eAdvocate ALERT: Blog Changes

5-20-2013 National:

We are deleting our OLD "Civil Commitment" blog, and replacing it with a newer designed blog titled "Civil Commitment: Sex Offenders+" which covers all 23 jurisdictions that have laws which can commit folks following a prison sentence. This is now the ONLY place on the Internet providing such coverage.

Today if you access the old blog, it will tell you it is PRIVATE (soon to be deleted). Most relevant posts were transferred to either our "Sex Offender Court Decisions" blog or to the NEW "Civil Commitment: Sex Offenders+" blog.

Over the next few hours we will make changes in our Blog Iop Menu System linking blogs together, so please bear with us. Hopefully, all changes will be completed by later tonight.

For now have a great day & a better tomorrow.
eAdvocate

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Bill would commit sex predators after their prison terms

2-24-2013 Ohio:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio may be the next state to confine sex offenders beyond their prison sentences.

A bill that would authorize the civil commitment of "sexually violent predators" after incarceration was introduced in the Ohio Senate last week. The bill would also allow GPS tracking of some sex offenders.

Under civil commitment, sex offenders who’ve finished their prison sentences but are thought to still pose a threat to the public would be sent to treatment centers to live until they’re deemed healthy enough to return to society.

More than 20 states already commit some sex offenders after their prison terms. Supporters say it keeps potentially dangerous criminals off the streets and in treatment centers, but detractors say it walks a tightrope between good intentions and constitutional infringement and wastes taxpayers' money.

Sen. Kevin Bacon, a Columbus-area Republican, is sponsoring the bill, and he said there is plenty to iron out before the legislation is finalized.

"We're not married to a proposal yet," he said. "We wanted to get it out early to kind of signify it's an important issue."

While the bill is still short on specifics, it has already caught the attention of legal groups that advocate for the rights of sex offenders.

Amy Borror, spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defender's office, said a big concern is the money similar practices have cost other states.

"It really ends up becoming a money pit," she said. " . . . People who are civilly committed almost never get out, and it's a population that almost never goes away."

Borror said a certified professional has to believe a committed sex offender is no longer a danger to the public before he or she can be released. More often than not, however, treatment centers are not willing to take that chance, and civil commitment is far more expensive than incarceration, she said. The dollars pile up, and the state has to pick up the check.

Civil commitment of sex criminals also raises questions about human rights, Borror said, because it threatens to violate due process. Confining a released or paroled sex offender to a mental-health facility is arguably just prolonging an expired prison term, she said.

"If they've already served their term that they've been sentenced to as punishment for what they've done, keeping them essentially incarcerated longer raises double jeopardy issues," she said.

Nick Worner, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the greatest concern is that civil commitment practices do not typically reduce sex crimes.

Because sex offenders are one of the most monitored groups in the country, it's often ineffective to add red tape to an already heavily regulated and scarcely resourced bureaucracy, he said.

"The bill wants to crack down on sex offenders," he said. "What it really ends up doing is it adds another layer of bureaucracy and another layer of cost."

Both said their organizations will pay close attention as the legislation develops.

Bacon said the complexity and controversy of holding sex offenders after prison weighs heavy on his mind as he pushes the legislation forward, but he thinks it's too important to shelve.

Sex offenders are more likely than almost any other type of criminal to repeat an offense, he said, but his intention is not to monitor or commit every sex offender.

"This would be reserved for a certain class of individuals that could be a threat to society," he said. "Our focus is, first and foremost, protecting society." ..Source.. by Rex Santus, The Plain Dealer (Rex Santus is a Kent State University journalism student and fellow in E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau at Ohio University.)

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11 Sexually Violent Predators Given Early Release from Prison

2-14-2013 Texas:

