Articles

Fairness for Prisoners' Families

Bill zeroes in on child sex crimes

By Carlos Campos and Nancy Badertscher
October 8, 2005

Sex crimes against children in Georgia could soon draw a harsher penalty than murder.

A person convicted of aggravated child molestation would serve a minimum of 25 years in prison — seven years more than the average murderer serves in Georgia — under draft legislation expected to come before the General Assembly in January.

"This is about keeping our children from being victims," said House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), one of the bill's chief sponsors.

Keen and other House leaders first rolled out the proposal in May. In recent weeks, they've started unveiling the details and drawing prosecutors and defense attorneys into the debate as to just how far to go.

Keen appeared on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" this week to pitch the proposal, which also sets mandatory minimum sentences for other sex crimes against children, including statutory rape when the defendant is 21 years or older, and aggravated assault of a child with intent to rape. It also calls for electronic monitoring of violent sex offenders once released from prison.

Headline-grabbing cases around the nation of children abducted, and in some cases murdered, prompted the legislation, which Keen predicts will sail to easy passage.

While the bill has the support of prosecutors, it has raised concerns that it will further crowd Georgia's prisons and questions about whether mandatory minimum sentences are an effective way to fight crime.

"Just get rid of judges altogether," Atlanta criminal defense attorney Don Samuel said sarcastically. "Just let the Legislature set the sentences."

Judges need the discretion to evaluate defendants on a case-by-case basis, Samuel said.

Keen's legislation is consistent with laws passed recently in other states, said Daniel Wilhelm, director of the State Sentencing and Corrections Program for the Vera Institute of Justice in New York. Lawmakers in Minnesota recently voted to require that the most violent sex offenders serve life in prison without parole, Wilhelm said.

A person convicted of murder in Georgia is eligible for parole after serving 14 years in prison; the average prison time for murder is 18 years. The average stay in prison for aggravated child molestation in Georgia is 11 years.

District Attorney David McDade of Douglasville said Keen should be commended for his proposal.

"I think the public demands that child molestors be treated as harshly as our society can imagine," McDade said. "When you murder somebody, their suffering ends with their death. When you molest a child, you're murdering them every day for the rest of their life."

Stephen Kelley, president of the District Attorneys Association of Georgia, said the group supports the legislation, but is concerned about losing discretion in certain cases. There can be mitigating factors in a crime that do not merit a mandatory sentence, he said.

"It's a good idea, we're just trying to fine-tune," said Kelley, district attorney in Brunswick.

Keen said he expects the legislation will ultimately give some leeway to prosecutors, but not judges.

There are other concerns about the bill's far-reaching impact.

Georgia law states that sex offenders cannot live within 1,000 feet of day care centers and schools. Keen wants to prohibit sex offenders from working in jobs near those areas, too. He also wants to add churches and public bus stops to the list of prohibited places.

Sara Totonchi, public policy director for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, said the bill would make it difficult for sex offenders to find a job, participate in prison after-care programs sponsored by churches or even ride a bus to work.

"If we want to work to enhance community safety and hold people who commit sex crimes accountable for their conduct, we must do more than lock them up and throw away the key, and hand a bill to taxpayers for a bulging corrections department," Totonchi said.

Georgia's prison population has grown to more than 48,000, sixth-largest in the nation, with an annual budget of nearly $1 billion. Much of that growth has been fueled by mandatory minimum sentences for serious or violent crimes and tougher parole policies. About 98 percent of the state's prison beds are full, according to the Department of Corrections.

State parole board Chairman Milton "Buddy" Nix Jr. said decisions on whether to release sex offenders early are made with "fear and trembling" by the five-member panel.

Nix, former head of the GBI, said "nobody wants children to be victimized," but said he hopes the law is looked at carefully for "unintended consequences down the line."

For example, sex offenders serving long sentences with no chance for early release may also shun counseling while in prison.

"There needs to be an incentive to force them into those programs," Nix said. "If there's going to be a minimum mandatory, it doesn't make any difference what they do or don't do on the inside if they are going to serve the amount of time — they very well may not end up in courses that could help them and help society."