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
July 23, 2010
13 years later, sex predator a free man
March 3, 2010
Child porn found at sex predator rehab facility in SWFL
I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out how CP is getting into a facility that is locked down and detainees have no access to things outside of the gates. Some employee is bringing it in, its that simple.3-3-2010 Florida:
Desoto County, Fla - Dangerous sex offenders locked up and looking at child porn!
It's a problem right now at the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Desoto County.
This is the fifth arrest at the facility in a little more than a month.
29 year-old Robby Burke was arrested after employees at the center found him hiding under a sheet watching child porn.
The center is considered a rehab facility for violent sex predators.
Burke is the now the fifth person in a month to be found with child porn at the facility, which has WINK News demanding answers.
"Problems with contraband is always an issue," said Suzanne Klein, from the Florida Civil Commitment Center.
Klein talked to WINK News by phone on Tuesday.
She tells us it's still unclear how five detainees at the center were able to get a hold of child porn.
"authorities are still investigating how the pornography is getting into the facility," she said.
Robby Burke was arrested last week after employees caught him watching a VHS tape with a Star Trek movie and several sitcoms on it.
But Burke's odd behavior had employees taking a closer look at the video.
That's when they found several images of young boys between the ages of 11 and 12 years-old performing sexual acts.
The tape also had more than 70 images of males engaging in sexually explicit situations.
Burke told authorities he got the tape from another resident.
Klein says they are sneaky when it comes to smuggling in child porn.
"They are very clever. Very bright individuals," she said.
Since January four other men at the facility, Derek Chapman, Fernando Viruet, Robert Grimsley and Ronald Hood have been caught with child porn.
Authorities found the images on Cd's, MP3 players, and flash drives.
"We're very concerned about getting it resolved," Klein said.
The Civil Commitment Center is a state funded but by run by a private company.
Residents at the facility do not have access to the Internet, which adds to the concern as to how they're getting a hold of child porn. ..Source.. Nick Spinetto, WINK News
September 11, 2009
FL- Only one woman confined in Florida under Jimmy Ryce Act
"A child sex abuser can be taught not to do it again, just like an alcoholic is taught not to drink even if they still have urges," he said. "Sex-offender treatment is very effective, if done correctly." See very last sentence of article!
9-11-2009 Florida:
Nearly 700 men held; law allows sexual predators to still be held after their prison terms are up
Nearly 700 Florida men are held in a secure facility, classified as sexually violent predators, despite having completed their prison terms. Just one woman is held in the same situation.
Florida's Jimmy Ryce Act allows for the indefinite civil commitment of sex offenders after they have served their time behind bars. The 1998 law is named for a 9-year-old Miami-Dade boy kidnapped, raped and murdered by a handyman -- 14 years ago on Friday.
A jury convicted his killer, Juan Carlos Chavez, the same year the Legislature signed the Jimmy Ryce Act into law. As a result, Florida sex offenders are spending more time behind bars than ever before.
Judy K. Taylor of Ocala holds the distinction of being Florida's lone woman committed involuntarily and indefinitely to a psychiatric facility, after completing her four-year prison term for having sex with underage boys ranging in age from 13 to 16.
"Men typically abuse because they are sexually aroused by children Ĵ and women typically abuse because they are trying to get emotional needs met," according to Fort Lauderdale forensic psychologist Amy Swan, chairwoman of the Florida Board of Psychology and an evaluator for DCF.
The 45-year-old Taylor is one of just four women nationwide held under sex-offender civil-commitment laws, according to data from the Sex Offender Civil Commitment Programs Network.
The laws, whose constitutionality has been challenged and upheld by the United States Supreme Court, allow the 20 states which have them to hold sex offenders determined by a court as likely to engage in future acts of sexual violence.
As of August 2008, the most recent data available, just more than 3,600 men across the country were civilly committed. One woman each from Illinois, Florida, Minnesota and Washington were held under the same laws.