58-year-old John Michael Enard, a convicted rapist has a rare distinction. The state calls him a sexually violent predator.
"These are guys that have an extensive, extensive sexually violent history," said Allison Taylor, director of the state's civil commitment program.
Enard did more than just chuck his GPS tracking device last month and make a run for it.
He unknowingly brought to light at least 10 other dangerous decisions made by the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles.
"It was a discretionary decision to let 11 of these sexually violent predators out of prison," Fox 26 Investigates asked Parole Division Director Stuart Jenkins who replied, "The decision was made to release them on parole yes."
11 dumbfounding decisions you weren't suppose to know about.
"This scenario that you and Fox news has opened up as a result of Enard busting out of the halfway house has opened up the proverbial Pandora's box," said crime victim's advocate Andy Kahan.
A box full of deviant criminal minds.
"We're dealing with the worst of the worst," Taylor said. "The most dangerous population of sex offenders."
In the late 1990's lawmakers found a way to keep track of sexually violent predators after they had to be freed from prison.
It's called the civil commitment program.
"Without our program or our agency these guys would be walking the streets without any form of supervision whatsoever," said Taylor.
In the program's 14 year existence less than 300 sex offenders have ever been civilly committed.
"Since the inception of the program no one has ever been released yet," Taylor said.
First experts determine which prison inmates convicted of sex crimes have an abnormality that makes them highly likely to reoffend.
"While they may have 4 offenses of records," Taylor said. "They have hundreds and hundreds of victims they were never caught for."
Next comes a civil commitment court hearing like this one.
In these rare proceedings jurors in Montgomery County must answer yes to two questions.
"Is the person a sexually violent predator and do they have a behavior abnormality that makes them likely to commit a future predatory act of sexual violence," the program director said.
Texas is the only state where none of these civilly committed sex predators is kept in an institution.
Instead these dangerous predators live in halfway houses and wear ankle monitors.
"They're on active GPS tracking which is on real time 24/7 tracking," said Taylor.

Keep in mind lawmakers did this as a way to keep track of dangerous sexual predators who had to be released from prison.
They served all their time or they had to be let out due to the state's old mandatory release law.
"You don't knowingly parole somebody, vote to release somebody if you know they're going to re-offend again that doesn't happen," Kahan said. "I've never seen that happen before."
But get this, Fox 26 Investigates has discovered the parole board actually allowed Enard and 10 other sexually violent predators just as dangerous as he is, to leave prison early and in some cases shaving several years off of their lengthy prison sentences in the process.
"Is it a good idea to parole these people to let them out before they serve their sentence, before you have to let them out?" we asked the Civil commitment director who replied, "That's not a decision for me." ...continued... by Randy Wallace

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Rushville facility for dangerous sex offenders to expand

2-14-2013 Illinois:

SPRINGFIELD — At the same time Gov. Pat Quinn is closing prisons and other large state facilities, his administration is expanding a specialized state lockup for dangerous sex offenders.

Earlier this month, the Illinois Department of Human Services said the detention facility for sexually violent persons in Rushville will get a $13 million makeover that will add space for an additional 96 residents.

The facility, originally built as a juvenile prison, was designed to house 482 people, but, like the state’s overcrowded prison system, is now housing more than 500.

A second expansion of the Schuyler County facility would add space for another 192 detainees at a cost of another $19 million. Work is tentatively scheduled to get under way on phase two in 2015.

The overall $32 million construction cost doesn’t count daily operational costs, which were not available Wednesday.

The planned expansion comes just two months after Quinn closed a prison in Tamms and a juvenile prison in Murphysboro, as well as a number of other large state facilities as part of a budget-cutting move. The governor also is on track to close the all-female Dwight Correctional Center.

Plans for Rushville’s expansion drew catcalls from lawmakers who fought Quinn to keep facilities open in their districts.

“I’m sure in their minds they think this is the right thing to do,” said state Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, an Okawville Republican whose district includes Murphysboro. “It certainly doesn’t look good to be closing facilities and then adding on to others.”

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, whose district includes the Dwight prison, said the administration doesn’t appear to have a strategy for dealing with overcrowding in state facilities.

“It makes me wonder if there is any long-term planning as we have previously suggested there should be,” Barickman said.

The administration said human services officials determined that expanding the $48 million Rushville facility was more cost efficient than moving residents into the now-empty facilities.

“The Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility serves a very specialized population,” human services spokeswoman Januari Smith said. “Expansion at Rushville allows for the continued use of the existing services that are already provided to the current population, including treatment, health care and food service.”

The Rushville facility was originally built as a youth prison during former Gov. George Ryan’s administration.

It was turned over to the Department of Human Services in 2006 to house people who have been convicted of a sex related crime and have served their sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Residents are sent to Rushville if prison officials decide they are a danger to the community. ..Source.. by Kurt Erickson

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State wants repeat sex offender who fled country committed

2-12-2013 Illinois:

The Illinois attorney general's office wants a 41-year-old former West Dundee man, who was convicted of trying to rape two different women, to be classified as a sexually violent person and held by the state's Department of Human Services indefinitely after his release from prison.

Jamal Sharifpour was when 18 when arrested on charges of attacking the women in fall 1998. One of the women had her ankle broken when Sharifpour hit her with a car while she was jogging.

Sharifpour had a record of sexual abuse dating back to when he was a juvenile, records show.

