The House has unanimously passed a measure designed to increase prison sentences for child sex offenders.
The bill (HB 1159) sponsored by Rep. Berny Jacques, a Seminole Republican, increases mandatory sentences for those committing crimes against children.
Repeat offenders will see minimum sentences increased from 10 years in prison to 15. Sentences for sexual performance with a child would jump from 20 years in prison to 30. And those convicted of buying or selling children would see minimum sentences increased from 20 years to 30.
The measure also covers offenders who possess pornographic images of children under 12 years old involving “sadomasochistic abuse” of a child, “sexual battery” or “sexual bestiality” involving a child, or any film, video or computer-generated images involving children.
Anyone convicted of those crimes, classified as a first-degree felony, would serve a minimum of 15 years in prison. If it’s a second-degree felony, that would draw a minimum of five years in prison.
Jacques added an amendment to the measure in the Committee process that says possessing “childlike sex dolls” would count as a violation of the state’s childlike sex dolls act of 2021. That law prohibits sale and distribution of dolls resembling children.
A similar bill (SB 1750) is set to be reviewed on the floor of the Senate.
