California releases thousands of pedophiles less than year after their convictions, data shows
Thousands of convicted pedophiles in California have been released from prison after only spending less than a year in prison, a recent analysis found.
"Statistics clearly show that pedophiles don't get reformed. They're going to come out and they're going to commit again," former Los Angeles sex crimes prosecutor Samuel Dordulian told the Daily Mail.
Using California's Megan's Law website, the Daily Mail found that there were more than 7,000 sex offenders convicted of "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age," but released from prison in under a year of being convicted.
"Letting these people out early, we're allowing for a lot more victimization. And that's terrifying," Dordulian added.
Additionally, the report found that predators convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child spent less than a year in prison, as well as three cases of convicts who kidnapped kids under 14 "with intent to commit lewd or lascivious acts," and nearly 40 cases of sodomy with a child under 16.
The report is based on data prior to 2019 due to "digital blocks" that were added to the Megan’s Law website that prevents more recent analysis, according to the outlet. The site does show that there are currently 61,770 sex offenders in California, though it’s unclear how many are pedophiles.
The investigation examined 54,986 sex offenders listed on the Megan’s Law website as of July 2019 and found 76% of the offenders committed crimes involving kids. The data was determined by comparing the published dates of a pedophile’s conviction versus their release date.
Convicted pedophiles spend an average of two years and 10 months in prison, according to the report.
Megan’s Law is a federal law that requires law enforcement to make information on sex offenders available to the public. It was passed under the Clinton administration after the murder of New Jersey 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994.
Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa slammed the findings of the report in comment Fox News Digital, arguing the state must either prove the data isn't true or immediately fix policies that allow for the early releases.
"This disturbing report represents a critical challenge to California: Prove it isn’t true or take immediate action to reverse policies that contradict any sense of justice. The spirit that made Megan’s Law a reality is as important to public safety as ever, and there must be a clear and consistent standard for truth in sentencing of the most violent and dangerous criminals."
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Chairwoman of the California GOP, Jessica Millan Patterson, added in comment to Fox News Digital that "nothing should be more important than the safety and well-being of our children."
"Yet soft-on-crime policies championed by radical Governor Gavin Newsom, woke DA George Gascón and California Democrats have put our state’s youngest and most vulnerable in harm’s way. Allowing for a speedy prison release for thousands of California’s most egregious convicted criminals is utterly reprehensible," she continued.
Dordulian said that some policies endorsed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has allowed for shortened sentences of convicts.
"With Newsom, they've passed a lot of legislation where they are allowing for resentencing, they're allowing for people to come back and there's a push to have less time spent in prison," Dordulian said.
"That has been the push for the last at least five years: letting people out of prison much earlier than what their sentences were for."
Neither Gov. Newsom’s office nor the California attorney general’s office immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Lauri Burns, a trafficking survivor and the founder of "The Teen Project" is disturbed by the report. Her organization works to help girls who are homeless or sex trafficked or both.
"It's horrific that they're being released and if you're a parent and you don't think they're near you, look at the Megan's Law website and put your zip code in and you will see how many predators are close to your house. I don't think people realize it," said Burns.
Burns said a lot of the predators find their victims online.
"Nowadays at least 50 percent of girls are trafficked online. Half of the kids were trafficked on Facebook in 2021 and Facebook is not the most popular app for the kids. It's Instagram. It's TikTok, dancing, looking older than you are and I tell parents you need to track them," said Burns.
Burns said there are a lot of software options for parents to track their kids' online activity, even apps that track keystrokes.
"If you go online and look for parenting software, particularly key logger because the key logger will tell you everything they typed in whether it's in messaging, email. It'll tell you the exact keys. If you're not tracking your kid, you cannot roll back the tape if they disappear," said Burns.
Burns said she has been devastated after hearing of the case in Riverside where a former Virginia police officer is believed to have murdered a teenager's family after catfishing her online.
"It's not about the kid. We trust the kid. It's that we don't trust the people that are following them that look like little boys because there's no way to prove who they are. They're hiding in plain sight. She has to live with this for the rest of her life that she had a misstep online," she said.
Nick Ferro, who calls himself the "Socal pedo snatcher," has dedicated countless hours the past year and a half to trying to catch pedophiles in Southern California.
"I have a decoy and we act like we are 11 to 13 years old, boy or girl," said Ferro.
Ferro said he then finds predators online and meets up with them to expose them. He has worked with law enforcement in the past, and now does citizen's arrests. He said he decided to do this after predators impacted his family.
"I had some of my family become victims and the cops didn't really help at all so if I can expose people before they touch a real kid, that's better for me," said Ferro.
Ferro reacted to the latest report too.
"That's not right. We all want to protect our family. I have a young one. He's turning four, and I'd do anything to protect him and his friends. It's nerve wracking. Why can't they do long sentences," said Ferro.