Under a 1998 state law, a person can be committed to the DHS after a prison term is over if the inmate has committed a sex crime, been diagnosed with a mental disorder, and a jury decides it's "substantially probable" the person will commit another sex crime.

Since the law went into effect, the attorney general's office has had more than 330 people committed to the DHS until they are no longer deemed a danger to society.

According to court records and a psychologist's report, Sharifpour had six convictions of assaulting women as a juvenile starting when he was 14. Several of the attacks began when Sharifpour shouted obscenities at women in their 20s in public places, groping them and then fleeing on his bicycle, records show.

He was charged with attacking two women in Elgin in fall 1998 on separate occasions. In one instance, he used his sport utility vehicle to strike a woman who was jogging, ripping off her clothes on the side of the road before driving off and "smiling" as she winced in pain from her injuries, records show.

Sharifpour, whose parents are from Turkey and Iran, fled to those two countries to avoid prosecution but was arrested in August 2000 in New York, according to court records.

He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for the two 1998 attacks.

Deborah Nicolai, a clinical psychologist who interviewed Sharifpour last month, recommended he be committed.

"The recurrent sexual behaviors against non-consenting females establish a presence of intense sexual urges to overpower and sexually assault women," Nicolai wrote in a report.

Nicolai also concluded Sharifpour fit the criteria to be diagnosed with sexual sadism. "Based on the circumstances of his sexual offenses, it appears he derived pleasure from inflicting pain onto the women he victimized in the commission of sexual offending," she wrote.

According to court records, Kane County Judge Susan Clancy Boles signed a detention order last week so when Sharifpour is released from the Dixon Correctional Center on Monday he will be held in the custody of the DHS while the case proceeds against him.

Sharifpour is next due in court March 7. ..Source.. by Harry Hitzeman

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Report: Washington center for predators rife with fraud

12-16-2012 Washington:

Employee fraud and absenteeism have plagued Washington state's center for dangerous sex predators on McNeil Island, an investigation by The Seattle Times found.

Employee fraud and absenteeism have plagued Washington state's center for dangerous sex predators on McNeil Island, an investigation by The Seattle Times found.

As many as 85 workers at the Special Commitment Center are suspected of abusing overtime and paid leave, and two employees were paid $32,000 in overtime for work they never performed, the newspaper reported ( http://is.gd/t1U5P8).

Neither has been punished because an investigation by the state Auditor's Office still isn't completed, two and a half years after it began.

"They got paid for work they didn't do - that's theft of state resources," said the center's former superintendent, Kelly Cunningham, referring to several cases.

Nevertheless, since January, the center has fired eight employees, suspended four and slapped 26 others with letters of reprimand or other discipline for misconduct unrelated to the auditor's probe. Among those fired: a high-ranking manager who turned in a made-up investigative report, staffers accused of viewing pornography on their work computers, and two employees who forged doctor's notes to cover up their absenteeism.

The Times based its investigation on hundreds of pages of public records and numerous interviews.

The center, which has 371 employees, detains and treats the state's most dangerous sex offenders after they've completed their prison terms; the offenders are deemed too dangerous to return to society. Workers there are disciplined at a rate four times that of workers in the state prison system, The Times reported.

Earlier this year, The Times reported that the state had wasted millions of dollars at the center because of lack of oversight, unchecked defense costs and delayed commitment trials. The state spends about $170,000 a year for each of the 297 sex offenders on McNeil Island.

In 2009, Cunningham - then the center's new superintendent - was asked to cut staff and expenses as the state budget crisis peaked. As he looked for ways to save money, he was surprised to see the center paying about $150,000 a month in overtime.

He and other managers found rampant problems. He warned staffers they would face stiff discipline if they abused policies on attendance and leave.

Comparing time sheets and sick-leave slips with shift reports and security-card readers, they found that more than 20 percent of the staff had inconsistencies in their attendance, according to an internal report obtained by The Times through a public-records request.

Employees were getting paid for hours in which they were never even on the island or had left early, based on shift reports, logs and card readers, Cunningham said.

He also believed some employees had developed a scheme in which one would call in sick so another would get paid overtime to cover the shift, and then they'd switch roles and do it again.

Believing the conduct might be criminal, Cunningham said he asked the Washington State Patrol to investigate, but it deferred to the state auditor. Cunningham submitted a detailed report to the auditor in summer 2010.

The report included blatant examples of attendance abuse, Cunningham said. He believed all his review needed was a "bow on it."

But the agency's investigation has lingered for two and half years. The auditor's director of special investigations, Jim Brittain, says other cases were given priority, and the McNeil Island investigation should be completed by the end of next month.

