On November 7th, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 83, or "Jessica's Law." It adds extra punishments, ex post facto, onto Registered Sex Offenders. An anonymous poster to Indybay wrote, "I'm surprised that the winning majority was less than 95%. After all, most citizens think that all RSO's are like the worst of the worst... Few people understand that their neighbor might be an RSO, perhaps convicted for 'indecent exposure,' perhaps many decades ago. But almost a third voted No. These must be the voters who bothered to read the pro and con arguments in the voter info booklet. There they could see that the proposition contains many new laws --- including one which has become a disaster in the state of Iowa. One aspect of the new law says that... that RSO's (even the mildest offenders, and no matter how long ago they offended) cannot live within 2,000 feet of a park or school."

He or she says, "That may sound reasonable -- until you draw a map of the forbidden areas. Then you find that RSO's will be driven out of cities, and even suburbs, into remote rural areas. Those areas lack rental housing, lack jobs, lack psychotherapists, et cetera." Those areas also lack the resources for enforcing the required registration and GPS monitoring of past offenders. CALCASA points out: "California voters made one thing very clear on Election Day, that they are passionate about ending sexual violence and serving victims. Proposition 83 will cost at minimum, hundreds of millions of dollars annually but not one dollar will be allotted to victims or victim services." The law also does not distinguish between offenders who are at a higher risk of offending again, or between the level of violence involved in certain kinds of crimes (public exposure and public urination are viewed by most as nonviolent offenses). The law expands upon Megan's Law, which was named after a girl who was raped and killed in New Jersey. Jessica's Law is named after a Florida girl who was raped and killed by a repeat offender. The majority of California's RSO's have not committed a violent crime related to children.

The day after the election, registered sex offenders won a reprieve. The buffer zone around parks and schools "may well be an unconstitutional retroactive penalty," according to U.S. District Judge Susan Illston. She issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the provision in four Bay Area counties at the request of a man who said the initiative would force him out of the community where he has lived for more than 20 years. She ruled that the plaintiff, who was identified only as John Doe, would likely be able to demonstrate that Prop. 83 is a punitive measure that should not be imposed on people who committed sex crimes before voters had passed the measure. She stopped enforcement of the residency restrictions until November 27th, when a hearing will be held before another federal judge on a preliminary injunction that would extend the ban. The order applies to San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, and Sonoma counties, whose district attorneys were named as defendants, along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Text of Prop 83 | CJCJ's Prop 83 Fact Sheet | California Attorney for Criminal Justice website | United for No Injustice, Oppression, or Neglect's Jessica's Law..? No Way! page | CalCASA Public Policy | ACLU-NC's Summary of Prop 83 | California's Megan's Law website