Texas Rep. Dustin Burrows Wants ‘Strictest Possible’ Castration Law for Repeat Sex Offenders

On Tuesday, Alabama law makers passed a bill which would require convicted sex offenders who've abused a child under the age of 13 to take drugs that block the production of testosterone, as well as other naturally occurring hormones and chemicals in the body that drive libido, as a condition for parole.

The offender will also be required to pay for the treatment unless they cannot afford it. The bill still needs to be signed by Alabama's governor before it becomes a law.

Other states have considered this measure for repeat child sex offenders, like California's 1990s chemical castration bill and similar laws on the books in Oregon, Montana, Louisiana and Florida, but what about Texas?

Texas does currently have a chemical castration law, but the treatment in the Lone Star State cannot be a condition for parole and the inmate must request the procedure.

However, a study in 2008 concluded "that among paraphilic male outpatients treated with weekly psychotherapy for 5 or more years, the addition of MPA is associated with a decrease in the rate of relapse." In other words, there's science to suggest that it works to help reduce the likelihood of an offender repeating the crime.

Why doesn't Texas go ahead and add some meat to the already legal chemical treatment for inmates who make the request and require it for parole before a child sex offender is allowed to re-enter society?

I reached out to Dustin Burrows, state representative from District 83, to ask this question, and the answer he gave me was somewhat surprising considering that Representative Burrows is, in fact, a man.

Most men would agree that any perpetrator of a sexual crime against a child should be punished, but the conversation quickly become uncomfortable when the word "castration" begins to get thrown around.

Burrows suggested that with Texas being a state that utilizes capital punishment, it shouldn't be a far stretch to administer actual castration to those who are found to repeatedly commit such atrocious acts against children. He stated that he believes that for those repeat offenders, the "strictest possible legal laws" should be applied for punishment.

I'm sure that Texas has a law prohibiting genital alterations to be administered for punishment, but maybe it's time to make it a consideration since the problem seems to be growing and not getting better.

Hopefully, Texas lawmakers are watching closely as this Alabama bill works its way through the legislative process and whether or not their governor will sign the bill into law.

If it happens, I'm sure Texas can top Alabama's efforts and literally cut the head off of this kind of crime against children.