Louisiana Gov. Jindal Authorizes Chemical Castration Of Sex Offenders

Rising Republican star Bobby Jindal signed legislation allowing judges to force convicted rapists to undergo chemical castration, the Louisiana Advocate reports:

"I am glad we have taken such strong measures in Louisiana to put a stop to these monsters' brutal acts," the governor said in a prepared statement.

Jindal signed Senate Bill 144 into law on the day that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Louisiana cannot execute people who rape children under the age of 12.

The governor blasted the high court's decision.

"I am especially glad to sign (SB144) into Louisiana law ... on the same day the Supreme Court has made an atrocious ruling against our state's ability to sentence those who sexually assault our children to the fullest extent," he said.

Jindal, the country's youngest governor and the first with Indian roots, is often cited as a potential Vice Presidental nominee for McCain. He has spoken out in defense of intelligent design and written about his participation in an exorcism.

Comments

[naturallight]

Why doesn't Jindal just do an "exorcism" to remove the succubi from these "sulphorus" individuals?

[aristippe]

Jindal would love to exorcise his balls.

[paganmist]

I don't know whether to laugh or wince.

[MikeDu]

I'm all for the chemical (or otherwise) castration of bone-headed right-wingers. But that'll never happen, I'll just have to settle for the children of the right-wing getting their balls blown off by IEDs in Iraq.

[indypete]

Children of the right wingers ain't there... even if the draft comes back, they won't be there.

[Ramirez]

Right. Only Democrats are serving in Iraq.

[Ramirez]

You are the face of the Democratic Party.

[Felicty]

A Mexican Republican?

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME...

[mediamarv]

No, he's not.
Get your facts straight... oh, wait, reps don't believe in facts.
Sorry.

[JadedAggie]

Chemical Castration doesn't actually work a significant portion of the time so I'm not exactly sure it's even practical. It seems to give a false sense of security that an offender cannot repeat their crime when that has proven to be false.

As far as it being cruel or unusual punishment it's a tough call. Chemical Castration is basically a large dose of hormones that are supposed to render you sexually inactive, but cause permanent damage. The problem is that there is no real long term study that confirms that Chemical Castration can always be reversed. There is also an issue with it raising blood pressure in men to dangerous levels creating issues like hypertension.

[joyf1]

No, Lupron doesn't cause permanent damage. Once you are off, your body will return to normal, albeit slowly.

[JadedAggie]

It's a typo. It's supposed to be cause no permanent damage. However, there is no conclusive clinical study to defend that assertion.

[Dots]

VASECTOMY...at the very least.

[clearthinker2008]

Vasectomies are reversible.

[ebanks84]

Vasectomies doesn't stop men from wanting to have sex with children.

[aristippe]

What would a vasectomy accomplish?!? This is why sex ed needs to be taught, for folks like Dots

[CDMelty]

A vasectomy will render the man infertile, not impotent. I don't think the problem is that sex offenders are getting women pregnant; it's that they're getting people raped! Chemical castration (or castration for that matter, but not a vasectomy) removes their ability to use their weapon of choice, as well as eliminates their sex drive entirely in a lot of cases. We need to disable the sex drive, not disable the sperm. The sperm isn't really the problem.

[joyf1]

I'm assuming they are meaning a shot every few months of Lupron Depot. Lurpron reduces the testosterone in the male and after a time will shrink the testicles. BUT, it's extremely expensive. At cost it is around $1800 a shot. Lupron is a treatment for prostate cancer, but also has other uses. My husband has advanced prostate cancer and Lupron and its effects have kept him alive.

[piper1233]

Rape, sexual assault, etc. are crimes of violence not sexual crimes, that has long since been established. Castrating even a child abuser, chemically of otherwise, amounts to cruel and unusual punishment; and would not stop the individual from acts of violence against children. Laws like these only serve to appease hard line reactionaries who spend little time or effort in protecting their own children or the children of their comunity. We have become a land of punishment without understanding and addressing the underlining causes. The system we have in place to protect childen has failed us continuously, yet no major changes have been implemented to abate deteriorating situation. Politicians posture for votes inacting laws that are draconian and do little to prevent re-ocurring offenders. This law will be contested and should be struck down in my oppinion, which is the oppinion of someone who hold childrens health and safety in the highest regard.

[paganmist]

You can spend time and effort protecting your child and still end up having them snatched. I have a very pretty child that I am absolutely paranoid about - don't you realize that some men will watch your house to memorize your schedule? Follow you around, if they really want to grab your child? Look for some chink in your day that will allow them to grab your kid?

I am a cautious parent, but I am not *perfect*. If someone really wanted to grab my kid, there's probably something I'm doing (or not doing) that would allow them to do so. So please don't sweepingly condemn the parents whose children have been assaulted, not all of them are negligent. That's just insulting.

You may have childrens' health in high regard, but you don't sound like you actually have a child.

