Monday, March 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A bill requiring chemical castration for repeat child molesters unanimously cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee today.
State prison and mental health officials say they are trying to determine how many people might be affected by the legislation. Dr. Carlos Brandenburg, director of the state Division of Mental Hygiene and Mental Retardation, said Senate Bill 101 may apply retroactively.
Brandenburg said a person found to be a repeated child sexual offender would have to come in for a weekly shot. And he would be required to get counseling.
In California, which enacted a chemical castration law, Brandenburg said there's no requirement for counseling.
Committee Chairman Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, said there would be a court hearing before any offender would be required to get the injections. And there would be psychiatric and other testimony before a judge, who would make the final decision on whether the individual was a threat to commit the same crime again.
In California, weekly injections of Depo-Provera, a female birth-control drug, are required for those convicted of a second serious sex offense against a child. The Nevada bill defines the "recidivist sex offender" who must undergo treatment as one who has been convicted of two or more sexual offenses and is likely to commit a similar crime.
SB101 would require the defendant to pay for the treatments, which could be $2,600 a year, and it would be a felony if the individual took drugs to counter the effects of Depo-Provera. The bill leaves the discretion to the district judge to choose another drug besides Depo-Provera if it is shown to be more effective.
The committee stripped from the original bill that rapists would also be required to be chemically castrated, limiting the measure only to repeat child sexual offenders.
A Danish study found that only 2.2 percent of 900 offenders who were required to be injected became repeat sexual violators.
Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, said she's going ahead with her bill to start a two-year voluntary chemical castration test program.
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