7-29-17 Colorado:
For years, inmates have complained that the Colorado of Department of Corrections has denied most of them access to wonder drugs that can cure hepatitis C, a potentially deadly virus that attacks the liver and has infected 17 percent of the American prison population. Last week, the ACLU of Colorado filed suit seeking a dramatic change in the DOC's policy, calling its approach to rationing treatment a violation of constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment.
"Colorado has an immense public-health crisis in its prisons," ACLU of Colorado legal director Mark Silverstein declared in announcing the class-action lawsuit. “Highly-effective treatment is available that could prevent deaths and fight the spread of the virus, but DOC’s cruel and arbitrary standards deny that treatment to all but a select few prisoners." ..Continued..
July 29, 2017
ACLU Sues Over Denial of Hep C Treatment for Thousands of Prisoners
May 28, 2017
State lawmakers look to prevent sex offenders from being treated at certain psych centers
5-28-17 New York:
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)- State lawmakers are looking at new restrictions for sex offenders.
The Senate passed a bill this week to prevent sex offenders from living in group homes run by the Office of Mental Health or the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.
Another Senate bill was passed last week that would prevent sex offenders from getting treatment at certain psychiatric centers.
Both bills are now waiting for approval by the Assembly.
Allison Scanlon and David Chudy with the group, Save Our Children’s Psychiatric Center, told us they welcome any bill that would keep kids safe.
Scanlon’s son received treatment at the WNY Children’s Psychiatric Center in West Seneca for about three and a half years.
“When that door clicks and shuts behind you, you can’t just turn around and open that door and get to your child,” said Scanlon. “You have to trust that those people and that facility are going to take the best care of your child.”
Scanlon told News 4 she had complete trust in the West Seneca facility. Her son was discharged about eight years ago after he was treated for four disabilities, he now has a job and is learning to drive.
Governor Cuomo is moving forward with plans to relocate the children’s facility to the adult Buffalo Psychiatric Center on Forest Ave.
Scanlon is worried the children will be exposed to adults and will lose quality of care.
In response to safety concerns, State Senator Rob Ortt told News 4 he proposed a bill to prevent sex offenders from getting inpatient or outpatient treatment at the same facility or location as a children’s psychiatric facility.
“That needs to be in place,” said Scanlon. ..Continued..
April 3, 2017
Audit slams Utah’s sex-offender treatment program in prison
See also: Corrections Announces Changes to Sex Offender Treatment Program4-3-17 Utah:
Sex offenders in Utah often stay in prison months beyond their parole eligibility date because of a backlog of inmates awaiting treatment overseen by the Utah Department of Corrections, according to a state audit released Monday.
And when those inmates do receive therapy, the program is a "one-size-fits-all" model with an outdated curriculum and little risk assessment. Management and staff, too, lack oversight and accountability, auditors found, limiting the number of inmates who can receive care due to rampant inefficiency.
"The shortcomings are quite extensive," said Legislative Auditor General John Schaff. That adds up to a big problem when up to one third of all inmates are serving time for a sexual offense.
The proposed solution? To reduce the waitlist, low-risk sex offenders should seek treatment outside of prison after serving their term as a condition of parole.
"These are offenders who really haven't violated anyone," Schaff said. "They've had [a conviction for] probably looking at child porn or something."
The treatment on parole recommendation was one of several offered to fix the ailing program, which spent $678,000 in fiscal 2016 to house inmates with extended incarcerations because of the delays in treatment. That is estimated to rise to $780,000 for 2017.
On average, 114 inmates complete the therapy requirements each year among the three facilities — the Utah State Prison, Sanpete County Jail and San Juan County Jail — with sex-offender programs administered by the Utah Department of Corrections. Up to 240 inmates participate in the program at a time, though it takes an average of 18 months to complete.
Of those currently in treatment, Schaff said, 37 percent are considered low-risk. In most cases, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole requires therapy be completed before release from prison.
Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, requested the audit after hearing from Utah residents with family members behind bars who have yet to be accepted into the sex-offender program. As of October 2016, 83 inmates awaiting treatment should have already been enrolled to meet their parole deadlines.
"They were feeling that their relatives were just falling through the cracks," Dunnigan said. "They're just being warehoused and not offered an opportunity to complete the mandated treatments."
The audit suggests the backlog exists, in large part, due to mismanagement of the program by staff members who fail to comply with current practices, neglect to keep performance records, ineffectively allocate resources and rarely assess inmate progress.
"Some of the concerns we have are just that the management of the treatment is so poor," Schaff said. "Some therapists are not giving therapy at all and others are not giving very much therapy."
There has been a vacant psychologist position since August 2016, the audit reports, suggesting that noncompetitive pay keeps many qualified candidates from applying. Additionally, one of the eight therapists with the Utah Department of Corrections has not actually been working with any inmates through the sex-offender program for the past five years. Combined, those two positions could be resulting in treatment for 80 more cases at any given time — what the legislative report calls "squandered opportunities."