If the audit finds evidence of criminal activity, it will refer its conclusions to the state Attorney General's Office for any criminal charges and attempt to recoup state money.

Cunningham, who left the center in August to become a deputy director at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said he was frustrated the Auditor's Office didn't finish its investigation before he transferred. ..Source.. by The Seattle Times

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Lakewood is no place for sex predators

12-9-2012 Washington:

Folks in Olympia may be soon looking for a new community to host 300 violent sexual psychopaths. Lakewood, call your home security service.

Those predators are now housed and supposedly getting treated at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. They are the worst of the worst – a small fraction of the state’s sex offenders.

They wind up at the SCC only if a court has concluded that they have committed a violent sex crime and suffer from “a mental abnormality” that hinders their control of sexual violence and are “more likely than not to engage in predatory acts of violence again.”

There’s a reason they confined to an island surrounded by deep, frigid water.

The Legislature now faces intense financial pressure to move them to the mainland. The SCC began to look like an extravagance last year, when the state shut down the regular prison on McNeil Island. The prison had shared some of the Special Commitment Center’s costs, an arrangement that originally made a good argument for the location.

Now the SCC is sitting out there by itself with an annual budget of more than $30 million a year. A large chunk of that, $6.6 million, results from the island location. The center also needs repairs and improvements – an estimated $12.2 million worth of work in the 2013-2015 biennium.

Most lawmakers would dearly love to divert that money to ...continued... by TNT Editorial Board / The News Tribune

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Task force recommends change in Minnesota sex offender treatment

12-5-2012 MInnesota:

As Minnesota prepares to overhaul its system for treating sex offenders, at least one key lawmaker supports newly recommended reforms.

A task force this week suggested creating less restrictive treatment facilities across the state than the two high-security facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter, which are the only options.

But in doing so, policymakers would need to strike a balance between respecting the constitutional rights of sex offenders while keeping the public safe.

A court-ordered task force has recommended that the state develop new programs to treat sex offenders. Its work was set in motion by a federal class-action lawsuit brought by offenders who claim that they are being held in violation of their constitutional rights and that they have not received adequate treatment.

Under the task force’s recommendations, the Legislature could create group homes, outpatient centers and treatment programs throughout the state.

One legislator applauding the ideas is state Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato. When the Legislature convenes next year, she’ll serve as chairwoman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Housing Policy Committee. ...continued... by Laura Yuen

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Sex offender granted rare discharge from civil commitment

11-30-2012 Wisconsin:

A judge in Racine this week reluctantly freed a 32-year-old man from civil commitment that followed his sentence for molesting young girls when he was a boy.

Cory R. Lamp has been held at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Facility in Mauston for more than a decade, but will be released in about two weeks because the state's own experts agreed he was no longer more likely than not to reoffend.

According to a report in the Racine Journal Times, Lamp molested three girls aged 6 to 9 in the early 1990s, when he was no more than 14. He was adjudicated delinquent. When his sentence was up, authorities petitioned to have him committed under Chapter 980. The law allows certain sex offenders to be indefinitely for treatment at Sand Ridge.

Racine County Circuit Court Judge Tim Boyle wrote that he wished there was some way to keep Lamp in treatment or require he receive services after discharge, but had no such options, the Journal Times reported.

Lamp's attorney, Robert Peterson, acknowledge the law provides no housing, no medical care, no support service at all for subjects discharged from Sand Ridge, even for those like Lamp who have been institutionalized most of his life.

Peterson said he couldn't comment on where Lamp might go or what he might do after his release.

Boyle's decision followed a three-day trial in September on whether Lamp could continue to be held indefinitely for treatment as a sexually violent person.

There are about 356 people held at Sand Ridge at a cost of about $100,000 a year. Lamp joins a list of about 70 subjects who have ever won discharge since Chapter 980 was adopted in 1994.

One who has tried repeatedly without success is Shawn Schulpius. He's been held since 1996 and has sought release for years. His case once threatened the constitutional underpinning of Chapter 980 when it got all the way to the state Supreme Court in 2005.

On Tuesday, the state Court of Appeals upheld a Milwaukee judge's 2010 decision to deny Schulpius' a discharge hearing just months after a jury had ruled found he had not met the criteria for release. ..Source.. by Bruce Vielmetti

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Civil Commitment referrals of New York sex offenders fall

11-28-2012 New York:

New York’s civil commitment program, designed to house and treat mentally unbalanced sex offenders, is taking in a smaller percentage of criminals than in past years, records show.

The percentage of sex offenders being routed into the psychiatric civil commitment program has steadily decreased since the program started in 2007, according to state data.