When the prison term of someone who has committed a sexually motivated crime is nearing completion, DCF reviews the case file. Mental health professionals do face-to-face interviews with about 10 percent of those prisoners and approximately 4 percent of them get recommended to state attorneys for civil commitment, according to Dr. Suzonne„© Kline, director of DCF's Sexually Violent Predator Program.
Only about 1 percent actually gets committed, which requires the offender to be declared a sexually violent predator likely to reoffend. This is done at a civil jury trial -- as in Taylor's case -- or by the offender voluntarily entering into an agreement with the state.
In the10 years since Florida began civilly committing sex offenders, the Department of Children & Families has reviewed more than 35,000 cases, only 435 of which have been women.
Men are housed in a secure facility in Arcadia, which is quickly nearing its 720-person capacity. Taylor is held in a Miami psychiatric facility, where she's separated from the other residents.
Since the commitment is civil in nature, treatment is voluntary. The Arcadia facility has dorms filled with men who are forced to live there but refuse treatment.
DCF would not permit the evaluating psychologist to discuss Taylor's case, but Swan is familiar with the case and said that Taylor has been diagnosed with pedophilia. Taylor also has "significant mental health issues," a common theme with women sex offenders, Swan said.
Scientific literature indicates a "best-guess estimate" that 4 percent of women sexually touch children, compared with 7 percent of men, according to Markus„© Wiegel, an Atlanta psychologist specializing in female sex offender research. Collecting data on women offenders is challenging, he said, because so little research exists.
Whether more women will be snared under civil commitment laws is the subject of debate, though prosecutors and mental-health professionals agree that the number of women likely will increase, though probably not in great numbers.
"I don't think it's an anomaly that there's one woman, but I don't see the numbers growing significantly," said Kristin Kanner, Broward County's Jimmy Ryce prosecutor.
With women only recently -- in the past 10 years or so -- being more aggressively prosecuted for sex crimes, the civil-commitment numbers may begin to increase as their prison sentences near completion, according to Barbara Burns, who prosecutes Palm Beach County's Jimmy Ryce cases.
Sex offenders are a heterogenous group, but there are some general differences between men and women who abuse children.
About half of women who commit sex crimes have had a psychiatric hospitalization and have a history of taking psychotropic medications, she said. Forty percent of sexual abuse perpetrated by women occurs in a day care setting.
Complicating the research is that boys abused by women are far less likely to report it "since our society still views it for a boy as scoring," Swan said.
More than half the time, women abuse children with a man, who will have coerced the woman into participating, according to Wiegel.
There is not enough research to reliably estimate the recidivism -- or reoffending -- rate for women, but it's believed that they reoffend less often than men, perhaps as little as 1 percent, according to some experts. And while much debate exists about whether sex offenders can ever be cured, Wiegel, says they can, indeed, rejoin society.
"A child sex abuser can be taught not to do it again, just like an alcoholic is taught not to drink even if they still have urges," he said. "Sex-offender treatment is very effective, if done correctly." ..Source.. by Missy Diaz South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FL- One-fifth of nation's sex offenders confined to psychiatric facilities are in Florida
9-11-2009 Florida:
Jimmy Ryce Act allows sex offenders to be civilly committed after prison terms are up
Nearly 20 percent of the approximately 3,600 sex offenders confined by a court to psychiatric facilities across the country are in Florida, according to information compiled by the Sun Sentinel.
Florida is one of 20 states with civil-commitment laws, whose intent is to rehabilitate so that offenders may rejoin society. Under the Jimmy Ryce Act -- named for a Miami-Dade boy raped and killed in 1995 -- Florida has been detaining "the worst of the worst," as these criminals are often referred to, since 1999.
When a prisoner who has committed sexually motivated crimes near the end of a prison term, the Department of Children & Families reviews the prisoner's files. If the agency thinks the person is at risk of re-offending after release, a team of mental health professionals performs an evaluation. That evaluation is reviewed by a team from DCF's Sexually Violent Predator Program, which makes a recommendation to the State Attorney's Office in the county of conviction.
