States consider chemical castration as punishment for sexual crimes
But while supporters of these bills echo that cause, many experts say the approach is needlessly cruel and lacks a sound scientific basis.
Castration — both reversible chemical and permanent surgical castration — does lead to the
Castration is not a new idea. According to the
Advertisement
'If your choice is between 10 more years in prison and castration, that's not really a choice,' she said. 'That's coercion.'
The coercive nature of the state permanently or temporarily altering a man's body in exchange for release is what
Proponents like Democratic Louisiana Rep. Delisha Boyd, who co-authored the castration bill that became law in her state, believe that the harshness of the procedure is a self-evident deterrent against sex crime. Boyd, who comes from a family with a
According to Gary Taylor, a researcher and professor who
Advertisement
The bill Boyd co-authored made Louisiana the first state to allow judges to order surgical castration as a punishment, but there are at least 10 states that passed laws before 2008 to allow chemical or surgical castration as a condition of parole. California led the way in 1996. But despite these laws having been on the books for years, there is little information on how often states perform these procedures. A former sex crime prosecutor
Given the scant information available, the experts we spoke with are not aware of any concrete way to demonstrate that castration deters crime. But Rozek believes the claim is analogous to arguments made in favor of the death penalty, which numerous studies show offers
In terms of recidivism — whether a formerly incarcerated person reoffends — both Budd and Rozek note that people convicted of sex offenses
Advertisement
For those at risk of reoffending, they point to treatment programs, like
While a castration bill in South Carolina is still working its way through their legislature, and one in Oklahoma was withdrawn from an appropriation committee, the bills proposed earlier this year in New Mexico, Iowa and Mississippi have already died. Rozek takes no solace in this. 'The first year out, most of the bills won't pass,' she said. 'But this is just the first phase. They will come back.'
Similarly, Budd believes that with the bipartisan passing of the surgical castration law in Louisiana, we could see this punishment be adopted for other crimes. 'It happened with sex offense registries,' she said. 'Now you have violent offender registries in states like
Advertisement
While these punitive bills can boost legislators on both sides of the aisle hoping to look tough on crime, Budd warns that they can doom the formerly incarcerated looking for a clean start. 'These laws take away hope, chance for change, and human dignity.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
18 minutes ago
- New York Post
Federal agents stormed LA's MacArthur Park to root out MS-13 gangbangers — before Mayor Karen Bass confronted them: sources
Immigration agents who flooded a Los Angeles park on Monday said they were there as a 'show of force' to protect residents from MS-13 gangbangers and open air drug markets — before they were furiously confronted by Mayor Karen Bass. The grandstanding Democratic mayor tried to banish the ICE and Border Patrol officials, who descended on MacArthur Park Monday, in a chaotic scene, blasting the operation as 'un-American.' But ICE and Border Patrol sources told The Post that they were there to try and help clean up the park, which has long been plagued by gang activity, homelessness and drug addicts overdosing on fentanyl and animal tranquilizers. 'This pisses me off. She is scared for the kid's safety … due to immigration officials at the park, but never scared for their safety when the park is filled with homeless, drugs, MS-13 and violence,' a federal law enforcement source fumed. 'Make it make sense,' they added. 'That park is very famous, but full of druggies, homeless and people selling fake documents,' said another fed source, adding that Bass 'wants to stay relevant, but we're not going anywhere.' Last August, Bass visited the park after the owner of Langer's Deli, Norm Langer, threatened to shut the doors of his popular eatery after almost 80 years in business due to safety concerns, the LA Times reported. The mayor even admitted she was aware of businesses in the area having to 'essentially pay gang members' in order to stay open. 'I'm not an attorney, but it sounds like extortion to me, and it needs to be addressed immediately,' she said at the time. A local security guard also told the LA Times that he often faces violent interactions with drug addicts — and carries Narcan in his pocket to revive overdose victims. 'I've had knives pulled on me, I've had people try to stab me with a screwdriver, and just the other day I got hit with a wooden bat,' Gabriel Sanchez said. 3 Gang related graffiti marking territory is seen in MacArthur Park. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images 3 Bass showed up at the federal operation as agents attempted to clear the park. AP Almost a year after Bass promised to clean up MacArthur Park, she berated the presence of federal law enforcement officers, yelling at the agents on Monday to leave and stop their 'political stunt.' 'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege,' the mayor told reporters following the confrontation. 