Watch This Video(Mobile, Ala.) May 19 - There are convicted child molesters in Alabama who serve less than one year in jail. Research indicates neither jail time nor therapy will cure a pedophile. Many are released from prison only to strike again.
Robin Todd takes her 3 year old daughter Mackinley to the park at least once a week. "If she gets out of my sight, I follow her." said Mackinley.
But as Mackinley gets older, Robin realizes and is concerned she'll also get bolder. "And they want to do more things with their friends and their friend's parents may not watch them as close as you do. There are some sick people out there and they're walking around here at this park, you never know."
For instance, sexual predators that prey on innocent children: "These people are extremely dangerous." said Child Advocacy Director Pat Guyton. "And it is in fact their sexual orientation to have sex with children. They'll do anything to have sex with children."
NBC 15 spoke with a convicted child abuser who wished to remain anonymous. "It absolutely is addictive. It absolutely is. The more you feed it… the more you've got to have it." He added, "Flyers in K-mart ads that show pictures of children in bathing suits can be a spark for a pedophile."
Assistant District Attorney Steve Giardini says studies show that in some cases perpetrators who have been surgically or chemically castrated continue to commit these types of crimes.
Giardini has worked with juvenile victims for more than 10 years. A majority of them were sex abuse cases. "In many instances the defendants will be back out within our community." said Giardini.
Back in April in Florida David Onstott, a convicted sex offender confessed to killing 13 year old Sarah Lunde. A month earlier 9 year old Jessica Lunsford was found dead. Investigators say she had been raped. Convicted sex offender John Couey was arrested for the crime.
At the time Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father pleaded to the nation, "All the parents out there everybody that's listening, we need to write our congressman and we need to make some changes people. This does not need to happen again."
Florida has since enacted tougher sex offender laws. Alabama has not. Pat Guyton insists the system in Alabama does not work. Alabama's convicted offenders often don't serve their full sentence.
Giardini says the rule of thumb is that convicted felons serve one third of their sentence. And the general rule for life in prison is thirty years.
Guyton added, "You can have community notification, that's good. You can have mandatory registration which is good. But the gold standard, the gold standard is incarceration for long long periods of time."
Advocates like Guyton believe in mandatory sentences of at least 20 years for people who sexually abuse children. "That would be a mandatory sentence day for a day. If that person got out after 20 years and molested children again then it should be a life without parole sentence after that. That's harsh but are we gonna get serious about protecting children?"
According to the FBI, child sex abuse is the most under-reported crime in the United States. For every case reported, 10 are not. And according to the Child Advocacy Center on average 1 in every 4 girls will be sexually assaulted by the time they're 18. For boys it's 1 in 6.
"Where are we gonna put our priorities in terms of spending?" asked Steve Giardini. "Obviously I think we should spend more on incarcerating these criminals but those are decisions our elected officials make." he added.
Robin Todd believes protecting children needs to be the priority. "The people that probably don't think the laws are strong enough either… (A) are naïve or (B) it hasn't happened to them or someone they love yet."
If you would like to see tougher sex offender laws in Alabama contact your legislator, or email NBC 15's Bruce Mildwurf and he will bring your concerns to the appropriate individuals.
Your can find members of the Alabama House of Representatives at the following website: http://www.legislature.state.al.us/house/house.html
The Alabama State Senate members are listed at this website: http://www.legislature.state.al.us/senate/senate.html