It's left to a prosecutor's discretion whether to file a petition to commit a sex offender, who must then be tried by a civil jury.
If jurors decide the offender meets the criteria to be labeled a sexually violent predator, a judge orders indefinite civil commitment.
"If DCF tells me they recommend I file a petition, I generally do," said Kristin Kanner, Broward County's Jimmy Ryce prosecutor.
Broward has filed petitions against more than 100 men, while Palm Beach County has filed about 50, according to Barbara Burns, Kanner's Palm Beach County counterpart. Neither county has ever sought to commit a woman.
More than 35,000 cases have been reviewed since the Florida law's inception. About 10 percent of those were then evaluated and 4 percent recommended to a state attorney for civil commitment, according to DCF data. Just 1 percent are committed.
Though sex offenders are overwhelmingly male, according to experts, women also are perpetrators. In 10 years, 435 women have had their cases reviewed by the DCF, with just one of those ever being recommended for commitment, said Dr. Suzonne Kline, director of Florida's Sexually Violent Predator program. Judy K. Taylor of Ocala is the only woman in Florida who has ever has been civilly committed.
As more women are charged with sex crimes, that number could increase, Burns said.
"You don't get considered for Jimmy Ryce until the end of your prison sentence, and they haven't finished their sentences yet," she said.
Florida law requires the offender meet the criteria of a sexually violent predator, which can include teacher-student sex.
"Any act perpetrated on a child, even if through seduction over force, is considered sexually violent because the person doesn't have the knowledge, power or ability to consent," said Dr. Amy Swan, a Fort Lauderdale forensic psychologist who evaluates sex offenders.
Treating sex offenders, regardless of gender, involves learning things like victim empathy, anger management and relapse prevention, which teaches offenders to recognize triggers in high-risk situations.
Men in Florida are housed at a secure facility in Arcadia with a population of 666, as of this week. Taylor, 45, is held at a Miami psychiatric hospital. Treatment is voluntary, though the chances of getting discharged without participating are scarce. Progress is individual, but the four-phase program used by the Geo Group, the company hired to run the facilities, has an anticipated duration of six years, according to its literature. ..Source.. by Missy Diaz South Florida Sun Sentinel
June 20, 2009
FL- What we think: Keep eye on sex predators
6-20-2009 Florida:
In a high-profile (civil commitment) court case last month in Sanford, a man held since 2001 at the state mental hospital for violent sex offenders was released into the community — without any provision for further treatment or law-enforcement monitoring.
It's a scene that plays out over and over again for other violent sex offenders in Florida courts, despite a higher risk they'll just do it again without specialized supervision.
At least 16 other states that keep violent sex offenders -civilly committed- after their sentences expire routinely require them to submit to treatment and monitoring upon their release. Florida usually doesn't, unless the offenders still have some probation time left over from their original criminal sentences.
This policy threatens public safety and wastes public dollars.
The national Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers has warned that sex offenders are more likely to relapse when they are released into the community without programs specially designed to treat and monitor them. The state official responsible for overseeing the hospital for violent sex offenders in Arcadia also acknowledges that "continuing treatment is an important part of staying well." Other experts in Florida have been pleading for such programs for years.
State legislators have balked, in part because of the cost of funding mandatory community supervision for sex offenders. However, the state could save far more than it spends if the programs allow more offenders to be safely released from the hospital in Arcadia.
The annual cost per resident at the hospital tops $35,000, many times the cost of community-based programs. And released offenders who work can be required to repay their supervision costs.
Legislators created the state system for holding violent sex offenders in 1998 by unanimously passing the Jimmy Ryce Act. The law was named after a 9-year-old boy from Miami-Dade County who was sexually abused and murdered. From the start, legislators showed far more interest in moving offenders into the system than in moving them out.
In 2001, legislators spurned a request from DCF for $970,000 to start treating sex offenders and tracking them with satellite technology after their release from Arcadia. This cost was peanuts, matched against the hospital's current budget of more than $25 million a year, and considering the public-safety benefits of post-release treatment and monitoring.
