OR- Center angers 4-H Club parents

Absolute proof that the public is not capable of making decisions that is best for all concerned. The public is too biased and full of irrational prejudices.

7-5-2009 Oregon:

A treatment program for sex offenders has been next to the local youth office for 15 years

The Lane County sex offender treatment center has been located on West 13th Avenue for 15 years.

But that isn’t stopping residents from getting fired up over the center’s close proximity to the local 4-H office at the Oregon State University/Lane County Extension Service building where their children congregate.

It isn’t just in the same neighborhood.

It’s next door.

“As a parent, I can’t believe this has been under our nose this whole time,” said 4-H parent Bill Linn, whose 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son raise beef cattle in 4H. “I have a big problem with the county’s placement of this building. You should not put a bunch of sex offenders in a place where people congregate with children.”

The treatment program tends to select the highest-risk offenders, said Lane County Behavioral Health Services Manager Al Levine, who oversees the treatment facility.

When asked if predatory offenders — those who have a tendency to victimize or injure others and who have been convicted of certain sex crimes such as rape, sodomy and sexual abuse — were treated in the facility, Levine said: “Probably,” adding that “these are the ones we most want to treat.”

In the 15 years the program has been located in the building, there has never been a problem, Levine said.

“We make a point of not scheduling visits during times when there are events or during the fair,” he said. “There is a very high level of vigilance and diligence in that office.”

And it’s not likely the program — which treats between 30 and 40 offenders and is staffed by two parole officers — will be there for very much longer.

It is scheduled to move to another building on West Seventh Avenue and Charnelton Street in February.

But Linn and other parents want the program to move now.

“I plan to lobby the county to accelerate the moving of the facility,” Linn said Thursday. “It’s not safe.”

Parents became aware of the problem Monday, when a child ran by the doors of the office and a probation officer stepped outside to tell his mother that children shouldn’t be playing in the area.

Levine said 4-H staff have known about the county’s treatment facility for years.

Steve Dodrill, staff chairman with the OSU Extension Service, which offers the 4-H program, did not return a message left Thursday.

However, longtime 4-H leader Doris Hoitt said she and other leaders had no idea the sex offender treatment facility was next door.

“I am concerned about exposure to predators,” she said. “Exposure to people who may not have the best intentions.”

Upset about perceived potential dangers, Linn is launching a campaign that he says will start today when he greets parents arriving to pick up their children from 4-H camp with handouts and a video camera.

He’s also moving his charge online to Facebook and Twitter and said he may purchase mobile billboards to alert people to the problem.

Offenders in the sex offender treatment program have a near-zero recidivism rate, Levine said.

“These are the subset of clients who have been directed to and agreed to pursue treatment for their difficulties,” he said. “These are not the sex offenders to be worried about.”

Levine said he hopes the program won’t have to move twice before February.

“It really isn’t a problem that needs to be fixed,” he said. “But it is going to become political — commissioners are going to get involved and they will make a decision.”

With 4-H kids coming back from camp today, Linn and other parents say they are worried about their children’s safety.

“There are plenty of places to put this type of agency,” Hoitt said.

“It needs to be stopped now and moved tomorrow.” ..Source.. by Whitney Malkin, The Register-Guard