New Ala. law requires chemical castration for some offenders

Alabama’s governor signed into law legislation that requires some sexual offenders to be chemically castrated before being released on parole.

Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill Monday; it applies to sex offenders convicted of crimes involving children under 13 and who are eligible for parole.

Chemical castration involves taking medication to reduce testosterone, other hormones and other chemicals that drive libido, the bill said. The parolees are required to start the treatment a month before they leave prison and continue treatment until the court determines it is no longer necessary.

Republican State Rep. Steve Hurst introduced the bill, which the state legislature passed last week. The representative’s previous bills on the subject, which forced child sex offenders to pay for their own surgical castration, failed to make it out of committee.

This law differs in that parolees are required to pay for the cost of the treatment, but they cannot be denied parole if they are not able to pay.

Hurst defended the bill to those who had called it “inhumane,” telling WIATTV in Birmingham that sex offenders “have marked this child for life and the punishment should fit the crime.”

“I asked them what’s more inhumane than when you take a little infant child, and you sexually molest that infant child when the child cannot defend themselves or get away, and they have to go through all the things they have to go through,” he said. “If you want to talk about inhumane – that’s inhumane.”

The Alabama Civil Liberties Union pushed back against the legislation, saying that mandating chemical castration could violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.