State hears plan to expand sexual predator program

12-27-2009 Kansas:

TOPEKA — In a time where the Kansas Legislature has been asked to cut spending in all areas of state government, the House Building Committee heard a proposal to do just the opposite.

Earlier this week, the committee heard a proposal that would spend $42.5 million to expand the state’s Sexual Predator Treatment Program.

The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services asked for $2.5 million to plan an expansion of the program at Larned State Hospital along with $40 million to build it.

Needless to say, the proposal did not get the warmest reception.

“If the money is not there to do it, then it is not there to do it,” said Rep. Bob Grant, D-Cherokee, who serves on the House Building Committee. “I’m not saying that it isn’t needed, but the money just isn’t there.”

Under state law, sexual predators who are serving prison time can be held indefinitely after their sentences end if they are considered a threat to re-offend.

The measure, which stems from Kansas v. Hendricks, which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the state had the right to confine individuals, which met or exceeded the constitutional standard for civil commitment.

The law was prompted by the 1993 rape and murder of a Pittsburg State University student by Gary Kleypas, a sex offender, who had been released from a Missouri prison seven months before the attack.

“Even in the best of times, that is a pretty hefty price tag,” said Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg. “Even if it was the best thing since sliced bread, we can’t fund it with non-existent revenues.”

While the money to fund the potential expansion is the biggest issue, there are some that even question the program itself.

“I have very little passion for spending money on the treatment on sexual predators,” said Rep. Jerry Williams, D-Chanute, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. “My experience has been, through research, is that it fails.

“We’ve had various reviews of proposals, but I never remember any program that would cure sex offenders.”

Therein is the problem, the legislative mindset, expecting a "cure, meaning, so that, the cause will never ever return again." That standard is applied ONLY to sex offenders and is a standard never used for anything else with respect to human infirmities. In reality, there is no cure for any known human infirmity, at least a cure that will prevent the infirmity from never ever returning again.

From headaches to alcoholism, crime and any other known malady, there is no known cure to prevent it from ever returning again. Human infirmities are managed not cured. Millions of dollars are spent on treatment programs to cure folks from alcoholism, and many of those folks return to drinking; it cannot be cured in the sense that it will never ever return again (the standard expected of sex offenses).

It is time to change the legislative mindset on what standard should be expected, then progress will follow.

Williams added that spending $42 million on the project is not a top item, even if the state had an extra $42 million to spend.

“I just don’t know how they would fund it,” Williams said. “If we have $42 million, it would not be in my top priority list to put it into that kind of a program.” ..Source.. MATTHEW CLARK, The Morning Sun