Sex-offender program heavily scrutinized in General Assembly under tight budget

2-22-2011 Virginia:

The House Appropriations subcommittee tabled a Senate version of a sex-offender bill that would have legalized the physical castration of chronic sex offenders before it was eliminated and the entire bill was finally tabled.

The General Assembly has been focusing on the sex-offender program in Virginia during this session due to the higher than expected numbers of committed sex-offenders who have raised the costs of the program.

In 2008, Virginia finished a $62 million facility at Burkeville to place sex offenders. The facility is apparently already crowded, however.

Spokesmen for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services told the House Appropriations Committee earlier this week that the anticipated 12 new sex-offenders to be added each year was raised to anywhere between 75 and 80. That is over a six-fold increase.

A concern that should be taken seriously in these relatively rough economic times is the insensitivity towards issues of mental health.

The fact that physical castration was even seriously suggested brings back memories of euthanasia that Virginia practiced in the early 20th Century. Is that what Virginian’s want?

Not many people will defend sex-offenders on moral grounds, but they still deserve respect as human beings, human beings with mental illnesses. ..Source.. by Daniel Carawan