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CALCASA Public Policy
Updates from CALCASA at the Capitol…

Gov. Signs Sexual Predator Legislation
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 1128 (Alquist) today, accomplishing the majority of statutory changes possible in Jessica's Law.

Senate Bill 1128 by Senator Alquist (D-Santa Clara) had received support from CALCASA, enhances penalties and implements new laws for registered sex offenders, including punishing continuous child sexual abuse by an automatic 25-year-to-life prison sentence, making possession of pornography depicting children a felony in some cases, discouraging plea bargains for violent sex offenders, and including youth recreational facilities in addition to schools when restricting access for sex offenders. Among the bill's many provisions, it also requires every person required to register as a sex offender to be subject to assessment using the State-Authorized Risk Assessment Tool for Sex Offenders, a valuable tool widely recognized by experts and used by law enforcement.

SB 1128 has been declared by many experts as an "alternative to Jessica's Law." CALCASA opposes Prop. 83 (Jessica's Law) because of the inclusion of residency restrictions and GPS monitoring for all sex offenders, whereas SB 1128 contains virtually all of the provisions in Prop. 83 except for the GPS and residency restrictions.

Suzanne Brown-McBride, Executive Director of CALCASA spoke at the historic bill signing. She later discussed CALCASA's support for SB 1128: "This bill does all of the good things that Jessica's Law does, but we don't risk the unintended consequences of residency restrictions and GPS monitoring of all sex offenders."

Full text of the Governor's Announcement Available HERE

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