That drop is helping the state temporarily avoid the excessive costs of creating new space for civil commitment. However, the state continues to bump up against its capacity at its psychiatric facilities for civilly confined sex offenders, records show.

Program supporters contend the decline in the numbers of confined sex offenders is proof of the rigors of the psychological evaluations for civil commitment.

Opponents question whether a harsh reality — the likelihood that the costly program will need new space for offenders in coming years — may be driving the decrease.

“I think they’re facing the cold fiscal reality of the statute,” said Al O’Connor, a staff lawyer and civil commitment expert with the New York State Defenders Association.

One expert said the fewer number of people routed into civil commitment shows that New York is not using the program to warehouse sex offenders. Instead, said Dr. John Bradford, New York is likely sending the true sexual predators into confinement where they can be treated.

“I think New York is probably doing it right,” said Bradford, a forensics psychiatrist from Canada with whom New York officials consulted when starting ...continued... by Gary Craig

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Editorial: Sex offender task force to take on unenviable job

10-18-2012 Minnesota:

When we met with Rep. Tina Liebling a few weeks ago for an endorsement interview, she told us that she was lobbying to be included on the Sex Offender Civil Commitment Advisory Task Force.

Well, she got her wish — and she's in good company. Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem also is among the 20 people appointed by Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson to provide recommendations for changing the state's civil commitment and referral process for sex offenders.

On Aug. 15, the U.S. District Court ordered the creation of this task force, which includes current state legislators, academic professionals, county commissioners, active and retired judges and victims' advocates. On or before Dec. 3, the group will give Jesson a set of recommendations for legislative proposals. Liebling is one of four legislators on the panel, and Ostrem is the only county attorney.

We don't envy them their task, but it has to be done. The state's system of indefinite civil commitment for sex offenders is extremely costly and might be unconstitutional, and Minnesota can no longer bury its head in the sand and pretend that this problem will go away. We need a long-term solution that protects the public while offering offenders at least some hope that they can rebuild their lives. ..Source.. by POst Bulletin

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Glaring holes, injustices in state Sex Offender program

10-8-2012 Minnesota:

Several glaring flaws in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program get a thorough dissection in an excellent piece by Paul Demko on the Politics in Minnesota site. Says Demko: “The troubles attending the MSOP are well documented, most thoroughly in a critical report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor released in 2011.

What’s never been explored is the disturbing number of individuals like Timothy Coon who have no adult criminal convictions but are nonetheless being indefinitely detained. Currently there are 52 individuals enrolled in the MSOP who meet this description — roughly 8 percent of its entire population.

These individuals are potentially facing a de facto life sentence despite never having been convicted of a crime as an adult. … Michael Miner, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality, says part of the problem lies with a history of turbulence within the MSOP. ‘There has been a great deal of instability in the leadership of the clinical programs,’ Miner said. ‘Every time there’s been a change in leadership, there’s been a change in the program, and that influences people’s ability to progress.’ ... The program has also been hampered by insufficient clinical staff to provide adequate treatment.” ..Source.. by Brian Lambert

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Members named to task force charged with reforming sex offender civil commitment system

10-5-2012 Minnesota:

A retired chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court will lead a 16-member task force appointed to figure out how to reform the state's controversial and expensive system for civilly committing and confining paroled sex offenders to indefinite treatment, officials announced Friday.

Retired Chief Justice Eric Magnuson will be joined on the task force by a retired federal judge, two sitting state court judges, four state lawmakers, a law school dean and others picked for their knowledge of the system or their expertise in criminal justice, sex offender treatment or victim advocacy.

Chief U.S. Magistrate Arthur Boylan in August ordered state Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson to convene a task force of experts to recommend options less restrictive that the state's prison-like treatment centers and to suggest changes in how sex offenders are selected for civil commitment, as well as how they might earn release from the program.

The order came during pretrial discussions in a class-action lawsuit brought by patients who argued that their indefinite detention after completing their prison sentences is unconstitutional.

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program was created in 1994 to treat small numbers of the state's worst sex criminals who had finished their prison sentences but were deemed too dangerous to release.

But the 2003 killing of college student Dru Sjodin by a rapist newly released from prison prompted a surge of commitments of all types of sex offenders, from rapists to nonviolent molesters The state went from committing an average of 15 annually before 2003 to 50 annually after that pivotal year.

The program's population has soared to more than 600 -- the most sex-offender commitments per capita in the country. They cost state taxpayers more than $300 a day per offender, compared to less than $90 per day for offenders getting treated in state prisons.

