Jetseta Gage - Reaction

Reaction

In 2005, the Iowa General Assembly passed a bill extending prison sentences and strengthening supervision of sex offenders – through methods such as electronic monitoring – upon their release from prison.

Also, numerous local governments throughout the state moved swiftly to enact stricter residency restrictions for sex offenders. Like a number of other states, Iowa already had a moratorium barring those on the sex offender registry from living within 2,000 feet (610 m) of a school or state-registered day care center, and local officials proposed expanding the buffer zone to such child-oriented places as libraries, parks and swimming pools. While some cities and county governments passed such ordinances, other governments – such as the city of Davenport and Scott County – were cool to the proposal and ultimately did not enact the tighter restrictions.

Critics contended that the stricter residency proposals had several flaws, most notably:

• Those on the sex offender registry for less-severe cases – such as a 19-year-old boy charged after having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend – would face the same residency restrictions as a violent predator.

• It would not prevent offenders from going to a school (e.g., to attend a sporting event) or other locations covered by the proposed residency restrictions; rather, it would merely preclude them from declaring residency near those places.

In January 2006, 45 members of the Iowa Senate – 23 Democrats and 22 Republicans – co-sponsored a bill increasing the penalties for those convicted of certain sex crimes, including lascivious acts with a child and sexual exploitation of a minor. Under the proposal, a first-time offender would face a mandatory minimum 25-year prison sentence upon conviction.

Many Iowans, including the Gage family, have called for a restoration of the death penalty, particularly for crimes in which children are raped and killed. Iowa abolished capital punishment in 1965, and is one of 12 states that currently do not have a death penalty. A GOP-sponsored bill failed to pass in 2005, and no action has been taken since.