Ohio House Passes Legislation To Require Mandatory Prison Sentences For Sex Offenders

The rhetoric behind passing this worthless bill is the typical fearmongering nonsense used to pass all these kinds of laws. This is why we must pay attention even to the most mundane changes to existing laws. Usually the rhetoric comes from a Republican.

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2016/02/10/columbus-ohio-ohio-house-passes-legislation-to-require-mandatory-prison-sentences-for-sex-offenders.html

Ohio House Passes Legislation To Require Mandatory Prison Sentences For Sex Offenders

By 10TV Web Staff
Wednesday February 10, 2016 10:16 PM
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio House of Representatives has pushed forward legislation that will require a mandatory prison sentence for sex offenders.

House Bill 405 establishes a mandatory prison sentence for soliciting a child under 13 years old to engage in sexual activity.

The bill also stipulates that if an offender is more than 10 years older than a victim, who is 13 to 16-years-old, the offender will receive a mandatory prison sentence.

State Representative Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster), who joint sponsored the bill, said House Bill 405 will fix a major legal problem in Ohio.

“Unfortunately it is not always an officer on the other side of the computer screen, it is a child,” Schaffer said. “House Bill 405 will fix a loophole in Ohio law that is allowing dangerous sexual predators to get away with their crimes against children with a slap on the wrist and no disincentive to commit these crimes again.”

According to Rep. Schaffer, as few as 20 percent of people charged with soliciting sex from children are serving time in prison.

“It is time that we show these dangerous predators a serious deterrent, otherwise they will keep preying on our most vulnerable population—our children,” he said.

The legislation was brought forward after 10 Investigates studied cases of importuning in Franklin County.

In the case ranging from 2010 to 2014, 10 Investigates found that only 19 of 93 offenders charged served a prison sentence. Seventy of those only received probation.

House Bill 405 passed with unanimous support and will now go to the Senate for further consideration.