexual organs through surgical castration.