Each therapist also currently spends just 12 hours a week providing care, with other time devoted to paperwork. The audit says that setup does not prioritize the needed level of attention to offenders.
The inmates in the program, regardless of risk level, complete the same 300 hours of treatment. That includes weekly group therapy sessions and classes focused on anger management and relapse prevention. Some of these instructions are more than 15 years old, the audit notes.
The treatment is intended to reduce recidivism rates, though the high-intensity therapy — used to treat every level of offender — could actually "increase the risk of reoffense" for individuals who committed low-level crimes. Instead, the report suggests, the prison should offer different classes and requirements based on an inmate's crime or allow low-level offenders to get treatment after their incarceration.
That would allow "hardcore and serious offenders" to move through the prison's treatment program and reduce the backlog, Schaff suggested.
During an interim meeting Monday of the Audit Subcommittee, Department of Corrections Executive Director Rollin Cook said the prison has already begun complying with the recommendations. He hopes to address all of the steps laid out in the evaluation in six to 12 months. ..Source.. by COURTNEY TANNER
March 8, 2017
Theodore Decker: Sex offenders’ prison treatment records should be open to public
Folks need to realize that medical and psychological records are protected by privacy laws and cannot be made public.3-8-17 Ohio:
As outlined by police, the cases against Brian L. Golsby and Dia I. Cook cast similarly sinister shadows.
Golsby, 29, is accused of abducting Ohio State University student Reagan Tokes, 21, from the Short North about 10 p.m. on Feb. 8. Police said he forced her to drive to an ATM to withdraw money, and then directed her to a Grove City park, where he raped and fatally shot her.
Cook, 34, is accused of abducting a 32-year-old woman about 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 28. Police in Cleveland allege that she was abducted from a parking lot at the Cleveland Institute of Art, forced at gunpoint to drive to another spot, and raped. Cook also made her withdraw money from an ATM, police said. It's unclear how she got away from him.
Golsby and Cook are registered sex offenders accused of sex-related crimes just months after they were released from prison. If the latest allegations prove true, whatever steps the state took to rehabilitate them clearly did not stick.
Ohio law prevents us from learning what many of those steps might have been. ..Continued.. by Theodore Decker
February 28, 2017
Full report: ‘Every supposed reform has been harmful’ to inmates
In a report sent to N.C. lawmakers on Feb. 17, retired prison psychologist John Schwade said many of the state’s efforts to reform mental health for inmates have done more harm that good. Here is the report that Schwade sent to co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety:
Recently I retired as a prison psychologist, stationed at Polk Correctional Institution in Butner, the location of one of the four “therapeutic diversion units” opened in 2016. These “therapeutic diversion units” were to be the cornerstone of planned prison mental health reform, for which the legislature allocated an additional $12 million in 2015.
The $12 million allocated for mental health reform has not been spent as promised.
Every supposed reform has been harmful to the mental and behavioral health of inmates, and has endangered inmates, prison workers, and the public. Moreover, many of the inmates with the most serious mental disorders, including schizophrenia and intellectual disorder (formerly called “mental retardation”), are not provided with the treatment they need.
The focus on therapeutic diversion units in reports to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety, self-described “advocates” for inmates, the public, and the news media has diverted attention from the full extent of the scandal of “mental health reform,” which will outrage every one of your constituents when the details are revealed. In simple terms, those who lean toward the political left will be outraged to learn that the state of mental health treatment has declined as “reform” is ballyhooed. Those who lean toward the political right will be outraged to learn how mental health “reform” enables the gangs who have taken over some prisons to operate without fear of consequences. And every voter will be outraged when they learn that the $12 million allocated for mental health reform has not been spent as promised, yet the prisons and advocates are demanding more money from the taxpayers. ..Continued..
February 11, 2017
Program could get $30K for sex offender treatment
2-11-17 North Carolina:
The Juvenile Crime Prevention Council is poised to receive $30,000 in additional funding, providing the Iredell County Board of Commissioners approves the budget amendment at its Tuesday night meeting.
Initially, the NC Department of Public Safety allocated $50,000 to the Barium Springs Home for Children TASK (Treatment for Sexualized Kids) Program. The state appropriated more money “based on higher than expected utilization of the service,” according to a letter to the county from NCDPS.
“(TASK) offers services to clients (ages 10 to 17) who have been adjudicated for sexual offenses and are court ordered to participate in evaluations and/or treatment,” county records stated. “TASK provides a broad range of services to allow these youth to remain in their homes, promote safety in the community, and prevent further sexual abuse. Services include safety and treatment planning, case management, 24/7 on-call support, comprehensive evaluations, individual, group and family therapy.”
The additional money will be used to serve children in Iredell and Davie counties and will save the county $122 a day for juvenile detention facilities.
