NY- Tompkins sex-offense court to open in 2009

12-15-2008 New York:

ITHACA — In early 2009, Tompkins County will become the seventh county in New York state with a sex-offense court, according to court officials.

While this is another in the array of specialty or problem-solving courts, like drug court and integrated domestic violence court, court officers and other advocates stress that sex-offense court is distinct.

“This is one of those courts. However, it's not a treatment court,” said Judy Kluger, deputy chief administrative judge for court operations and planning for New York state. “It's a way to address one of the more complicated issues that comes into our courts.”

While some sex-offenders go to jail or prison, a certain number end up back in the community and on probation, she explained. The court's goal will be to enhance monitoring of convicted sex-offenders in order to decrease incidents of re-offending, she added.

“It's a relatively new initiative for the state,” she said.

Kluger described sex-offense court as an “accountability court,” where sex-offenders are monitored by a judge and probation officers. The court will ensure faster follow-up on violations and provide a check on further criminal activity, she added.

The state began establishing sex-offense court in 2006, Kluger said. Tompkins County will join Kings, Oswego, Orange, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties as sex-offense court hosts, she added.

“It's about public safety and protecting the community,” she said. “The hope is that this will prevent sexual offenders from re-offending.” Kluger added that since the court will be using existing resources, there should be no appreciable extra cost.

Tompkins County Judge John Rowley called it a “community safety program” that can coordinate agencies, professionals and services in ways probation can't do by itself. These groups include sex-offense experts from the mental health clinic, law-enforcement officers, the district attorney's office, the victim's advocacy center, defense attorneys, court personnel and substance-abuse counselors.

“There are a significant number of sexual offenders on community supervision,” Rowley said. “I felt that the court had an obligation to ensure the supervision was effective as possible,” The court will ensure good planning and good communication, and break down the walls that separate agencies, he said.

Offenders will have to appear in the court twice a month, and the court will be able to enforce their travel restrictions and computer activities with GPS tracking gear and Internet monitoring software, he said. Since sex-offense court will be coordinating the agencies' efforts, offenders who violate their probation conditions can be incarcerated immediately, he said.

“We're not trying to change the person,” Rowley said. “We're trying to ensure community safety. If a person has raised their risk in some way, they're not going to be in the community.”

While committing a sexual-offense is not addictive behavior, it's talked about in the same way, Rowley said. Sex-offenders and therapists will be responsible for identifying behavior triggers and forming a relapse prevention plan to avoid those triggers, he added.

“Sex-offenders have their own list of things that trigger their behavior,” he said. “At a minimum, we know the risk of sex-offenders re-offending exists for the rest of their lives, according to the research.”

“This is not an alternative to incarceration,” emphasized Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson. Sex-offense court is part of a sex-offender's sentence, and “not a cakewalk” for them.

“The more monitoring you have of sex-offenders, the better,” she said. “Sex-offenders can be on probation for a long time. We have to maximize our ability to monitor them.”

Both Rowley and Wilkinson said that sex-offense cases are hard to prosecute. Besides the lack of physical and corroborating evidence, it's emotionally difficult for juvenile victims to testify at trials, Wilkinson said.

“Trials are extremely traumatic for child victims,” she said. In cases involving child victims, plea bargaining is preferred.

“Those sex-offenders I can put in prison, I will put in prison, she said.

While planning for the court continues, court personnel recently attended training for it in Oswego, and he is holding a continuing legal education program for county bar association members on Friday, Rowley said. ..News Source.. by Raymond Drumsta • Gannett News Service