The task force's first meeting is set for Thursday in St. Paul. It is required to produce its first set of recommendations by Dec. 3

For more information, see this page of the state Department of Human Services web site.

Besides Magnuson, those appointed to the task force are:

Retired U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum

State Rep. Jim Abeler, chair of the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee

Donna Dunn, executive director of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin

Eric Janus, president and dean of William Mitchell College of Law

Gerald Kaplan, executive director of Alpha Human Services

State Rep. Tina Liebling, lead minority member of the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee

State Sen. Warren Limmer, chair of the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee

State Sen. Tony Lourey, ranking minority member of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee

Nancy Schouweiler, chair of the Dakota County Board of Commissioners and chair of the National Association of Counties' Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee

Appointed as ex-officio members:

Kelly Lyn Mitchell, executive director of the state Sentencing Guidelines Commission

State Department of Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy

Dr. Michael Thompson, president of the state chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers

James Franklin, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriff's Association

Ramsey County District Court Judge Joanne Smith, chief judge of the Judicial Appeal Panel, which hears all petitions by civilly committed sex offenders for reduction in custody. Her inclusion was ordered by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank. ..Source.. by Larry Oakes

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Reward offered for escaped civil commitment sex offender

10-2-2012 Texas:

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has added ____, 55, to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Sex Offender list, and a $5,000 cash reward is now offered for information leading to his capture. In April 2012, ___ was discharged from prison after serving a 20-year sentence.

Sunday night just after 11:30 p.m., he cut off his ankle monitor and fled from the Travis County Residential Center in Del Valle, Texas. Texas Crime Stoppers tips are guaranteed to be anonymous.

___, now wanted for felony Failure to Comply with Civil Commitment Requirements, is a sexually violent predator with previous military training and experience. Anybody encountering him should use extreme caution. He has relatives and friends living in San Antonio, but he may be headed to Mexico.

___ has served time in prison for sexually assaulting four different women, three of whom were in their 20s, while the fourth was 14 years old. During these offenses, ___ threatened to kill his victims and/or their loved ones,... ..Source.. by Texas Department of Public Safety

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State hires new head of sex offender program

9-17-2012 Minnesota:

A new executive director for the Minnesota Sex Offender Program has been named, according to an announcement from Department of Human Services Deputy Commissioner Anne Barry.

Nancy Johnston has been appointed to take the position that oversees facilities in St. Peter and Moose Lake. About 650 sex offenders are locked up as part of the program.

In the news release about Johnston’s appointment, Barry said Johnston joined the MSOP in 2003 and has held a number of leadership positions within the program, most recently as interim executive director for the past several months.

“Nancy has been instrumental in shaping the organization during a time of rapid growth and change,” Barry said in a statement.

Johnston’s career spans more than 30 years in the human services field, Barry said. Prior to joining state service, she held several key clinical and administrative positions within both inpatient and outpatient settings across Minnesota and Wisconsin, serving in community corrections, residential treatment facilities and chemical dependency programming.

The number of civilly committed sex offenders in Minnesota has tripled since 2003 when North Dakota college student Dru Sjodin was kidnapped and killed by a recently released sex offender.

Minnesota’s sex offender program costs more than $67 million a year to run and has been challenged in a class-action lawsuit for locking up offenders for their potential of committing crimes rather than for actually committing them. A federal judge has ordered the formation of a task force to study the program. ..Source.. by The Free Press

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Despite pedophilia and sex fantasies, therapist says sex offender should be released

9-13-2012 Wisconsin:

A state psychologist testified Wednesday that while a man who was convicted of molesting several young girls as a child is a pedophile who still fantasizes about one of the youngsters, he no longer belongs locked up in a state treatment hospital.

Cory R. Lamp, now 31, was convicted of sexually assaulting three young girls between 1990 and 1994, when Lamp was between 10 and 13 years old. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 9 years old at the times of the attacks.

Despite Lamp being diagnosed with having pedophilia and still having sexual fantasies about one victim when she was 6 years old, a clinical psychologist testified Wednesday that Lamp doesn’t fit the requisite criteria to legally remain involuntarily civilly committed at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston. The chances of Lamp victimizing another child are too low, said Brian Bradley, a psychologist with Sand Ridge’s sex offender evaluation unit.

“Mr. Lamp’s likelihood of committing additional offenses as an adult is about 9 or 10 percent,” Bradley testified during the third day of Lamp’s bench trial.

“My opinion is the likelihood of Mr. Lamp committing a sexually violent offense does not meet the thresh hold of ‘more likely than not,’ which typically (is) interpreted as greater than (a) 50 percent (chance of re-offending),” Bradley said. “Therefore, he does not meet the criteria for continued commitment.”

