Legislation and new programs are needed to alleviate a lack of halfway house programs for sex offenders and other parolees, speakers said at a forum Thursday in Wyomissing.
"The ideal is to send the offenders back to the communities where they came from," said Brett Buckland, who works with planning and statistics for the state Corrections Department.
About 60 percent of inmates in state prison re-offend and end up back in jail, Buckland told the gathering of about 60 people at the Crowne Plaza Reading, Wyomissing.
The Rev. John Rush, executive director of New Person Ministries halfway houses in Reading and Cumru Township, said that of 18 beds available, 16 are occupied by paroled sex offenders. Rush said he gets daily requests from paroled prisoners interested in his transitional programs but doesn't have the bed space to accommodate them.
"We need more beds available in other counties," he said.
Nathan Riedy, executive director of Justice & Mercy Inc., a nonprofit advocacy organization in Lancaster that organized the forum, said Berks is one of the only counties in Pennsylvania that takes paroled sex offenders.
"We are trying to change this," Riedy said. "Justice & Mercy is pushing for local laws to require that sex offenders be paroled to their own counties."
The issue came to the forefront in July when District Attorney John T. Adams told the Reading Eagle that Berks County has become a dumping ground for paroled sex offenders.
Adams was unable to attend the forum but said afterwards that what is going on is unfair to the community.
"They should be paroled to the county that they are from, not to Berks County," he said.
Adams said he has met several times with the Board of Probation and Parole and is working on solutions.
A study Adams conducted over two years concluded that 71 percent, or 37 of the 52 sex offenders released to Berks, committed crimes in other counties.
Joe Gonzales, a pastor who runs Sunshine Ministries, a program for paroled sex offenders in Perry County, said there is a need for additional facilities in his county. His program has space for several sex offenders.
A paroled sex offender, who identified himself as J.P., said that he was grateful to be accepted in the New Person Ministries program.
"I love it," he said. "I am looking for a job and I am happy with the program. People are reaching out to me."
Officials said Thursday's forum was the first of four meetings planned statewide to discuss transitional housing for sex offenders and other parolees. ..Source.. by Holly Herman
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