A British government minister says she’s “not squeamish” about the idea of chemical castration for male sex offenders, and wants to make it mandatory.
The UK is considering a range of options from a new report, which aims to cut the country’s prison population by 10,000 inmates to help alleviate chronic overcrowding.
“Problematic sexual arousal and preoccupation can be reduced via chemical suppressants and other medications, which can be prescribed for individuals who have committed a sexual offense under certain circumstances,” the new report states.
Prisons in the south-west of England have been involved in a pilot program of chemical castrations since 2002, and Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood from the ruling Labour Party told lawmakers in parliament on Thursday that the program would expand to 20 more prisons in two other regions of England.
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Prisoners would be given two drugs as part of the treatment: one limits sexual thoughts, while the other reduces testosterone and “problematic sexual arousal.” Inmates would also have ongoing counseling to treat their psychological issues, such as a desire for sexual power and control. One recent study found that reoffending rates were up to 60% lower for prisoners who had received the treatment.
“For some, offending relates to power, but for another subset of offenders, the combination of chemical suppressants and psychological interventions can, we believe, have a big and positive impact,” Minister Mahmood told parliament.
Initially, the option for chemical castration treatment would be only voluntary, and medical ethicists say it could be a problem to force doctors to treat an inmate who doesn’t want to have it done. In Britain, there is a strict tradition of informed medical consent where a patient can refuse medical treatment, and a doctor can’t ordinarily be forced to carry it out.
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Sex offenders make up a significant percentage of the prison population in England, and at the end of March, more than 20% of inmates were incarcerated on sex crimes charges. The new report cautions that chemical castration “should never be used as a risk management tool or standalone rehabilitative offer, and it is only appropriate for a limited number of sex offenders”.
Chemical castration is already being used in some other European prisons to treat sex offenders. Authorities in Sweden have been carrying out limited clinical trials on volunteers at a Stockholm prison, while in Germany and Denmark it is more widely used but still on a voluntary basis. In Poland, courts can pass a sentence of mandatory chemical castration for some categories of sex-offense prisoners.
Thursday’s report, written by a former government minister from the Conservative Party, also made four dozen recommendations to try and ease prison overcrowding.
These include giving fewer people jail sentences under 12 months and encouraging other types of punishment instead, such as community service or fines; developing new policies for early release with good behavior for inmates, and tagging all offenders who committed crimes of abuse against women and girls.
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The opposition Conservative Party has criticized the new report, saying that by scrapping shorter prison sentences the government “is effectively decriminalizing crimes like burglary, theft and assault.”
“This is a gift to criminals, who will be free to offend with impunity,” the party’s justice spokesman Robert Jenrick told reporters.
However, the report has been broadly welcomed by the Howard League for Penal Reform, the world’s oldest prison charity.
“The government is taking an important step forward by accepting most of the recommendations from this important review,” says Chief Executive Andrea Coomber, but she cautioned that “the prisons crisis will not be solved by half-measures.”
Senior police officers have cautioned that if there will be fewer prisoners behind bars, they need more resources to manage the risk that offenders pose outside of jail.
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