In last month's case in Sanford, 26-year-old Kareem Merthie had been locked up for nine years for raping boys in his father's church. After pleading no contest to abusing two boys in 1999, he served two years in juvenile detention. He was then sent to the hospital in Arcadia, where he confessed to abusing 20 children. He completed a lengthy treatment program there.
A mental-health expert reported in March that he thought Mr. Merthie remained a danger to reoffend despite the treatment. However, two other experts testified at last month's hearing that there was no longer a legal basis to keep him confined. Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton then ordered Mr. Merthie's release.
Six months earlier, another mental-health expert testified that it would not be safe to release Mr. Merthie without community supervision. The expert, Ted Shaw, has spent decades evaluating sex offenders. He argues compellingly that treatment behind the walls at Arcadia doesn't necessarily prepare an offender to behave responsibly on the other side.
State legislators might claim they're tough on violent sex offenders by locking them up. But legislators aren't really protecting the public if they won't do more to deal with those offenders after they get out. ..Source.. by Orlando Sentinel.com
April 8, 2009
FL- Civil Commitment residents moved in 3 days
At least their living conditions are better, the prior facilty was reported to be horrible.
4-8-2009 Florida:
ARCADIA -- Almost 700 residents of the former Florida Civil Commitment Center were moved into a new facility over three days this week, with no significant problems.
Timothy Budz, GEO Group Facility Manager of the new FCCC complex on State Road 70 east of Arcadia, said the move of 675 residents was staged over three days with help from local law enforcement.
"Everything went as planned," Budz said. "I love it when a plan comes together."
Residents were moved in groups of about 50. The residents and their possessions were thoroughly searched before the men were loaded on a bus for the short trip. Each man was allowed to carry a small bag of personal items, and other possessions were boxed and moved using commercial rental trucks. Several groups of 50 were bused each day until everyone was moved.
The DeSoto County Sheriff's Office assisted with traffic during each of the moves. Deputies stopped traffic for a few minutes in both directions on State Road 70 while the bus drove the residents between their old and new quarters.
"Everything went well," Maj. Sam Williamson of the DeSoto Sheriff's Office said. "We had about 10 deputies in the area. We also had K-9 units from Charlotte, Highlands and Manatee counties on the three days just in case there were any escapes."
But there weren't. Budz said about the only issue was minor "nuisance" contraband such as cigarette lighters. ..News Source..
April 3, 2009
FL- The GEO Group, Inc. Announces the Opening of the New Florida Civil Commitment Center Replacement Facility
4-3-2009 Florida:
BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) (“GEO”) announced today the opening of the new $62.0 million Florida Civil Commitment Center (“FCCC”) replacement facility in Arcadia, Florida. FCCC provides a comprehensive treatment program for individuals who have sexually offended and are either detained or committed under Florida’s Sexually Violent Predator Act. FCCC is the only civil commitment program for sexual offenders in the State of Florida and receives residents from throughout the state. The new facility has a capacity of 720 residents, and it was specifically designed to provide treatment services to Sexually Violent Predators in a highly secure facility. FCCC is operated by GEO Care, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GEO, under a management contract with the Florida Department of Children and Families.
GEO also announced today the consolidation of correctional healthcare functions under GEO Care, which will improve productivity, quality assurance, and the implementation of best healthcare practices throughout GEO’s correctional, detention, and residential treatment facilities. This important consolidation will also maximize the utilization of GEO’s uniquely diversified resources and will better position GEO Care to compete for new business opportunities.
George C. Zoley, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of GEO said, “We are very pleased with the opening of the new Florida Civil Commitment Center replacement facility, which will meet the unique treatment needs of the resident population in a safe and secure environment. In an effort to improve productivity and quality assurance in the delivery of our correctional healthcare services, we have consolidated our correctional healthcare functions under GEO Care. This important consolidation will enhance the implementation of best healthcare practices throughout our company and will maximize the use of our diversified companywide resources.”
