Jindal works on sex offenders’ civil confinement

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Dec 4, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal is pursuing civil confinement for sex offenders after being thwarted in his efforts to keep a convicted child rapist under a death sentence.

Jindal said this week he plans to introduce legislation in the upcoming session to keep violent sex offenders off the streets once they have completed their prison sentence.

The goal, the governor said, is to have the toughest laws in the nation that protect children.

He said Florida already has a law that allows the state to confine offenders to a treatment facility through the civil court system. Offenders can be held indefinitely in a facility as long as they are deemed to pose a threat to the community.

Florida turned a former prison into a civil commitment center for violent sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences.

Critics complain that civil confinement is barbaric and basically means a life sentence.

Jindal has been openly critical of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling that states cannot execute convicted child rapists like Patrick Kennedy, of Harvey.

The Jindal administration fought to keep Kennedy under a death sentence. Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

In October, the nation’s highest court refused a request by the state and the U.S. Justice Department to reconsider its decision based on military law that allows capital punishment for such crimes.

Jindal mentions the case often as he crisscrosses the country for speaking engagements. He talked about Kennedy last month to the Iowa Family Policy Center, telling the conservative crowd that sex offenders need to be locked up. He said Kennedy’s stepdaughter was injured so badly she will never bear children.

The issue resonated with an audience that prides itself on “family values.”

It was the only part of the speech that Iowan David Keagle, a father of eight, disliked.

Keagle said he wants sex offenders to be executed — not simply locked up — to protect families from perpetrators
However, Keagle said he is confident that Jindal feels the same way.