A disturbing 7,000-plus sex offenders who were convicted of "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14" have been released from prison the same year they were incarcerated, according to a DailyMail study based on California Megan's Law data.
In 1996, the Bill Clinton Administration approved the Megan Act - in honor of Megan Kanka, victim of a pedophile murder - to demand that the sex offenders data be made public. In California, the web site of the Act allows anyone to search for offenders and view their names, age, place of residence, offenses, mug shot, and the dates they were last convicted or released from prison.
Nearly 62,000 sex offenders
The Megan's Law website showed that currently, there are 61,770 sex offenders in California's 58 counties. More than 76% have committed offenses involving minor aged children. The data also reveals that those incarcerated for committing the most serious sexual offenses against children served sentences that were only equal to those who committed lesser offenses:
- 365 pedophiles convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child spent less than 1 year in prison.
- 39 cases of sodomy with a minor under 16 years of age (less than 1 year in prison).
- 3 cases of abduction of a minor under 14 years of age "with the intent to commit lewd acts" (less than 1 year in prison).
The most common crime in the database was the crime of "lewd acts with a child under the age of 14," committed 19,441 times, and the average time was only two years and 11 months in prison. The former Los Angeles sex crimes prosecutor Samuel Dordulian, stated that he was "shocked" by the statistics and described them as "frightening":
Statistics clearly show that pedophiles do not reform. They will go out and reoffend. If we let these people out early, we are allowing many more victims. And that's scary.
Reducing the prison population and recidivism
A Dordulian Law Group attorney specializing in sex crimes, noted policies backed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, which aim to shorten sentences to reduce the prison population, help these types of offenders get out of prison:
With Newsom as governor, there's been a lot of legislation passed where re-sentencing is allowed, people are allowed to come back and there's a push to have less jail time. That's been the push for the last five years, at least: to let people out of jail much sooner than they've been imposed. But these types of individuals are not amenable to rehabilitation, and studies have shown that. They are going to harm another child, it's a very, very frightening tendency.
According to the Department of Justice, sex offenders are four times more likely to reoffend than other offenders.
The role of district attorneys
Los Angeles District Office Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami said the situation is "a disgrace." And he blamed Proposition 57, a law that allows early parole for non-violent offenders and was supported by District Attorney George Gascón.
Thousands of child victims are denied justice and George Gascón and his radical group of prosecutors don't give a damn. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is not even notifying child victims and their families of these early releases. It is a disgrace. It is a disgrace that the state of California does not prioritize the safety and well-being of our children.
"In addition, most of these sex offenders released early have not been rehabilitated at all. This will clearly endanger future generations of children and our entire community," Hatami said.