The GEO Group, Inc. ("GEO") is a world leader in the delivery of correctional, detention, and residential treatment services to federal, state, and local government agencies around the globe. GEO offers a turnkey approach that includes design, construction, financing, and operations. GEO represents government clients in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. GEO’s worldwide operations include the management and/or ownership of 63 correctional and residential treatment facilities with a total design capacity of approximately 61,000 beds, including projects under development. ..News Source..
December 30, 2008
FL- Florida's Prison for Predators
12-30-2008 Florida:
Florida's Civil Commitment Center, a facility that holds prisoners convicted of sex offenses after they have served their time is entering its fifth year. But there is no evidence that it serves its intended purpose--curing the pedophile or sex offender who has already served his time.
Those who agree to treatment -- and many don't -- take lie-detector tests to squelch their biggest obstacle, denial. They smell noxious fumes, hoping to reprogram their criminal urges with mental tricks. One therapy involves fitting their genitals with a plethysmograph -- a device that monitors desire by measuring blood flow.
While such centers are growing as part of a national trend, many say they are nothing more than high priced prisons. Consider these statistics from the Florida facility:
Only 143 of the 408 residents have consented to be treated for sexual disorders. Most residents refuse treatment on the advice of lawyers because accepting it requires that they admit they're predators, an admission that can be used against them in court in the future.
• Sexual predators who agree to be treated enter a four-step program, but the fourth step, which prepares them for release into the community, does not exist because the Florida Legislature has neither provided the money nor shown the will to create outpatient treatment.
• Staff turnover and lack of state funding keeps even longtime, eager-to-be-treated residents from progressing. Actual sex-offender treatment lasts no more than 12 to 13 hours a week. Many residents receive no more than six hours a week.
....''It's, in effect, the Legislature practicing medicine or practicing psychology without a license,'' says Dr. Fred Berlin, a psychologist and psychiatrist who founded the sexual disorders clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Florida law allows for the continued incarceration of sex offenders after they have finished serving their criminal sentences,
...if it is deemed likely they would commit the same crime again. It is a controversial concept: confining people not for what they did, but for what they might do in the future. Thirteen states have similar laws.
Many of these inmates are denied basic rights.
In a written opinion last year, Senior Circuit Judge Vincent Hall of DeSoto County said the center was denying a resident his constitutional rights when officials locked him in the equivalent of solitary confinement without his personal belongings and denied him the right to contact his attorney. The resident was being punished for protesting a broken air conditioner in the middle of summer heat.
How effective is the program?
Residents say some idle time here is filled having sex, especially among detainees who have not entered treatment. That's officially forbidden. A full-time staff of guards is supposed to prevent it. But administrators concede it happens, especially among residents who reject treatment.
Only eight people have been released from the center in five years, and those were released due to plea bargains in which prosecutors agreed to their release.
Critics say judges tend to want to keep people locked up forever rather than risk the public backlash that would result should a freed detainee re-offend.
Each "resident" costs the state $50,000 a year--more than twice what the state pays to house a prisoner.
''If people are just too dangerous to be out there, we ought to say that's what we think and not pretend it's treatment,'' Berlin says. ``If you're going through the motions and one percent are ever going to get out, it might not be worth it.''
Not suprisingly, we dont' like these centers. While appellate courts disagree with us, we think they are an unconstitutional infringement on due process rights. The maxim has been, "you do the crime, you do the time" These prisoners did the crime and the time and should be going home. If they reoffend, lock them up again. But what authority gives the government the right to lock people up after they have served their time simply becuase the bureaucrats believe they might reoffend? We say, let them out. If they reoffend, the state can file new charges, try them , and if convicted, give them a long sentence. But to make them do these sex classes (which our clients tell us are pretty worthless), repetitively take polygraphs about other prior conduct and their state of arousal, and make them hook their penises up to a plethysmograph to see if they get aroused when watching pictures of young girls, seems to us to be unseemly and ouija board justice. ..News Source.. by Jeralyn, FCCC
