Jeb Bush Signs a Good Bill

Governor Bush today signed into law the "Jessica Lunsford Act", named after the Florida nine-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by a convicted and released sex offender:

The measure establishes a minimum 25-year prison sentence for those convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior on a child and requires that habitual sexual predators be monitored by GPS for the rest of their life.

Sexual predators who murder their victims will now face the death penalty.
Lawmakers appropriated about $11 million to support the tougher laws, including nearly $7 million for the GPS supervision.

I am not personally a supporter of mandatory minimums in most instances, especially drug cases as they leave a judge no authority to take special circumstances into account. That said, I fully support them when it comes to child molesters and other perpetrators of sex crimes. Regardless of what mental health professionals say, I believe that those who commit sex-crimes can not be rehabilitated. The recidivism rate seems to bear that out.

The article linked to talks about chemical castration, which involves steady doses of regulated drugs. The problem arises in that even though sex offenders must register, some slip through and once off medication are free to commit the crimes that society finds most heinous.