Jessica's Law is the informal name given to a 2006 California law designed to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend.
California has the highest population of sex offenders in the nation. As this population grows, the process of tracking perpetrators becomes increasingly complex. Jessica's Law provides changes to current laws and policies in the detection, tracking and apprehension of sexual offenders. The Governor proposes a comprehensive Sex Offender Management Plan to ensure this new law is implemented alongside other measures to regulate the oversight of sex offenders.
Jessica's Law Provides for the following:
Screen inmates to determine if they should be categorized as Sexually Violent Predators.
Provide Global Positioning System monitoring for High Risk Sex Offenders (HRSOs).
Reduce parole caseloads through additional hires, so that agents can more closely monitor HRSOs.
Address expected increases in Sexually Violent Predators at state mental hospitals.
Manage increased Sexually Violent Predator evaluations and court testimony.
Offset increased administrative costs at Department headquarters at Coalinga State Hospital.
The proposal also includes making $500 million in lease revenue bonds available to construct additional mental health facilities.
However, Jessica's law has created a variety of legal and financial challenges to the people of California. For example:
While the law intended to crack down on sex offenders, it has proved a bonanza for a small group of private psychologists and psychiatrists, 14 of whom billed California taxpayers last year for a half a million dollars or more each.
- When voters overwhelmingly approved Jessica's Law in fall 2006, many assumed it would lock away predatory child molesters and rapists who had slipped through the cracks of existing law. But in the 18 months after Jessica's Law took effect, only 42 of 67 defendants in civil commitment trials -- 63% -- were sent to hospitals, compared with 41 of 51 -- 80% -- before the law. The finding is only the latest sign that the law, named for a 9-year-old rape and murder victim, is not working as intended, despite carrying costs that are expected to reach several hundred million dollars annually within a few years.
Jessica's Law looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, therefore it is an ex post facto law and provides extra punishments after the fact to people who have already paid their debts to society.