For years, California politicians have touted crackdowns on sex criminals to promote themselves as tough on crime. But recently, in a riveting investigative series, The Sacramento Bee confirmed what many had feared: California has among the most lenient laws in the nation toward sexually violent predators, society's life-wreckers. Gaping loopholes in California law let hard-core sex criminals committed to Atascadero State Hospital choose whether they want treatment. Almost none choose treatment, and after a breezy two-year stint, they are released from Atascadero — usually unmonitored, by lax courts. As the Bee noted, the loophole is "precisely how 54 rapists and...