KS- Larned (Civil Commitment Center) seeks $90 million to treat sex predators

9-19-2008 Kansas:

TOPEKA - Patients are entering the Larned Sexual Predator Treatment Program faster than staff is increasing, lawmakers heard Thursday.

"Failure to properly fund the Larned Sexual Predator Program is endangering patients, state employees and men and women and children who live in our communities," Kim Barnes, chairman of the Legislative Committee for the Pawnee County Economic Development Commission, told the Legislative Budget Committee.

He urged the lawmakers to support the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services' request for almost $90 million in new funding to staff, maintain and expand the program though fiscal year 2012.

The program handles sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences. They are sent to Larned after a court finds they are "likely to engage in repeat acts of sexual violence" due to a mental abnormality or personality disorder.

When patients complete the treatment, which not all do, they are sent to a transitional housing program at Osawatomie State Hospital.

Admission rates in the sexual predator treatment program are difficult to predict, according to Ray Dalton, the deputy secretary for SRS.

"It is certain the program will continue to grow," Dalton told the committee. "With this increased growth will come the need for increased resources."

The program has 182 people -- 168 housed at Larned and 10 at Osawatomie. The remainder have been released into the community, Dalton said. He did not know how many vacant staff positions there were.

The request includes:

• $535,294 added to the current fiscal year that runs through June 31, to run the program for six months.

• $332,947 for six staff positions at the Transitional Housing Services Osawatomie. There is staff to accommodate six patients, not the current 10.

• $2.5 million in the next budget to plan for a 90-bed expansion at Larned and $40.1 million each of the following two years for construction. The SRS predicts it will run out of bed space in the sexual predator treatment program in 2012.

• $263,350 in the next budget to add four beds in the transition program and $318,202 to plan for a 28- bed expansion, plus $5.1 million in the 2011 budget for construction.

"Short staffing is a safety issue not only for workers and staff but also for the clients," said Edwards County Commissioner Duane Mathes, who also is a safety security officer at Larned. He also spoke on behalf of the Kansas Organization of State Employees.

He related the story of a 20-year-old female technician who was left alone for 45 minutes with 29 sexual predators.

"I could not believe they would leave her alone with all the rooms unlocked," he said. "Thankfully, nothing happened."

Mathes is not the first to raise questions over staffing shortages. After Perry "Mad Dog" Isley escaped from the program in August, lawmakers questioned whether staffing shortages were part of the problem.

The escape, in which Isley passed through Wichita, was the first from the high-security unit since the predator treatment program opened in 1994.

At the time, the 150-member direct-care staff for the program had about 24 vacancies, and the hospital security staff had 6.5 vacancies among 55.5 positions, SRS told The Eagle.

The budget committee, which includes senators and representatives, did not vote on the issue but said it would study the funding request further. ..News Source.. by Jeannine Koranda at 785-296-3006 or jkoranda@wichitaeagle.com.