Under cross examination, Assistant District Attorney Randy Schneider questioned Bradley on how he can conclude that Lamp should be released if he’s diagnosed Lamp with having pedophilia and said Lamp has been ambivalent at times to sex offender treatment.

“You indicated he continues to have sexually deviant interests, is that correct?” Schneider asked.

“Yes,” Bradley said.

Racine County Circuit Judge Tim Boyle pressed Bradley on how he and the other doctors who evaluated Lamp over the years can say “Mr. Lamp doesn’t qualify for supervised release, yet at the same time you can turn around and say (he doesn’t belong in the institution) — let’s just discharge him without any help. Can you explain that?”

“That, in my opinion, is one of the flaws in the (law). It goes against common sense,” Bradley said, explaining it related to definitions of terms used in the statute.

He said he has to follow what it spelled out in that law, and by those legal definitions, Lamp doesn’t meet the criteria to continue his commitment at Sand Ridge.

“Hopefully the Legislature will consider this and modify it in the future,” Bradley said.

The three-day trial occurred so Boyle can determine whether Lamp should be released from Sand Ridge.

More than a decade ago, Lamp was declared a sexually violent person in a separate, civil proceeding in court. As such, he hasn’t lived outside of a ...continued... by KRISTEN ZAMBO

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Convicted Child Molester James Lamb Headed Back to Coalinga

8-4-2012 California:

SALINAS, Calif- A man who has admitted to molesting over 50 kids is leaving his home on River Road. James Lamb was in court Friday morning to be sentenced on charges that he was late when failing to register as a sex offender.

Prosecutors pushed for a three year state prison sentence based on his "behavior by manipulation and disregard for the treatment program and destain for law enforcement." They argued that Lamb knew that he had to re-register and he just did not do it.

Letters were also found while Lamb was in jail, that showed he was communicating with other men within the Sexually Violent Predator program and discussing ways he could be released early. Lamb has expressed interest in the past he wanted to go live with his mom in Arizona.

Lawyers for Lamb said that if he was sent back to prison, he would have to start the Sexually Violent Predator Program from the very beginning.

The judge in the case ruled that Lamb will not go back to state prison but he will have to go back to the Coalinga State Hospital and stay in the phase 4 treatment of the Violent Predator Program. ..Source.. by Kiki Jones

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Leader of Special Commitment Center is leaving

8-3-2012 Washington:

The head of the state facility that houses about 300 of Washington’s violent sexual predators announced this week that he will leave to work with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, helping manage its fish program.

The head of the state facility that houses about 300 of Washington’s violent sexual predators announced this week that he will leave to work with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, helping manage its fish program.

Kelly Cunningham became CEO of the Special Commitment Center in 2009 and has worked at the facility on McNeil Island for 15 years. He will start as deputy assistant director of the Fish and Wildlife Department’s fish program Sept. 1.

Superior courts civilly commit people they define as sexually violent predators to the SCC when they finish their prison sentences. There they are offered specialized mental health treatment that can lead to their return to the community.

Cunningham was offered the new job Friday, and Monday told the secretary of the state Department of Social and Health Services that he would take the position. DSHS oversees the SCC.

The department hadn’t decided who would fill the position in the interim after Cunningham leaves, DSHS spokesman Thomas Shapley said Wednesday. The position paid about $96,500 in 2011, state records show.

Generally, an acting CEO would be appointed before a recruitment process, Shapley said.

“But of course we’re coming to a transition period at the end of the year,” Shapley added. “We know we’re going to have a new governor, and we know we’re going to have a new secretary; it’s hard to predict right now.”

In an interview Wednesday, Cunningham said he first moved to Washington as a young husband and a new father, taking the first position in state service that came along. That happened to be with the SCC.

But he has always been interested in fish, and working with natural resources has been a long-term goal, he said. Growing up in Alaska, he spent time with his father at the Bristol Bay fishery, he added.

That’s why he enrolled in a master’s of environmental science program at The Evergreen State College in 2004, with the goal of getting the job he was offered last week, he said.

“I’ve always had a strong connection to fish and fisheries,” he said.

During his time at the SCC, Cunningham helped the facility get out from under a federal injunction to make sure the center met constitutional mental health standards. The injunction required a transition facility be established off the island, among other things.

Cunningham said he worked with the court to identify the elements needed to be built into the center’s program and to develop standards for it to be measured by each year.

