As a sex crimes defense attorney in Los Angeles, I tend to pay attention to all news stories that involve perceived public outrage over changes in the laws involving these sensitive type of sexually-related cases.   Interestingly enough, the latest news headlines from CNN discuss how violent sexual predators are being released immediately from California county jails for alleged parole violations instead of being sent to state prison. 

So let me clear up a few misperceptions here:  First, if the perceived parole violation is serious, then the District Attorney can, and will, file new charges against the alleged sex offender which often result in state prison time and will not result in an alleged dangerous sex offender being released back in the community.  Two, if someone has been convicted of a serious, dangerous sex crime or multiple sex crimes, and is serving a state prison sentence, then that person will be screened for under SVP (sexually violent predator) law to determine whether they should be civilly committed for life, or a lengthy period, rather than released on parole at all.  Three, the example in this article that was given of someone who had allegedly violated parole, and was released from county jail within 24 hours  due to overcrowding, involved letting the battery run out on the GPS tracking device.  Certainly, a parole violation of this nature, unless proved to be an intentional manipulation of the GPS device, does not merit a state prison sentence in a democratic country.

I am not advocating that people convicted of sex crimes should not receive punishment for serious parole violations but people forget to use common sense and rational thinking when they hear the term “sex offense” or “sex offender” and instead feel inclined to ask for the harshest punishment possible without even looking at the nuances of the situation.