The funds do not require a county match. ..Continued.. by Jennifer Dandron
January 6, 2017
Colorado wasting as much as $44 million a year in sex-offender program, audit says
State Rep. Joe Salazar criticizes department over delays in getting treatment to prisoners
Colorado’s Department of Corrections is wasting as much as $44 million annually because it has not fixed problems in a treatment program intended to prepare sex offenders for release from prison, a recent state audit found.
An analysis by auditors showed that nearly 1,300 prisoners in December 2015 had passed their parole eligibility date but had not received sex-offender treatment. It determined the potential cost to taxpayers by calculating the annual cost for their prolonged incarceration.
Delays in treatment are especially problematic for lifetime-supervision offenders, who must complete the treatment before they can be released from prison, according to the audit. Problems in the department’s Sex Offender Treatment and Monitoring program effectively keep these offenders in prison indefinitely. Others, who face fixed sentences, are released without treatment that is supposed to reduce recidivism, according to the audit.
“When the Department does not effectively allocate its limited resources and does not establish and maintain a working system to prioritize and enroll the sex offenders most in need of treatment while incarcerated, it creates significant public safety risks, inequities, negative financial impacts, and negative impacts on treatment effectiveness,” the performance audit from state auditor Dianne Ray’s office said.
While conceding many of the audit’s findings, corrections officials say that most of those who have not completed the treatment either did not want to enroll or failed to complete the program. The audit was released in November but provoked blistering criticism from legislators during a joint Judiciary Committee hearing this week. ..Continued.. by Christopher N. Osher
December 8, 2016
Audit finds flaws in state prison psych programs
12-8-16 Colorado:
The Colorado Department of Corrections has several gaps in its behavioral health programs that need addressing, a state audit revealed Tuesday.
The department’s mental-health and sex-offender programs were lacking on several fronts, most of which could be attributed to lack of staff for each, the State Auditor’s Office told legislators.
On the mental health side, department staff were sometimes late in assessing and recording offender mental health needs, did not always have proper mental health treatment plans in place for offenders and did not maintain sufficient evidence that offenders were seeing mental health professionals enough or were receiving adequate out-of-cell time.
State law bars inmates with serious mental health issues from spending too much time in isolation.
“Limitations of the department’s databases used to track offenders’ mental health information and out-of-cell time contributed to the problems we found and hampered the department’s ability to monitor staff,” audit manager Trey Standley told the Legislative Audit Committee.
On the sexual offender end, the audit found that department staff were not adequately assessing and addressing treatment needs as required by law for sexual offenders.
The number of sexual offenders enrolled in treatment each year decreased from 484 in 2012 to 465 in 2015, while the number of inmates eligible for that treatment rose during that same time period from 1,527 to 1,979, the audit said.
In 2015 and 2016, the department had a staff vacancy rate of more than 20 percent for its mental health program and more than 30 percent for the sex offender program, the audit found.
“Staff constraints contributed to a number of the problems we identified,” the audit said.
The audit made 11 recommendations, including improving oversight of out-of-cell time, prohibiting offenders with serious mental issues from being housed in long-term isolation and maintaining adequate staffing to run both programs.
This year, the department received about $16.8 million to operate its mental-health program, and $4.4 million to run the sex-offender program. ..Source.. by Charles Ashby
November 18, 2016
Community Fights State Changes To Sex Offender Treatment Program, Say Traditions Protect Villages
11-18-16 Alaska:
Community members are concerned that sexual assault in the YK Delta may be about to increase, and that nearly a decade of work treating sex offenders and working with communities will be lost.
The worry comes as state budget cuts reduced within a month the region’s Sex Offender Treatment Program from two clinicians and a case manager, with over 30 years combined experience treating sex offenders, to one clinician with four months experience. State officials traveled to Bethel to hear these concerns from the program’s advisory board, which says too much was taken away too fast.
“It’s like gutting it right at this important stage where you’ve got communities that want this program. Elders, tribal councils that were willing to meet and discuss about these really hard issues about sex offending," said Joan Dewey, a mental health clinician at the Bethel Family Clinic. A year ago, she retired from the state after working with the YK Delta Sex Offender Treatment Program. Now, she serves on the program’s advisory board.
Three officials with the Department of Corrections, which is responsible for the program, traveled to Bethel on Wednesday to meet with the board, saying they wanted to improve communication and avoid misinformation. However, the officials repeatedly sidestepped or ignored questions from members throughout the meeting and said that all media queries had to be directed to their public information officer in Anchorage. Dewey called the meeting disappointing.
“It wasn’t really addressing what the community concerns are,” she said.
The Department says that state budget cuts drove the staff reduction and will save the program nearly $17,000 per participant. Dewey sees the decision as shortsighted.
“That is a mere pittance of what the cost is to society, to families, to these communities to incarcerate, to re-try, for the court system, for all the different parts that are involved.”