When the state Department of Corrections closed its McNeil Island prison last year, Cunningham arranged for the center to take up operations previously provided by corrections inmates and staff members. That included having some security guards cross-trained as firefighters and emergency medical technicians, he said. ..Source.. by ALEXIS KRELL; Staff writer

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Coalition Calls for Halt to Privatization of Virginia Civil Commitment Center

7-31-2012 Virginia:

WASHINGTON, DC – A coalition of 11 national civil rights, criminal justice reform, faith, and labor organizations today, have sent a letter urging Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell to reject two unsolicited bids from private corporations to take over management of the state's civil commitment facility for sex offenders who are being held after the end of their sentence at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR). A recommendation has been made by a committee convened by the Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Rehabilitative Services, and it is now awaiting a decision by Governor McDonnell.

"What is currently an overcrowded situation at VCBR could become dramatically worse if run by a company that increases its profits at the expense of programs and operations, including security, in the facility," the advocates wrote in the letter. "An underfunded and dangerous civil commitment facility could lead to expensive lawsuits for which the Commonwealth will be liable."

Along with a number of other states, Virginia has begun using a process called "civil commitment" to keep people convicted of sex offenses confined even after they have served all their sentenced time. While the practice has been challenged as unconstitutional because it is indefinite detainment without additional charges or sentencing, the courts have allowed civil commitment on the condition that people kept there are being treated, with the goal being released into the community when they are no longer considered a risk to reoffend. In reality, however, few people are ever released.

In recent years, Virginia has increased the number of offenses for which a person is eligible to be civilly committed from four to 28, and has legislatively mandated both the risk instrument and the risk score of that instrument that professionals must use to determine whether to detain someone at VCBR. The Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (VJLARC) has questioned these policies and noted that they have led to the VCBR census growing 1,374 percent between 2006 and 2011. The VJLARC has estimated that under current laws and practices, the number of people committed to VCBR could increase to over 600 by 2016.

"Virginia's exponential expansion of its civilly committed population should be addressed through examining the policies and practices that are leading to so many more people being kept locked up after serving their full sentences," said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. based organization that works for justice reform. "There are certainly better and less expensive ways to protect public safety than the questionable practice of civil commitment. Locking people up forever and letting people make money off of it is not a solution."

The two corporations that have offered unsolicited bids to operate the facility are GEO Group and Liberty Gilbane. Both have experienced significant problems in managing prisons and other secure facilities. According to a 2007 article in the New York Times, when run by Liberty ran the Florida civil confinement facility it "failed to meet a central purpose: treating sex offenders so they would be well enough to return to society... In Liberty's tenure, only one of the hundreds of men here progressed far enough in therapy to earn a recommendation from company clinicians that he be released." ..For the rest of this story: by Press Release from the Justice Policy Institute

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Minnesota sex-offender lawsuit moves forward

7-27-2012 Minnesota:

A federal judge has allowed a class-action suit against Minnesota’s sex-offender treatment program, which has soared in population since prison-release rules were tightened following the rape-murder of UND student Dru Sjodin by a sex offender the state released.

A federal judge has allowed a class-action suit against Minnesota’s sex-offender treatment program, which has soared in population since prison-release rules were tightened following the rape-murder of UND student Dru Sjodin by a sex offender the state released.

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program, or MSOP, is being challenged on constitutional grounds by the more than 600 offenders committed to the program.

Offenders are committed after finishing their prison sentences if prosecutors and the courts deem them too dangerous to release without treatment. They’re officially considered patients, but they are not free to leave.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul said in his ruling Tuesday that addressing each case individually would be an “enormous drain” on court resources.

So far, more than 60 suits challenging the constitutionality of MSOP are pending in federal court.

“This lawsuit is saying in general terms that you can’t commit people for medical treatment and then close the door forever,” said Minneapolis attorney Daniel Gustafson, who is representing the plaintiffs. “Whether there’s a settlement that can be reached in this case or not remains to be seen. But certainly if there is a settlement, it’s going to have to address this notion that being committed under the Minnesota sex offender program is a life sentence.”

The lawsuit’s intent is not to open the doors to release people, he said. “Even if you had a different system, not everybody would be eligible for release.”

Changes after Dru

MSOP has been a magnet for controversy almost since its creation in 1994, as officials sought to confine dangerous sexual predators while honoring constitutional protections against indefinite detention.

Many Level 3 sex offenders, considered the most likely repeat offenders, were committed to the treatment program and, until this year, none were released except by dying, being moved to a state nursing home or going back to prison.

But, before 2003, not all Level 3 offenders were committed. ..For the rest of this story: by Mary Lynn Smith & Dave Hage

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