2-8-2012 Minnesota:
A workable strategy is needed -- not partisan point-scoring.
It's no surprise that the state's first judicial discharge of a civilly committed sex offender would prompt questions about the decisionmaking behind the man's upcoming release.
But it's critical that Minnesota politicians keep the rhetoric under control and the volume of debate at a reasonable level.
Otherwise the state will never be able to responsibly change course on its costly and potentially unconstitutional policy of locking up some sex offenders for treatment years after they've served their sentences.
A troubling Feb. 6 letter signed by two Republican legislative leaders suggests that the fragile political "no-fly" zone reached on this toxic topic after years of demagoguery -- from politicians in both parties -- could be breached.
The letter to Gov. Mark Dayton from House Speaker Kurt Zellers and House Majority leader Matt Dean demanded further details about the official determination that Clarence Opheim, a 64-year-old convicted pedophile, is fit for supervised release.
Those are fair questions. Opheim has been civilly committed since the controversial program's beginning in 1994. His release, expected in about two months, would mark the first time that Minnesota has successfully treated a patient.
Zellers and Dean also note that Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson recently changed her opinion on Opheim's fitness for release. Jesson, who recently went from opposing the release to not opposing it, said Tuesday that she made her decision based on additional information from outside experts.
While Jesson appears to have done her due diligence on this, and has previously rejected another offender's release, more details about her decision wouldn't hurt.
But the letter from Zellers and Dean also needlessly attempts to score political points. It breathlessly states that releasing Opheim in a "densely populated urban area" is "reckless." It also unfairly implies that this was Jesson's decision to make.
The reality: A three-judge panel made the decision after weighing various expert analyses and recommendations. In addition, the state is not simply going to dump Opheim on a St. Paul sidewalk and drive off without even a look in the rear-view mirror.
Opheim would live in a St. Paul halfway house that is staffed 24 hours a day and licensed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, according to a Feb. 3 Star Tribune story. He would also wear an electronic ankle bracelet for monitoring, attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and continue to receive outpatient treatment at St. Paul's respected Project Pathfinder program.
Is there risk with Opheim's release? Absolutely.
While he has hit all the treatment benchmarks required for patients in Minnesota's program, according to his attorney, no one can guarantee that he won't offend again. The Editorial Board shares the unease that comes with his release, but there are no guarantees that any criminal let out of prison will forever be crime-free.
Still, Opheim's looming release is an attempt to balance public safety with the growing concerns about the civil-commitment program's unsustainable costs and suspect constitutionality. Minnesota, which has not successfully released a patient until this point, is an outlier even among the limited number of states with these programs.
In addition, it now costs the state about $120,000 a year to house and treat each offender -- a much higher price tag than imprisonment. With the number of offenders in the program predicted to nearly double by 2020 to more 1,100, the program is a serious financial burden on the state.
Moreover, there are rising concerns about a legal challenge to the program -- a concern highlighted by a respected law professor less than three weeks ago at a William Mitchell College of Law symposium.
That gathering of experts and politicians from both parties was notable for its constructive discussion. Other states, including Texas, have found more cost-efficient and constitutionally solid ways to protect the public from sex offenders.
Minnesota needs cool, collaborative leadership to find a workable resolution. The Zellers and Dean letter is an unfortunate reminder of the politics that helped create this policy quagmire. ..Source.. by StarTribune Editorial
February 8, 2012
Editorial: Keep politics out of sex offender release
July 23, 2010
13 years later, sex predator a free man
7-23-2010 Florida:
TITUSVILLE — Thomas Spioch, a Titusville man once sentenced to more than 300 years in prison, is a free man.
Spioch was convicted in 1997 of 28 counts of molesting a 14-year-old boy and plotting to kill seven witnesses in the case, but appeals whittled down his sentence.
By the time his sentence was reduced in 2007, Spioch already had served most of it.
The state then invoked the controversial Jimmy Ryce act, a civil law for violent sexual predators, to hold him at a treatment facility in Arcadia.
Spioch, 52, had been at the facility since 2007 until Thursday's decision.
Though held under the act, he was awaiting trial and a final decision on the civil commitment issue had not been made.The decision to release Spioch came about because of a routine psychological and sexual evaluation, according to Assistant State Attorney Veronica Brace.
"The report also looked at recidivism, the risk to re-offend," she said.
Brace said the state constantly received updated reports from experts and looks at new research and findings. One factor in releasing Spioch, she said, was new research on recidivism showing that the capacity of re-offend decreases with advancing age.
"DCF (The Florida Department of Children and Families) no longer opines that he meets the criteria (to be held under civil commitment)," Brace told Judge John Griesbaum at the Titusville courthouse.
Spioch, who was not at the Titusville courthouse Thursday, will not be returning to Brevard County and will live in Orange County, she said.
He will serve about 12 more years of probation and will be registered as a sexual offender.
"He will be continuing sex-offender treatment," Brace said.
Griesbaum said Thursday he was concerned that there was nothing in the probation order about GPS monitoring or restrictions on the use of the Internet.
Brace and defense attorney Sonny Kutsche told him it wasn't possible to add to the probation conditions because it would constitute double jeopardy.
"If commitment is dismissed by the judge today (Thursday), Mr. Spioch will be released today," said Suzonne Kline, the director of the state's sexually violent predator program.
Kepler Funk, a defense attorney who represented Spioch when his sentence was reduced, said his client did not get a fair shake during his original trial.
"Things are not always what they appear at first blush. When my office looked at this case, we realized how unfair his original trial was. Mr. Spioch has paid his debts to society," he said.
Spioch has 24 hours from the time of his release to report to his probation officer in DeSoto County, where the civil commitment facility is located.
The Brevard-Seminole State Attorney's Office began notifying Spioch's victims a week ago about his possible release.
News of the impending release of the man who molested the 14-year-old boy between March 1992 and September 1993, has already led to one victim leaving Brevard.
The victim, whom FLORIDA TODAY agreed not to identify, was a witness in the molestation case and was on Spioch's hit-list. Court records show Spioch paid the hit-man $2,500 as down payment for the planned killings, but the operation was foiled sheriff's office investigators.
"It is not right. I have to leave the state I was born in," she said earlier this week. ..Source.. KAUSTUV BASU • FLORIDA TODAY