The DOC's big news was that the state is replacing its Sex Offender Treatment Programs with a system developed with First Nations communities in Canada. The board said they didn't want that. They want support for what they have. They’ve seen too many programs fail and too many programs from the outside claim to know better than what the region’s traditions offer.
“Whenever they come from the outside, they go," Dewey said, "they don’t stay. So this is a concern. Why would we want to bring in something when we have a program that’s working, that has proven that it works, that has made significant changes in the lives of families and communities?”
The region’s program started in 2008 and incorporates Yup’ik values and culture. The re-offense rate is 1.7 percent, less than the state’s average of three to five percent. Dewey says that when the program started, communities didn’t talk about sexual offense. Now, nearly 40 of the region’s villages are involved, and 500 volunteers serve as safety net members: people who know the offender’s story, triggers, and how to help. And this involvement spreads recovery.
“We’ve had many safety net members who’ve disclosed their own sexual abuse, so they begin to have some opportunity for healing themselves, because they become aware that a man can change, a perpetrator can change,” Dewey said.
And keeping this healing going, keeping this program going, is crucial. Most sex offenders who come to the program have sexually abused 20 to 45 people, sometimes an entire generation in one village. Over the last eight years, this program has shown that it can help stop that.
The DOC public information officer did not respond to questions by the time this story was published. ..Source.. by Anna Rose MacArthur
Audit Finds Improvements in N.H.'s Sex Offender Program for Inmates — But More Work Remains
See also: Few sex offenders released from prison on time, audit finds Staff juggles administration of therapy program! Effectively pushing clients past eligibility & out dates. Additionally see July Report: State lies about the huge backlog in the sex offender treatment program by Chris Dornin11-18-16 New Hampshire:
A state audit finds that the Department of Corrections has successfully cut the time it takes inmates to complete sex offender treatment but there's still more work to do.
For those who’ve committed a sex crime, the state requires inmates to complete a six- to 18-month treatment program before they can seek parole. That population is currently at 654 but at times can be as high as 800 people.
Three years ago, only 16 percent of enrollees completed the program before their potential release date. Friday’s audit shows that number has risen to 88 percent.
Helen Hanks, assistant commission of the Department of Corrections, says the department has been working to improve the efficiency of the program but stresses there is only so much it can control.
“The data also affirmed for us what we have been testifying and sharing is that often times it’s the own individuals’ behavior in our institutions that interferes with enrolling them in a timely manner or even assessing them in a timely manner,” Hanks told lawmakers Friday.
The audit also found that the sex offender treatment program is following recommended practices but suggests the department come up with ways of measuring the program's effectiveness.
The last time the DOC tracked the recidivism rate of N.H. sex offenders was six years ago. Hanks says they'll immediately start monitoring this again. ..Source.. by Paige Sutherland
Few sex offenders released from prison on time, audit finds
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Most sexual offenders in the state's prison aren't released when they've served their minimum sentences because they haven't completed a mandatory treatment program.
That's the finding of an audit released Friday on the Department of Corrections' sexual offender treatment program.
Men in the state prison for sexual offenses are required to undergo the treatment plan before seeking parole. Prison reform advocates have argued delays in the program unfairly keep people in prison and cost the state unnecessary money. The audit found delays are caused by inmate behavior and a failure to enroll people in treatment in a timely manner.
Roughly 750 men were in the state prison system for sexually related offenses as of May. Just 14 percent of prisoners included in the audit were released upon reaching their minimum sentences.
"Prisoners are entitled to ask for parole when the minimum sentence is two-thirds expired, and sex offenders never get to take advantage of that," said Chris Dornin, the founder of New Hampshire's Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform.
But lawmakers who heard the audit presentation said it should've focused more on the program's effectiveness at stopping people from re-offending after they leave prison. The audit found the program has no system to measure whether the program is reducing recidivism rates.
"All we're getting here is did they meet the timeline," Republican Rep. Neal Kurk said. "From a legislative point of view that's not the end goal."
Helen Hanks, assistant corrections commissioner, said the department will soon have better data because it is implementing an electronic records system.
The audit found New Hampshire has fewer staff members dedicated to the program than neighboring states with fewer offenders. New Hampshire has five full-time positions dedicated to the program for about 750 people, and not all positions are filled. Vermont, by contrast, has nine employees for 500 inmates.
Data in the audit show the program is getting better at putting inmates into treatment on time. The goal is to assess inmates to see what type of treatment they need 24 months before they are eligible for parole. In fiscal year 2016, 88 percent of inmates were assessed in that timeframe, up from just 16 percent in the three years before the audit began. But only 50 percent of eligible inmates were enrolled in treatment 18 months before reaching their minimum sentences.
Some inmates aren't enrolled on time or are kicked out halfway through the program because of disciplinary issues or refusing to be treated. by AP
September 28, 2016
Prison rehabilitation program gets an overhaul
9-28-16 Idaho:
Offenders sentenced to the rider treatment programs no longer will have the option of serving a 90-day stint.
