CA- Cost Cuts Could Send Sex Offenders Underground

2-5-2009 California:

SACRAMENTO, CA - Paroled sex offenders say new cuts to housing assistance will likely force more of them into the streets at greater risk to public safety.

Next week, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDRC) announces new policies, including a stricter 60-day limit on paying rent for parolees newly released from prison. The agency says in the past 12 months, the state has paid out almost $20 million in housing assistance for 7,897 parolees. Almost 5,000 of those parolees are convicted sex offenders.

"A lot of the guys are of the mentality that I'm not gonna do this, ya know, and they're gonna just cut the (GPS) monitors off and go. I mean, I hear guys talking about it every day," said a 57-year-old sex offender parolee named Russ. He was just booted from his room at a downtown Sacramento hotel because his parole agent said the state won't pay his $485 rent anymore.

Russ isn't sure what his next move will be, but he said many he knows could likely turn to their old ways without a place to live.

"You've got already desperate men with maybe drug and alcohol problems that are going to be made more desperate," he said. "They're gonna be on the streets, they're gonna be drinking, gonna be doing drugs and they're gonna be a danger to the public."

"Everything I kind of worked for is pretty much going down the drain for me because without a roof over my head, I don't really have no fallback," another sex offender on parole told News10.

His name is William, he's 24, and a registered sex offender released in December after serving time for grand theft. He's been told his $490 rent check will end next month. He has a job at a fast food restaurant and is trying to get into college classes but says having the state pay his rent has been his only hope.

"They told me as long as I have a GPS monitor, I would be able to have parole pay my rent. It's helping me survive to get my feet up on land so I can become something of myself," William said.

What will he do now?

"I don't know. I'm pretty scared about that now, actually," he said. As for others in the same situation, William echoed Russ' comments.

"It's gonna mean that there's gonna be more people out on the streets that are 290s (the penal code for registered sex offenders). It's gonna mean that people have to worry more about what kind of people are out in the streets," he said.

"The fact we're trying to push them out into the street is not a fair statement," responded Gordon J. Hinkle, spokesman for CDCR. "They're not being cut off cold coming out the institution, we're not just going to give them a bus ticket to nowhere. For the average parolee, I think 60 days is an adequate time for them to get assistance to help provide a stable environment."

Hinkle said the department is simply cracking down on spending while directing dollars toward job training and other programs to help parolees get back on their feet.

"Our focus is now going to be on allowing them to become more self sufficient and try to give a leg up instead of a handout, especially when at taxpayers' expense, we can't afford to subsidize long-term housing assistance," said Hinkle. He said the $20 million spent in the past 12 months on parolee housing was in large part because of problems under Jessica's Law in placing paroled sex offenders, who cannot be within 2,000 feet of schools or playgrounds.

"We just can't continue at that rate," Hinkle said.

He also downplayed any idea the cuts in paying parolee housing costs will mean any higher risk to citizens around the state.

"We're definitely going to be doing our regular supervision and monitoring of parolees, so I'm not seeing a real public threat," he said.

But Russ says anything that increases the desperation of convicted sex offenders can create more risk.

"The folks that voted overwhelmingly for Jessica's Law were not voting for something that was going to turn 290s out into the streets, homeless. That's not because they're concerned about our living conditions but because they're concerned about their own safety. And let's face it, with some of us, they've gotta be concerned," Russ said. ..News Source.. by Mark Hedlund