Minnesota House lawmakers are considering a bill that would toughen penalties for criminal sexual conduct and child pornography offenses. Elizabeth Sullivan with Stillwater-based Empower Survivors says in the last four years she’s talked with thousands of survivors whose perpetrators never spent time in prison. Sullivan says the victims “have a lifetime sentence… having to suffer the consequences of an adult that chose to take that child, who was vulnerable and just wanted to be loved and cared for, and raped them.”
The bill would prohibit judges from staying sentences in crim-sex cases, require sex offenders to serve lifetime conditional release or probation, and mandate extensive probation for certain sex offenders.