'It's outrageous and un-American to have armed vehicles in our American parks.' 3 Horse-mounted Border Patrol agents joined ICE in MacArthur Park. AP Bass said Monday's operation disrupted a children's summer camp, which corralled the kids into a nearby basement during the sweep. Members of the St. John's Community Health Center, who were conducting their daily checkups with homeless people in the park, were also pushed out, officials said. 'Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through,' Bass vented on X, posting a time-lapse video of the agents marching across an empty soccer field inside the park. 'The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous. 'I think the goal is to spread fear,' Bass added of Monday's operation, as she vowed to uphold the city's status as a sanctuary for immigrants. Bass' office didn't immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
San Francisco Chronicle
20 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Defendants released in Massachusetts as pay dispute with public defenders remains unresolved
BOSTON (AP) — Defendants are being released in Massachusetts in the wake of a prolonged dispute over pay for the state's public defenders, and one of those set free was charged with a serious crime. The first four defendants without legal representation were freed Monday by a Boston judge following a ruling last week by the state's highest court to implement a process that requires releasing defendants without attorneys after a week. Among them was a man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend. Under the so-called Lavallee protocol, more are expected to be released in the coming days unless lawmakers address demands from public defenders for a moderate pay increase. The state agency representing public defenders had proposed a pay increase from $65 an hour to $73 an hour over the next two fiscal years for lawyers in district court, an increase from $85 an hour to $105 an hour for lawyers in Superior Court and $120 an hour to $150 an hour for lawyers handling murder cases. But the 2026 fiscal year budget of $60.9 billion signed Friday by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey didn't include any increase. Public defenders mostly in district courts have refused to take on new cases since May, arguing they are the lowest-paid public defenders in New England. 'While the court's decision last week to implement the Lavalle protocols is welcome news and a critical step in making sure that people are not held in custody without lawyers, it is far from a solution to the crisis the courts are in,' said Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'Every day that our courts are without bar advocates is another day the criminal legal system isn't running the way that it's supposed to,' she said. 'Without appropriately compensated lawyers in court, the system cannot function." Democratic legislative leaders would need to consider a supplemental budget in the coming weeks to accommodate a pay raise, but there was no immediate sign that a plan was in the works. 'The right to legal representation is a crucial element of the Constitutional guarantee to a fair trial," a spokesman for the House said in an email statement. 'At the same time, the House has a responsibility to Massachusetts taxpayers to ensure that we budget in a fiscally responsible manner, especially during this period of significant economic uncertainty.' Republicans were quick to pounce on the issue and suggest Healey, who is up for reelection next year, was to blame. 'This situation is spiraling into a full-blown constitutional crisis and Governor Healey is nowhere to be found," said Paul Craney, the executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which promotes fiscal responsibility, in a statement. The Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees public defenders, petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the Lavalle protocol to take effect due to the work stoppage. Along with releasing defendants after seven days, the protocol also requires that charges be dropped for a defedant lacking legal representation after 45 days. The judge ruled to enact the protocol on Thursday, though she declined to raise the pay rate for public defenders. 'Despite good faith efforts by CPCS and the local bar advocate organization(s), there is an ongoing systemic violation of indigent criminal defendants' constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel due to CPCS's incapacity to provide such assistance through its staff attorneys or through bar advocates," Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt said in her order, noting as of June 29 that there were 1,144 defendants in the district courts of Middlesex and Suffolk counties without attorneys. More than 60 were in custody. Massachusetts is just the latest state to struggle with ways to adequately fund its public defender system. In Wisconsin, the new two-year state budget signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would increase the pay of public defenders and district attorneys in each of the next two years. That comes after the Legislature in 2023 also increased the pay to address rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries. Public defenders in Minnesota averted a walkout in 2022 that threatened to bring the court system to a standstill. A year later, the legislature came up with more funding for the state Board of Public Defense so that it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable caseload standards. Oregon, meanwhile, has struggled for years with a critical shortage of court-provided attorneys for low-income defendants. As of Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, a dashboard from the Oregon Judicial Department showed. Of those, about 143 people were in custody, some for longer than seven days. In a bid to respond to the state's public defense crisis, lawmakers last month approved over $2 million for defense attorneys to take more caseloads in the counties most impacted by the shortage and over $3 million for Oregon law schools to train and supervise law students to take on misdemeanor cases. ___