The Council of State Governments reviewed the Idaho Department of Correction a year ago and found the department needed to modernize its programming.
As a part of a revamping of the all Department of Correction facilities, the rider program had new curricula added. A rider is served at an intensive rehabilitation facility where offenders enter treatment with the hope of diverting them from recidivism.
Ashley Dowell, Department of Correction’s Division of Prisons deputy chief, said in the past judges could sentence offenders to a 90-day, 120-day, nine-month or yearlong rehabilitation program.
“Their (the Council of State Governments) findings (on) our old programs was that they were complex and confusing and needed to be modernized,” Dowell said.
Formally known as the Retained Jurisdiction Program, minimum-security prisons located in Cottonwood and Kuna use therapy-based treatment to change offenders’ attitudes so that they don’t re-offend.
Under the new guidelines, individuals are now assessed on what kind of rehabilitation they need and, on average, those offenders will be incarcerated at the prisons for 180 days up to one year.
The curricula has been changed to include a substance abuse intervention program created by the University of Cincinnati, a sex offender rehabilitation program also created by the university, and shorter programs such as the aggression replacement training and “thinking for a change” program aimed at correcting criminal thinking.
The new programs are available at all prison facilities, not just rider facilities, Dowell said.
The substance abuse program was created in 2010 and is utilized by more than 75 agencies across the U.S. The sex offender treatment program is about a year old and is recommended for offenders who are a moderate- to high-risk to re-offend.
The programming includes discussion, role-playing and active participation in groups of eight to 10 inmates. The groups, guided by a facilitator, help identify triggers and promote problem-solving and social skills.
The therapeutic community rider used in the past has been eliminated, Dowell said. She said the department streamlined the curriculum and adopted the new programs because they are “evidence-based,” in mitigating recidivism.
She said the Council of State Governments submitted its report assessing the prison system in September 2015, and the staff at the Kuna and Cottonwood facilities were first to receive training and updated programs.
Dowell said no additional staffing was required to meet the new standards. Training, however, was the most costly portion of modernizing the programming. Dowell said the cost was offset by the open domain training material that can be printed for free.
“There was a little bit of a trade-off there,” she said. “We don’t have pay for the manuals to access the program material. Before we had to buy manuals at cost, so there was a manual per offender.”
When a judge retains jurisdiction over an offender and sends them on a rider, the judge periodically receives updates on the inmate’s progress and what kind of treatment they are receiving. Dowell said this did not change with overhaul.
“The programs we used for a long time initially showed good outcomes, then there were some mixed outcomes,” Dowell said.
With the new programs, inmates are receiving much more consistent, individualized rehabilitation, Dowell said. ..Source.. by TOM HOLM
February 12, 2016
What's Next for the Sex Offender Treatment Clinic Chased Out of Duboce Triangle?
2-12-16 California:
They’ve got to go somewhere.
Nobody wants Sharper Future, the California-based rehab center for sex offenders, on their block. This week, clinic owners abandoned a bid to move into the vacant space at 100 Church St. citing the neighborhood’s unrestrained (if unsurprising) anger after Hoodline tipped everyone off about it.
But no amount of angry emails or petitions can run Sharper Future clear out of town. The clinic’s clients, all registered sex offenders, are required by law to get regular psychological treatment, many of them for the rest of their lives. Much the same way we can’t legally (or practically) relocate sex offenders to a desert island, we can’t kick out the institutions that service them.
Nor should we really want to, since the idea of sex offenders not getting therapy is a clear net loss for community safety. This has the makings of an intractable problem.
“I’ve been trying to find a place for these people for seven months,” says Ken Colwell, a real estate broker with Paragon Commercial Brokerage. “We looked at maybe 30 sites, and considered 100 others. We did everything we were supposed to with this building, got the green light from the city, and now it’s been taken away at the last minute.”
Colwell is clearly steamed on his clients’ behalf. Sharper Future is actually the perfect tenant in most ways, a successful nonprofit with sound financials, federal funding, and owners (doctors Mary-Perry Miller and Tom Tobin) whom Colwell calls “two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.”
But it’s hard to overcome that PR problem.
Sharper Future has been at their current location at 1540 Market Street for nine years. A completely unscientific phone survey of their immediate neighbors revealed no complaints about the clinic or its clients. In fact, most nearby business owners say they had no idea Sharper Future was even there.
But the building will soon be demolished to make way for a 37-story condo tower designed by SCB and Snohetta. Sharper Future has worked out an extension of their current lease through the end of the year—this being San Francisco, construction on the new building isn’t going to start soon anyway — but after that they can’t afford to stay in the neighborhood. The block around Van Ness was a no-man’s land when they first moved in, but now companies like Uber and Caviar are just up the street, and property values are soaring.
Yes, the tech boom is even displacing San Francisco’s sex offenders — or at least those that help them.
