TOUGHER PENALTY

They’re calling it “Five Strikes and They’re Off.” And they’re serious.

The Women’s Coalition of Pasadena said Thursday that it hopes to get a legislative sponsor for a bill requiring mandatory castration of all sex offenders who have been convicted at least five times and are due for release from prison, said Susan Carpenter-McMillan, coalition president.

McMillan admitted that the proposal is “radical,” but she said she is “very confident” that the coalition will find legislative help in writing the bill and bringing it before the state Assembly.

“Psychological treatments have an almost 100% failure rate,” McMillan said.

But “the solution could end up being as bad as the problem” if a rapist becomes angered about being subjected to involuntary castration, said Fred Berlin, founder of the sexual disorders clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Berlin has “chemically castrated” men with medication that lowers the body’s testosterone level, and he said the treatments do lower a person’s sexual appetite.