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Wisconsin Supreme Court clears way for conversion therapy ban
A Wisconsin legislative committee controlled by Republicans violated the state constitution when it rejected a state agency rule to ban conversion therapy practices, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, clearing the way for the state to enforce the rule and blunting the Legislature's power to block state regulations. The Wisconsin Legislature's powerful Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR), responsible for approving state agency regulations, had twice rejected a Wisconsin state licensing board's rule to ban conversion therapy, a discredited practice that aims to change a person's sexuality or gender identity. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who barred state and federal funds from being used for conversion therapy in a 2021 executive order, sued Wisconsin's GOP-controlled Legislature in 2023 for obstructing 'basic government functions.' The lawsuit targets the joint committee's vote on the conversion therapy rule and a separate rule to update commercial building standards. Evers argued that JCRAR's actions amounted to unconstitutional 'legislative vetoes,' which he said collapsed the state's powers 'into a single branch of government' and circumvented 'the constitutional lawmaking procedures of bicameralism,' by which a bill must pass through both the state House and Senate, and presentment to the governor. An attorney for the Legislature stated during oral arguments in January that the rules committee's actions provided lawmakers with a 'grace period' to review the policy within their constitutional role. Republicans in the state Legislature have said their votes to suspend the rule are based on a belief that the rule limits the freedom of speech and religion of mental health providers, not opposition to the rule itself. In a 4-3 decision on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with Evers, ruling that JCRAR cannot pause, object to or suspend a rule's implementation without legislation. 'The challenged statutes empower JCRAR to take action that alters the legal rights and duties of the executive branch and the people of Wisconsin. Yet these statutes do not require bicameralism and presentment,' the court's liberal majority wrote in its ruling. 'Therefore, we hold that each of the challenged statutes … facially violates the Wisconsin Constitution's bicameralism and presentment requirements.' The decision clears the way for the state to enact the conversion therapy ban, though it was not immediately clear when the rule would take effect. 'For years, a small group of Republican lawmakers overstepped their power, holding rules hostage without explanation or action and causing gridlock across state government,' Evers said in a statement on Tuesday. 'It's pretty simple — a handful of Republican lawmakers should not be able to single-handedly and indefinitely obstruct state agencies from doing the people's work.' 'Ensuring that the Legislature is held accountable for following the law and our state's constitution is a victory for the people of Wisconsin,' he said about the state Supreme Court's decision. The high court will maintain its liberal majority when Justice-elect Susan Crawford takes office in August, replacing retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Crawford won a contentious race for Bradley's seat in April, in the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. In a statement issued after Tuesday's ruling, Republican state Sen. Steve Nass, a JCRAR co-chair, said the court 'has in essence given Evers the powers of a King.' 'Today, the liberal majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court ended nearly 7 decades of shared governance between the legislature and executive branch agencies aimed at protecting the rights of individuals, families and businesses from the excessive actions of bureaucrats,' he said. 'Governor Evers asked his liberal allies on the state supreme court to give him unchecked dominion to issue edicts without legislative review that will harm the rights of citizens in order to enact his extreme agenda.' The court's three conservatives, Justices Rebecca Bradley, Annette Ziegler and Brian Hagedorn, similarly criticized Tuesday's decision. Bradley wrote in a dissenting opinion that the court's majority ruling 'lets the executive branch exercise lawmaking power unfettered and unchecked.' 'Progressives like to protest against 'kings,'' she added, 'unless it is one of their own making.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