It’s already hard enough to find a space with sufficient square footage (8,000 feet or so) and properly zoned for medical treatment for the right price, says Colwell. Throw in neighborhood activism and the hot potato has very few places to land.
Readers of San Francisco’s various news outlets have some suggestions: ..Continued.. by Adam Brinklow
December 16, 2015
Officials say Brunswick sex offender court, while controversial, works
Allows better monitoring, treatment of offenders
BRUNSWICK COUNTY -- Southeastern North Carolina became the home of what officials there think is the first sex offender accountability and rehabilitation court program in the state after Ola Lewis noticed a trend in her Superior Court courtroom.
Lewis, the senior resident Superior Court judge for Brunswick County, considered starting the court after several sex offenders came into her courthouse for violating the terms of their probation -- namely not attending court-mandated treatment, which can cost about $40 a week.
"My answer to that concern," Lewis said, "was let's set it up on the drug court model and have the team of professionals, probation, treatment providers and a coordinator monitor their progress."
More than helping offenders return to society, Lewis said, the program is meant to help keep Brunswick County safe by guaranteeing that offenders receiving adequate treatment.
Misperceptions about the program can easily arise because of the nature of the offenders, said Carrie Menke, Brunswick County's mental health court coordinator, who also oversees the county's drug treatment and domestic violence treatment court.
"Do you want that person in your community getting more aware of their dysfunctional thinking patterns and how to change those thinking patterns and change those behaviors?" Menke said. "Or do you want them just not in treatment, leaving them wide open to re-offend?"
Eric Sipe, president of the N.C. chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, questioned using grant funds to pay for offenders' treatment.
"When I was doing the treatment, attendance was always an issue, but it was always believed that that was part of the offenders' responsibility was to pay for their own treatment," said Sipe, who is now retired from practice in Catawba County, adding, "If it's working, that's great."
Offenders eligible for the program include only those whose penalties include probation, such as indecent liberties with a child or failure to register as a sex offender.
Participants in the program also receive other kinds of treatment, Menke said, often including therapy for trauma and substance abuse.
"There’s not necessarily a cure, but you have to learn what your triggers are, where to go, where not to go, change your people, places and things so that you don’t re-offend," Menke said.
Sipe, the Catawba County therapist, agreed there is no cure for sex offenders.
"They're always capable of re-offending," he said.
Since the Brunswick County program began meeting twice a month in September 2012, 17 sex offenders have participated. Of those, 11 have completed the program, while one other committed another sex offense.
When offenders participate in the court, they are privy to an advanced level of monitoring. Each court session brings together a mix of court officials, probation officers and treatment professionals.
"Any time we can get all those stakeholders together at one table it is beneficial to public safety and to what we do, which is trying to change behavior," said Mike Frazier, NC Department of Public Safety's manager for an area including Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus counties.
If a participant re-offends or no-shows a treatment session, for instance, officials are able to act quicker.
"We know immediately and we can deal with it at the next session of court," Lewis said. "They're not waiting six months to be seen by a judge." ..Source.. by Adam Wagner
December 9, 2015
ADOC: Hualapai Unit will house sex offenders
See Also: GV prison designated for sex offenders12-9-15 Arizona:
KINGMAN - When the Hualapai Unit at Arizona State Prison-Kingman reopens next month for the first time since riotous inmates destroyed four of five housing pods in July, the facility won't be home to general population prisoners, but to sex offenders.
Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux confirmed the change in an email Monday.
Lamoreaux said the same inmate criteria put in place following a deadly escape in 2010 are in place.
That includes:
• No inmates serving life sentences (including those serving 25 to life);James Black, a vice president with the GEO Group, a private prison operator that took over from prior operator Management and Training Corp. on Dec. 1, asked for time to consult with the DOC before commenting, as he isn't certain how much detail the DOC wants made public.
• No convicted murderers or attempted murderers (including current and prior convictions);
• No inmates with an escape history;
• No inmates with more than 20 years left to serve.
Statistics on how many sex offenders are among the more than 43,000 people in prison in the state are difficult to find.
The federal Bureau of Prisons reports more than 14,000 of its roughly 200,000 inmates are incarcerated for sex offenses, more than 7 percent. Based on Arizona's prison population - and assuming the same ratio of sex offender inmates exists in the state as it does on the federal level - slightly more than 3,000 of the state's inmates are in for sex crimes.
The prison - including the Cerbat Unit - has about 3,500 beds.
DOC uses the Sex Offenders Education and Treatment Program, which is based on a cognitive-behavioral and relapse prevention model of assessment and treatment, according to the DOC website.
The program is designed to assist the offender in "managing sexually exploitive behavior" so they don't reoffend.
DOC's website said the program includes psychological testing, getting the inmate to acknowledge the offending behavior, modifying cognitive distortions, managing deviant sexual urges and impulses, developing empathy for the victim, and acquiring relapse prevention skills.
