IL- A lurid past and a looming law limits teen sex offender's future

7-5-2009 Illinois:

Teen sex offender who turned his life around finds his crime hard to shake -- and a federal law could make it even harder

Tim is 19, freshly graduated from high school, and like many people his age he's nervous about leaving home. He's not quite sure where he will go, what he will do -- or if the secret he has guarded for much of his life will be exposed.

Five years ago, Tim sexually abused an 8-year-old girl in Chicago, and his name was logged onto a state registry for juvenile sex offenders. Only the police have known about his record until now. But in adulthood, the circle is widening.

Tim, who asked that his last name not be disclosed, said he was rejected by military recruiters and a college admissions office after he informed them of his history. And he is concerned that a year from now, a federal law might cause his full name, photo and address to be displayed on the Internet, just like adult sex offenders.

Officials at the Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers, a campus for troubled youths near Wauconda, say Tim has responded well to years of intense therapy, earning the chance to move beyond his past.

But the past of a juvenile sex offender is hard to shake. Justifiably or not, it can define an entire life, even when some experts say that young people, properly treated, rarely repeat those crimes.

"I want to be viewed as a good person," Tim said. "I don't want to carry that label."

Robin McGinnis, a social worker and the founder of Tim's treatment center, said most kids there have traumatic backgrounds, and Tim's was particularly grim: He described his childhood as a slog between 10 West Side foster homes, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse were common.

He said he was adopted at age 10 by a man whose interest in him was limited to cashing state-issued support checks, and by 14 he was hanging out with a gang and selling drugs to help pay for his school clothes.

That got him locked up twice -- first for being involved in a gang fight, then for heroin possession, he said. But he was back on the street, visiting one of his former foster families, when he committed the most serious crime of his life.

According to a court document reviewed by the Tribune, Tim had sexual contact with an 8-year-old girl. She soon told someone, as did he, and he was sent back to juvenile detention.

He said he knew he had made a terrible mistake -- he had absorbed a basic sense of morality from the good foster homes -- and against his lawyer's advice, he decided to come clean with the judge.

"I couldn't bottle up that guilt all my life, that I'd beat this case when I'd actually done something," he said.

He was found to have committed felony criminal sexual abuse and was sent to the Illinois Youth Center Kewanee, a Department of Corrections facility that specializes in treating young sex offenders. A year ago, he was transferred to the campus of Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers.

It is a collection of small, spartan buildings set a half-mile back from the main road. The 40 or so residents, who range from age 15 to 21, come mostly by court order for a treatment regimen that can last for years, and not all of them succeed. McGinnis said she has asked judges to return some teens to prison, feeling they were too dangerous to remain.

Tim, by contrast, sped through the program. He moved quickly from a restrictive dormitory to a modest apartment, took classes in the center's high school and earned the chance to work an off-campus retail job (his boss does not know about his record, he said).

"He showed focus, responsibility, a yearning for change," said his therapist, Heather Lawrence. "He has a very strong set of goals and work ethic, so he's able to come in and do what he needed to do to meet those goals."

McGinnis said while many of the youths need to be prodded to feel remorse for their actions, that has not been an issue for Tim. Young men like him, she said, need to be encouraged to see themselves as good.

Nurturing the self-esteem of sex offenders might sound like political correctness gone mad, but University of Oklahoma psychologist Barbara Bonner, who treats such youths, said it can be a critical step to keeping them out of further trouble.

"It's not that [a youth] should minimize what he did or forget that he made a serious mistake -- he did," she said. "But leaving with a negative self-image would hardly be conducive to staying away from illegal behavior."

She added that ample evidence suggests treatment works for young sex offenders. Various studies have found that 5 to 14 percent of those who receive counseling commit another sexual crime, she said.

Authorities, though, don't take those rehabilitations on faith. Illinois, like most states, requires young sex offenders to inform local police when they move into a community. But while the police can share that information with schools or others they believe should know, it is otherwise off-limits to the public.

That could change in July 2010 , when a new federal law will impact the rules. It compels states to reveal the identities of many young sex offenders on a Web site for at least 25 years.

"If you're going to err, you should err on the side of parents, church leaders, youth group leaders -- those who are responsible for the welfare of the vulnerable in our community," said the architect of the provision, former Wisconsin Congressman Mark Green. "They have a right to access that information."

It is not clear whether Tim's record will be revealed. He plans to ask a judge to take him off the juvenile registry before the federal law is enforced. Even if that fails, Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, said officials have yet to decide which crimes will require public exposure.

But Tim has already discovered how his past is limiting his future. He said his aspiration for a military career ended when he disclosed his history to recruiters for the Navy and Marine Corps (neither allows sex offenders into its ranks, according to spokesmen).

When he told Bradley University, it insisted on a background check -- a requirement for all felons, a spokeswoman said -- and did not accept him, he said.

He now plans to study social work or marketing at the College of Lake County, which does not inquire about felony convictions. Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers is allowing Tim to keep his apartment there for a few more months, until he saves up enough money for his own place.

When he does leave, he said, he's confident he'll do well because he's a better person than he was at 14. He tries to remind himself of that with a "self-esteem journal," in which he records the attributes others see in him: strong morals, a tender heart, even the willingness to cry.

"This is a great guy," he wrote. "Remember to be good and kind to him!" ..Source.. by John Keilman | Tribune reporter