Va. sexual predator program faces $26M shortfall

7-10-2010 Virginia:

BURKEVILLE — Virginia's program for indefinitely containing those deemed to be sexually violent predators is facing a more than $26 million budget shortfall over the next two years after a dramatic expansion in crimes that qualify offenders for so-called civil commitment.

Appropriations for the program have grown from $2.7 million in 2004 to more than $17 million for the fiscal year that ended July 1. Officials anticipate needing $24 million to run the program this year — nearly $9 million more than budgeted — with the cost jumping to more than $32 million — or more than $17 million over budget — the following year.

Legislative leaders say if they can't find ways to trim the program's budget they will be forced to take money from other programs, many of which received dramatic cuts last winter when legislators trimmed billions in core services such as education and health care to balance the state's budget.

"For $26 million, which children are we willing to sacrifice? I'm not willing to sacrifice any children," said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, architect of the civil commitment law. "It's never been cheap. It was never expected that it would be cheap, but it's extremely important."

Virginia passed its civil commitment law in 1999, but didn't fund the program until 2003 when a notorious child molester was due to be released and his victim pushed legislators to keep him and others off the streets. Richard Alvin Ausley, 64, was beaten and strangled to death by his cellmate before he could be committed.

Under the program, those who commit certain sexual offenses are evaluated months before their prison release date. If they meet the criteria, the attorney general's office begins court proceedings to have them civilly committed. A judge or jury determines whether the offender should be committed for treatment, conditionally released and monitored or released with no further requirements.

Originally, only four crimes — rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration and aggravated sexual battery — qualified offenders for civil commitment. But in 2006 the General Assembly expanded that to 28 crimes, including certain abductions, carnal knowledge of a child and a conspiracy or attempt to commit certain crimes.

Griffith said the expansion was needed to catch those violent predators who would plead guilty to lesser crimes or those who were difficult to prosecute because of the age of their victims.

The new law increased the number of offenders eligible for commitment by about 350 percent, and commitments jumped from about one per month to five each month.
In the beginning, those who were civilly committed were housed in a 48-bed facility in Petersburg. In 2008, the $62 million, 300-bed Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation opened in Burkeville.

Now with 212 residents, the facility is expected to be full by October 2011 and be nearly 60 beds over capacity by July 2012 — when staffing levels will need to nearly double what they are now. If those commitment levels continue, officials expect the number of residents to be more than 700 by 2017.

Officials plan to spend about $200,000 to reopen the Petersburg facility next year. The department also is considering building another facility, establishing a step-down facility for residents who are successfully completing treatment and expanding opportunities for conditional release, said Meghan McGuire, spokeswoman for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which runs the program.

Once committed, offenders are reviewed periodically to see if they can be released, but very few ever are.

So far, only seven individuals have been conditionally released from the facility, and none of those have reoffended, McGuire said.

Another 42 offenders have been granted conditional release straight from prison. Of those, nine have been taken back into custody, all but two for technical violations such as drinking or failing to attend treatment. The other two received new sexual charges.

The cost to conditionally release an offender is about $21,000 per year, well below the more than $91,000 per year it takes to house each offender in the Burkeville facility.

Although the number of those committed has increased dramatically, the attorney general's office only pursues civil commitment for about one in every 250 sex offenders who are released from prison, said Pamela Sergeant, who heads the office's civil commitment program.

"I think it protects the public and finally gets these people some treatment so they won't do it again and make new victims," she said. "To me the paramount issue is preventing more victims."

The facility sits next to Route 360 in Nottoway County, a cross between a prison and a psychiatric hospital. Tall, razor-wire fencing separates the fuchsia-blossomed crape myrtles on the outside from the lovely manicured grounds on the inside. Each offender has his own room, but they are strikingly similar to prison cells.

Most days are filled with group therapy classes exploring everything from anger management to recovering from their own abuse. In between classes, offenders play video games or go outside. Their rooms aren't locked.

Motivated offenders could complete the treatment considered necessary to be a candidate for release in about three years, officials say, but few do.

"Especially with these pedophiles, if they don't get treatment they're going to do it again," Sergeant said. "That's their sexual interest. That's their sexual urge, and it doesn't go away." ..Source.. by NewsLeader.com