Participants are encouraged to take an active role in treatment by attending weekly classes, group therapies and other components. ..Source.. by Doug McMurdo
December 1, 2015
Prisoner rights advocates push for audit of state’s [prison] sex offender treatment program
11-1-15 New Hampshire:
A group of New Hampshire lawmakers is requesting an audit of the state’s sex offender treatment program to address a purported backlog of inmates awaiting mandatory psychosexual therapy.
Chris Dornin, founder of Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform-New Hampshire, said dozens of incarcerated sex offenders are currently approaching their minimum release dates but will be ineligible for parole because they haven’t yet begun treatment, which can last up to 18 months.
A bill pushed by Dornin’s group calls for an analysis of the “reasons for, fiscal impact, and human impact of the backlog of prisoners currently waiting to take the sex offender treatment program,” during the last five years, according to an early draft.
“We know for sure this wait list includes many scores of prisoners in danger of missing their earliest parole dates,” Dornin said in an email, adding, “Those who stay inside the walls past their minimum sentences cost the state far more than they would in the community.”
The Department of Corrections acknowledged delays in recent years, because of understaffing, but said it is aware of none presently.
“We review the files of all inmates who need sex offender treatment services at least two years prior to their minimum parole date and we put them on a waiting list at that time,” spokesman Jeff Lyons said in an email. “As beds free up, they move into the treatment program. There is no backlog.”
There are 675 incarcerated sex offenders in the state, all but five of whom are men. The treatment program has the capacity for 96 of them.
Many of those hundreds of offenders are serving out long sentences, and Lyons noted that there are many reasons why someone might surpass his or her minimum release date beyond the treatment component, such as behavioral problems or other disciplinary concerns.
Dornin, however, said 59 offenders have reported they are “on track to miss their earliest parole date through no fault of their own.”
“We have the names of many others afraid to let officials know who they are,” he said.
While eligible prisoners must be screened within two years of their minimum release dates, the department is not required to provide them with treatment within that time, according to a 2012 staffing audit by the Legislative Budget Assistant.
That may have costly and dangerous implications, the audit asserted, as some languishing inmates may choose to forgo treatment altogether.
“If (sex offender treatment services) cannot be provided timely, sexual offenders may choose to serve out their maximum sentence, if completing SOTS does not have the potential to reduce their prison term,” it said.
The treatment centers focus on relapse prevention through cognitive behavioral therapy and lasts between six and 18 months, depending on the offender’s needs. Lyons said the program has been understaffed in recent years, but is now fully staffed with five employees – four therapists and one person in charge of screenings and aftercare.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Democratic Rep. James Verschueren, was unavailable for comment last week, but in an email to legislators earlier this month he said a constituent of his in Strafford County was an inmate and had “remained on the waitlist well beyond the time he should have entered the program.”
“He is part of what I am convinced is a large backlog of prisoners denied access to this obligatory treatment in a timely way,” Verschueren wrote.
Cosponsors said they hope a review sheds light on whether potential treatment delays have contributed to prison overcrowding, and if so, what can be done about it.
In the end, however, their legislation may prove unnecessary. Audit requests are usually made directly to a legislative oversight committee and then approved by the Joint Fiscal Committee, rather than through a proposed bill. Rep. Lynne Ober, a Hudson Republican and a member of the oversight committee, said the LBA has begun researching how long it would take to complete the audit and what exactly would be involved.
The committee could take it up later this year or in early 2016, Ober said. ..Source.. by Jeremy Blackman
November 17, 2015
Brunswick looks to extend rehab program for sex offenders
11-17-15 North Carolina:
BOLIVIA -- Brunswick County is trying to renew its grant funding for a sex offender rehabilitation program that might be the only one of its kind in the South.
This week the board of commissioners signed off on the courts' applying for a $200,000 grant that would fund the Sex Offender Accountability Rehabilitation Court and Domestic Violence Court for a year or two. The measure passed four to one, with Commissioner Pat Sykes casting the lone no vote.
Most of the commissioners approved of the court after learning that it would not import sex offenders who were convicted elsewhere to Brunswick County. Sykes, though, grilled Ola Lewis, the senior resident Supreme Court judge who oversees the program, on various details -- including the county's liability if a participant commits another sex crime and whether funding it would take away from victim therapy.
"My main concern is having grant money that is constantly available for the defendant, but nothing is for the victims," Sykes said.
Officials with the court agreed with Sykes that treatment for victims is also important, but noted that funding is available through victim advocacy programs. They also said the knowledge that their attackers are seeking help can be a relief to some victims.
"We teach (offenders) victim empathy and victim impact and how they are going to prevent another victim," Katherine Henderson, a Wilmington therapist who has worked with offenders in the program, said Monday in response to Sykes.
Since September 2012, 17 people have participated in the program, which is modeled on drug courts. For a full year, participants attend biweekly court sessions, weekly therapy and have multiple visits with a probation officer per month.
