An In-State Treatment Facility For Registered Sex Offenders Still Just A Pipe Dream

12-22-2009 Connecticut:

With the July 2007 slayings of a Cheshire mother and her two daughters fresh on their minds, legislators moved quickly last year to toughen up the state's criminal justice system.

But one of their reforms — creation of a residential treatment facility with a range of services for sex offenders on parole or probation — never happened, even though it was part of a bill that passed by wide margins in both the state House of Representatives and the Senate.

Now, a three-time convicted rapist — considered so dangerous and untreatable he was denied admission to sex offender programs in Connecticut and seven other states only two years ago — will have nowhere to go when he is released from prison on Christmas Eve.

Instead, 52-year-old Ransome Lee Moody will be waiting in line for a bed at Immanuel Baptist Homeless Shelter in New Haven, a place where indigent offenders who have done their time often go for housing when there are no other options.

Judicial officials say Connecticut badly needs a sex offender treatment facility for recently released inmates in Connecticut. They blame state budget woes for the failure to create one.

"It's a very significant gap in how the state provides the appropriate services for these kinds of defendants," Moody's public defender, James S. McKay, said. "And it's potentially dangerous for the public if the defendant doesn't get the benefit of the right services. Yes, it's expensive. But there are also costs for not doing it."

Probation officials have informed the 75-bed Immanuel Baptist shelter about Moody's criminal history, Wesley L. Thorpe Sr., executive director of the shelter, said Monday. Less than half of those who regularly fill the warehouse-type shelter are former prison inmates.

"We're just hoping that nothing happens," Thorpe said.


Housing Wanted

Legislators recognized the need for housing sex offenders on probation and parole, including it in the 2008 crime-fighting bill they passed after the Petit home invasion in Cheshire. Two longtime criminals who had been out on parole are accused of breaking into the home of Dr. William Petit in July 2007 and killing his wife and two daughters.

The 2008 legislation toughened the state's criminal laws, including the addition of a new "home invasion" law and the allocation of $10 million for increased crime-fighting.

Part of that money was to be spent on housing for recently released sex offenders who would either receive inpatient treatment in a restricted facility or, if they were capable of looking for jobs and a new home, get placed in transitional or permanent housing.

State officials moved ahead on a plan to provide 12 beds for sex offenders on probation and another 12 beds for those on parole, to be housed in an existing building at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville. The Department of Correction put the project out to bid and selected a vendor.

William H. Carbone, head of the state Judicial Department's Court Support Services Division, said the court support services division and the Department of Correction planned to pool together $2 million for the facility.

But by the end of 2008, state revenues began to fall and a projected budget surplus dwindled.

"The budget ax kept falling every few months and money kept getting chipped away," Carbone said. "It's very frustrating because it's a worthwhile project that's badly needed. There's no question about that. At some point in the future, we hope there will be adequate funding."

Michael Cicchetti, deputy secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, said departments have to set priorities. "There's money in their budget, not as much as they would like, but every state agency is operating with less dollars," Cicchetti said. "It's really a question of how they want to use it. "

"This is one of the things caught up in this budget nightmare up here," said State Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, one of the legislature's leading authorities on criminal justice who has advocated strongly for a treatment facility for sex offenders. "I realize that tough decisions have to be made but if I was the governor, I would put a secure facility up and running for this guy and others like him who could potentially be a threat to public safety."


A History Of Problems

Moody was 17 when he first went to prison in 1974 for raping a 9-year-old girl. By 1978, he was out of prison and in Florida, where he served seven years in prison for several crimes, including burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.

While living in Middletown in 1985, Moody was charged with raping two women. In one case, Moody cut a window screen, entered a woman's home and raped her several times at knifepoint, prosecutors said. In the other case, Moody raped a hearing-impaired woman on the grounds of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.

Moody was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the rapes and was released in April 2001. He was back in police custody two months later for violating his probation when he used drugs.He was released again after a July 2001 court hearing — and arrested again in February 2002 for violating his probation after he tested positive for smoking marijuana. Judge Elaine Gordon imposed a sentence of 18 months, but in January 2003 she modified the sentence, reducing it to time served, though she imposed a number of conditions of probation, according to a court transcript.

In May 2003, Moody violated his probation again; he was arrested for exposing himself to a woman near Connecticut Valley Hospital.

During a July 2004 violation-of-probation hearing, Middlesex State's Attorney Timothy J. Liston pushed to keep Moody in jail as long as possible. He cited reports from probation officials who said only a "substantial amount of time" in prison — not treatment — would protect the community from Moody's "violent acts," a court transcript shows.

Judge Robert L. Holzberg sentenced Moody to six years in prison and ordered him to get "intensive" sexual offender treatment. Moody was released Aug. 31, 2007. Unable to live with family, Moody sought housing at a Hartford homeless shelter.

A month after his release, probation officials lost track of Moody, and authorities went searching for him. A GPS tracking device Moody was wearing led police to Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, where Moody had sought help for suicidal thoughts. He told one official that he wanted to "end it" by either hurting himself or someone else.

Two months after his release, Moody violated his probation again. Project Green, a New Haven drug rehabilitation program with 24-hour supervision, kicked him out of its program, the only program in eight states willing to house Moody. Officials said Moody left the program "in direct violation of his probation."

By then, probation officials, with the help of other state agencies and Judge Holzberg, throughout multiple court hearings tried to devise a treatment and housing plan for Moody, but officials testified that no sex offender program existed for someone like Moody, who officials said continued to present a "high degree of risk of sexually assaultive behavior."


Finding A Solution

When it appeared that an inpatient sex offender treatment program was coming to Connecticut, it seemed the perfect spot for Moody. Holzberg ordered Moody into such a facility as a condition of his probation.

But last month, McKay said "we're quite a long distance from the hopes of Judge Holzberg." McKay told Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford the facility would have taken care of Moody's housing and his therapeutic needs.

"But the problem is that there isn't one," Clifford said. "It is a hope. And that was the legislature's hope also. But with the budget crisis, we don't have it."

In the meantime, probation and parole officials will struggle to find options for homeless sex offenders, addressing public safety but also helping offenders adjust to life outside prison walls.

In Moody's case, probation officials plan to monitor his movements with the help of a 24-hour GPS monitoring device. He will be required to report seven days a week to a program where he will receive life-skills training. The program will pick him up from the shelter and bring him back in the afternoon.

Probation officials said if that shelter is full, Moody could look for a bed at two other New Haven shelters. And in what they called a rare case that all beds will be filled, Moody could end up on the streets.

When asked at last month's hearing if Moody would be guaranteed a bed, Chief Probation Officer William Anselmo admitted it was not a sure thing.

"We can do our best," Anselmo told Clifford. "We don't have a safe house. We don't drop them off at a motel and pay for the night. Unfortunately, we do have some sex offenders supervised by probation, registered offenders that do live under the bridge for a couple of nights. We've had guys sleeping on the green in New Haven. Unfortunately, we just do not have the resource to put somebody up for the night."

Clifford replied: "Well, I'd rather have a situation where Mr. Moody would not be sleeping on a park bench in New Haven."

"That's our wish too, your honor," Anselmo said. ..Source.. ALAINE GRIFFIN