[ebanks84]

I am a firm believer that the only help sexual predators can get is to encourage the behavior mechanism in their minds to not work. I believe medical help is all we can do to straighten out this warped mind individuals. Sex comes from the mind and if you don't have to think about it all the time, you're not going to act on it.

[aristippe]

I'm comfortable with life imprisonment or capital in this case. Can't rehabilitate everybody. I'm not even sure why we should bother. When someone does something this bad they are no longer a member of civilized society, we need not extend them rights. To do so is just courtesy.

[ebanks84]

True and I agree. As long as we don't treat them like animals to make them want to act like worse animals than they are, let's just put them away until we can find a better way of dealing with them.

[indypete]

"Politicians posture for votes inacting laws that are draconian and do little to prevent re-ocurring offenders. "

That's what it's all about. Like you said, it's not sx, it's assault and castration (chemical or otherwise) has been proven useless. However, the pols don't care, they just want to get the votes from you and me in order to get the bribes from the fat boys looking for the no-bid contracts and they'll pass stupid measures like this to do it.

[ofbbg]

One good thing about a dead pedophile - he'll NEVER do it again!

[nuglet304]

louisiana: giving texas a run for its money since 2007.

[clearthinker2008]

lol...good point.

[joshquasimoto]

It would appear yet again that many in this country, especially Southern Republicans do not believe nor have the stomach for rehabilitation of any kind for criminals. I do not believe that anyone on this site nor any other site is condoning the actions of this individual, they are truly repugnant. But it would seem that if this person was able to go through a program and re-engage in a non-criminal way that he would then be able to rejoin society and become a member of our community. From my perspective of reading the responses from this story on a couple of different sites, many Americans feel that this person should be killed for his actions and never be given the opportunity to return or make any sort fo recovery what so ever. I fail to understand this perspective, this was not what I was taught in church, these are not the teachings of Christ. Maybe this person will never be able to be a member of our society and maybe he will need help the rest of his life. But what kind of society are we if we just cast away those that have committed crimes against us and then we just dispose of them or their rights simply because it is easier than dealing with the root causes and the rehabilitation which is needed for the community where this happened, the perpetrattor and the victims.

[ebanks84]

You would have to be a mother of a child horrendously raped to the point of no return to understand how most women feel about this perversion. The man in question did things to this 8 year old that is truly repugnant and her mother wants total justice because her daughter has to live with these memories all her life. My daughter didn't go through a total rape, but she was molested and when she became an adult, she experienced psychological trauma for years and didn't know why. She is still under medical help and cannot get a good night's sleep thinking that someone is going to pull down her panties. Until this happens to your daughter or someone that close to you, you cannot understand the effect it has on people. There is no verificable help for sexual predators.

[gaila]

I don't want these guys back on the streets EVER once they are caught. I don't think castration is the answer, although I've heard that in some cases the perps actually ask for it as a means of self-control. But, I've also heard it doesn't always work. But the bottom line is, these behaviors don't happen in a vacuum. Something is wrong with the guys' brains, and/or they were abused as kids themselves. That's not an excuse - it's a potential reason and we need to allow science to develop a much greater understanding of how this happens. We'll never eliminate this by law enforcement or punishment because so many are never caught. With functional MRI and other non-invasive tools for studying the brain that are available today, science should be able to shed more light on these behaviors and identify means of prevention and treatment that work better than what we have today.

[LannyMacD]

Another step backwards for a country that likes to boast about holding the moral high ground.

[NYCIC]

Jindal is a piece of work. This guy just shines. No wonder Flush Limbaugh recently celebrated him on his radio program.

And no way does that Louisiana legislation not go to the SCOTUS.

[mikestg]

This is great news! Atleast until someone wrongfully convicted gets his balls cut off....

[mellene]

I think Louisiana will soon be sorry that they elected this religious zealot to office. What about those who might be innocently thrown in prison and later found to be not guilty. Ooops--so sorry but you're now a eunich.

[CDMelty]

Not a eunich. it's CHEMICAL castration, which in a lot of cases is the exact same depo shot women get for birth control. It lasts a while and then wears off. Basically it gives them enough estrogen to reverse their testosterone. And testosterone is what enables their aggression and sex drive. It's disabling their weapon of choice, not taking it away from them. And you can be sure that if a guy became impotent for a couple months after being wrongly convicted that he would all but own the state of LA after one short lawsuit, so don't worry about him.

[ibsteve2u]

This is pretty funny...it is always the "God-fearing" states that want to play God.

You know, if they are fair about it (and this applies to capital punishment too), then anytime a punishment like this is carried out and it turns out that the "offender" was innocent, then the punishment should be applied to the prosecutors.

I think that is in the Bible, too - "an eye for an eye"?

[oxford]

After reading the comments posted lately, I came to the conclusion that the "hopelessly stupid" should be included with the "sex offenders".

[wayoutleft]

also: what is ray nagin watching on the back of this guy's head; and is it a species native to north america?