Confining Sex Offenders After Time Served

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments on a Kansas case that may affect a California law created to deal with repeat sexual offenders who have completed their prison sentences.

The Kansas law is similar to California’s sexual predator law--passed this year--that allows the state to confine repeat sexual offenders in a mental institution until they have been rehabilitated.

Critics of the laws say they punish an individual for a crime that has not happened yet. Supporters say there is little other recourse to protect women, children and society in general from criminals who often display very little potential for rehabilitation.

Should a state be allowed to indefinitely confine a repeat sexual offender?

U.S. Rep.-elect James Rogan (R-Glendale), who wrote California’s sexual predator law while in the state Assembly.

“The important thing to remember is there is precedent for this type of detention. It is a civil confinement, not a criminal confinement. Under the law of California and virtually every other state, we have conservatorships for people who pose a threat to themselves and to others, even if they haven’t broken the law . . . . . . I believe that society has the right to protect itself and the victims . . . from sexually violent predators.”

Ellery Sorkin, past president of the San Fernando Valley Criminal Bar Assn.

“I am bothered by laws that predict that human beings must act in a certain way and be punished ahead of time for the thoughts that go through their mind. . . . One of the best things about our country is freedom of thought and freedom of speech. When you restrict these freedoms there’s a weird religiousness to it, saying that if people think something then they are going to do it. . . . They should be punished when they act and they can be punished twice as hard.”

Susan Carpenter McMillan, president of the Women’s Coalition in Pasadena.

“They are not serving time. They are being helped in a hospital and until they are well they cannot get out . . . I’m always amazed about [questions concerning] the health and fairness for the criminal . . . My response is, why don’t you go ask the children, the victims of these monsters what their lives will be like? . . . To keep these monsters in a hospital is pretty compassionate to me.”

On the Issue appears every Tuesday. Please send suggestions for possible topics to On the Issue, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to valley@latimes.com Please include your name and daytime phone number.