NY- Sex offender law questioned in wake of shooting

5-31-2009 New York:

Miller says he will seek changes

ALBANY — At least two of New York’s nine most dangerous sex offenders freed under a two-year old civil confinement law have faced arrest on sex charges again, including one who this week shot a police officer then killed himself.

State lawmakers said they’ll study the law, designed to restrict and monitor some sex offenders after they leave prison, to see if it’s too easy for some offenders to be returned to the streets.

The latest was Ken-Tweal Catts, who was freed from civil confinement by a jury in September, about a year after his release from prison. Catts was picked up Wednesday and was being charged with rape when he grabbed a Dutchess County detective’s pistol and fired a shot that grazed the officer’s head. He then holed up for three hours in the county building before shooting himself.

The first sex offender freed in the jury stage of the 2007 state law, Douglas Junco of Washington County, was accused of rape and kidnapping a woman in Georgia a year ago. That was eight months after a jury found there wasn’t enough evidence of a mental abnormality, as required under the law, to confine him or order him to be strictly supervised in the community.

“The question is, what does the jury really know?” said Assemblyman Joel Miller, a Dutchess County Republican. “Judges normally do that and it’s only when we play this game when people claim mental illness that we fool the jury. This isn’t supposed to be a game. People with competence should make the decisions, not turn it over to lay people.”

The Republican said he will seek changes in the Democrat-controlled chamber to improve the sex offender management law because of the shooting.

“Frankly, I don’t like any part of the current system,” said Miller, noting that it provides a false sense of security. “I think we created a charade that misleads the public.”

Confined in mental health facilities

The state now confines 81 sex offenders in mental health facilities. They can petition a court for release annually.

The next highest level of “civil management” under the law is to require “strict and intensive supervision” in the community. The state has put 65 offenders in that category so far. Of them, 29 violated the conditions of their release and 10 were charged with sex-related violations or new offenses. Of those, five did not involve physical contact, according to state records.

“It’s a new law and a new experience and we are constantly monitoring and evaluating it,” said John Caher, spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. “I don’t believe there are any concrete proposals on the table at the moment to effect any major changes.”

There was no immediate comment from the Democratic majorities in the Senate and Assembly, or Democratic Gov. David Paterson.

“We have big concerns,” said Sen. Dale Volker of Erie County who was part of then-Republican majority in the Senate that supported the 2007 law. “The reason we passed the civil confinement law is because there are some people you need to keep in confinement. We’ll look into this.”

The law was aimed at a void in the criminal justice system: Once sex offenders — who often repeat their crimes especially without rehabilitation — completed their prison terms and parole, there was little way to monitor or help them. The 2007 law sought to rehabilitate, rather than punish, the sex offenders.

The system creates a series of checks and reviews by medical and judicial officials.

Confinement rejected in many cases

Since it was effective in April 2007, the state prison system and Parole Division has referred 3,252 sex offenders. The state Office of Mental Health rejected 2,691 cases as not warranting supervision or confinement beyond their jail sentences. The other steps in the process, including psychiatric evaluations and judicial reviews, which can eliminate cases from consideration for further confinement, further winnowed the group. That left only the nine who were confined and 65 on strict and intensive supervision in a community. Many cases are pending the jury stage, which is at the end of the process.

“There is no hole dark or deep enough for these sick and twisted predators,” said Assemblyman Greg Ball, a Republican whose district includes Dutchess County. He said the most serious offenders must be confined permanently.

Catts was convicted in 2004 of felony sexual abuse in a case involving a 17-year-old. He had spent more than 500 days in jail before that, and was released twice from prison and returned for parole violations, according to state prison records.

In prison, he logged 27 disciplinary incidents, including fighting, harassment, smoking and an unnamed sex offense, according to corrections records. He was released in 2007.

Junco had served nearly 15 years in prison for an attempted first-degree rape conviction in 1993 in Albany. ..Source.. by PoughkeepsieJournal.com