Sex offenders face housing limits in Oklahoma

2-13-2010 Oklahoma:

Budget restraints have officials at the state Corrections Department considering eliminating the agency’s prison sex offender treatment program.

Department spokesman Jerry Massie said this means community-based treatment will be needed more than ever to keep sex offenders from committing more crimes.

"Treatment should be in the community, because that’s where they pose the biggest risk,” Massie said.

The prison program only has slots for 55 sex offenders, but there are more than 450 offenders incarcerated, The Oklahoman reported in July.

Statewide there are more than 5,000 registered sex offenders, but only 1,700 are on supervised probation who may require treatment.


Nowhere to go
Donna K. Thompson, director of prison ministry for the Oklahoma Baptist State Convention, said there is already a shortfall in community-based programs for sex offenders. And the restrictions on where they can live force many of them underground or to be homeless, she said.
"It’s falling on the churches and the community more and more to find places for sex offenders to stay and help to keep them from re-offending,” Thompson said. "But even we are hitting brick walls in trying to help.”

Thompson said many times the only housing they can find for a registered sex offender is in a motel, because the clerks don’t ask about criminal history. She said more organizations need to be allowed to house sex offenders released from prison so they can transition back into society.

Hand Up in Oklahoma City houses 152 registered sex offenders and is the only transitional program of its kind that allows registered sex offenders to live under the same roof. The nonprofit organization was grandfathered before the 2006 state law prohibiting it.

Hand Up office manager James Womack said its residents have to pay $25 to $35 a week for counseling when many of them can’t get jobs because of the accompanying stigma of being a sex offender.

"The state requires they go to counseling, but no one is willing to pick up the tab,” Womack said. "They’ve already put so many restrictions on sex offenders it makes it impossible for them to re-establish themselves.”


Individual cottages
To get around the 2006 state law, Lincoln County resident Tom Wright is building individual cottages for his ministry that provides room and board for sex offenders in exchange for carpentry work. He has eight sex offenders living on his property three miles north of Chandler.
Earlier this month, authorities told Wright he was violating state laws by allowing the men to live under the same roof, and not providing counseling. Neighbors complained to the district attorney after learning Wright was sheltering sex offenders.

District Attorney Richard Smothermon said law enforcement has inspected Wright’s property and he is getting it into compliance. He said they’re being careful not to create a situation where the men living with Wright are left homeless and without supervision.

Holly Chandler is one of 19 professionals who contract with the state to operate sex offender treatment programs in Oklahoma. She has sessions in 23 cities, most of which the public has no idea go on.

Chandler said she has to have sessions at night and rent space from landlords willing to respect her need for a low profile.

That’s because instead of being seen as a public safety service, she’s often treated worse than an offender, Chandler said.

"I’ve had windows broken and death threats on my answering machine,” Chandler said. "People don’t understand that if they’re in treatment, we can keep an eye on them. Instead, they’d rather run them and me into hiding.”

Chandler said programs for sex offenders last two to three years and include polygraph tests every six months and intense counseling. Many of her clients voluntarily continue counseling for years after they’ve completed the program, she said. ..Source.. ANN KELLEY The Oklahoman