habitual offender law

…provide for indefinite incarceration for habitual sexual offenders. The treatment or cure of offenders is thought to be more difficult when the victims are young children or toddlers, and compulsive pedophiles are viewed as intractable problems for both therapy and the justice system.

In the 1990s habitual-offender laws became harsher, and in extreme cases some offenders were detained permanently.

…under what are known as habitual offender statutes, which permit longer-than-normal sentences for a given offense. Incapacitation is also utilized, for example, in cases involving offenders who are deemed dangerous (such as those guilty of murder) and likely to commit grave and violent crimes unless restrained. Given the difficulty of…