Of those, 17, 11 have successfully completed the program, said Carrie Menke, Brunswick County's mental health treatment court coordinator. One person participating in the program was "discharged" after committing another sex offense, she said.
Lewis, who said the program is the only one of its kind south of the Mason-Dixon Line, told the commissioners there are currently 10 people in the sex offender rehabilitation program.
Many sex offenders in Brunswick County find it difficult to afford or travel to court-mandated treatment, Menke said, creating the necessity for the rehabilitation court.
"Offenders just weren't going to the treatment," she said, "which gets them a probation violation, which gets them revoked, which gets them sent to prison, which costs huge amounts of money and they're still not getting treatment."
Preston Hilton, a Supply defense attorney who works with the treatment courts, said defendants who don't receive treatment are often caught in a cycle of crime and punishment without addressing the root causes of their actions. There are 197 registered sex offenders in Brunswick County, including the 10 currently in the program.
"If the concern is the victim, then in my mind there are 187 more sex offenders who need to be in our treatment court," Hilton said.
Other than Sykes, the commissioners on Monday praised the drug court. Commissioner Randy Thompson praised Lewis and other court employees for setting a model.
"I understand needing to step out and do a program where it's not offered somewhere else," he said. "It takes a lot to be that individual who steps out."
Commissioner Marty Cooke agreed with Thompson, noting that it can be difficult to try to innovate in a government setting.
"I can't see anything other than just great praise for what you're trying to accomplish," Cooke said.
..Source.. by Adam Wagner, StarNews Staff
October 27, 2015
Utah Sex Offender Prison Population Grows under Harsher Laws while Treatment Programs Lag
10-27-15 Utah:
Utah Sex Offender Prison Population Grows under Harsher Laws while Treatment Programs Lag
Fueled by the notion “once a predator, always a predator,” harsher laws have flooded Utah state prisons with sex offenders sentenced to longer and longer prison terms, while funding for sex offender treatment programs has remained static. The dilemma has state lawmakers in a bind, caught between finding ways to reduce the state’s growing prison population and still taking the politically popular approach of appearing to be tough on sex offenders by locking them up with only limited access to treatment.
The eventual result, warned one member of Utah’s Board of Pardons and Parole, will be releasing everyone except murderers and sex offenders due to a lack of space in prison for anyone else.
According to research compiled by the Pew Charitable Trusts, sex offenders now make up one-third of Utah’s prison population – the single largest group of prisoners in state prisons, and nearly double the number of sex offenders imprisoned since 1996. Yet during that same time period, the state’s $1 million annual allocation for its sex offender treatment unit containing 200 beds has remained unchanged.
In 2012, Utah lawmakers passed tough new laws that included mandatory 5-, 10- and 25-years-to-life sentences for child rape. They also imposed harsh penalties on other child-related sex crimes, including aggravated sexual abuse of a child and sexual abuse of a child, now the top two offenses committed by Utah state prisoners. Both were classified as felonies under the new laws.
The harsh sentences, which have helped to fill up the prison system, exist despite data which shows that 78% of sex offenders in Utah had no prior convictions.
“Our culture has a very strict credo, a moral sense, of what is appropriate sexually and what is not appropriate sexually,” said state Rep. Eric Hutchings. “That may be why we incarcerate a little bit more.”
Hutchings noted that a belief that sex offender treatment is ineffective has contributed to the trend of imposing tougher sentences. “The mind-set for a long time has been, what are we going to get by putting this money into treatment? Why not focus instead on mandatory minimum sentences and keeping these people locked away?” he added.
In reality, however, sex offenders are less likely to reoffend than non-sex offenders, according to a 2003 Bureau of Justice Statistics report. Just 5.3% of all sex offenders – and an even smaller 3.3% of child molesters – were rearrested for a sex crime within three years of being released, the report found.
Similarly, a Utah study determined that 20% of sex offenders who completed treatment returned to prison within one year, compared to 42% who did not complete treatment. And the majority of both groups were reincarcerated due to parole violations, not for committing new crimes.
Investing in treatment and supervision resources is critical, said Jonathan Ririe, a Utah psychologist who treats sex offenders in the community. “The reality is we are talking about a very large group of people at the prison who are someday going to get released,” he noted.
“Our statutory scheme makes it so that sex offenders go to prison,” Salt Lake City-based defense attorney Mark Moffat told a meeting of the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice sentencing subcommittee. “And they end up serving just a ton of time where we have an excellent prison-based sex offender treatment program that works in its ability to combat recidivism, but there’s been no funding for that for years.”
In 2014, the Commission presented 18 recommendations for the Utah legislature to consider with respect to reducing the rate of the state’s prison population growth, but none had anything to do with how the state handles sex offenders – the largest single category of prisoners. The problem, critics said, is that Utah lawmakers who just a few years ago passed tough new laws against sex crimes don’t want to appear to be backpedaling by devoting more resources to treatment, despite evidence that shows treatment is effective.
“We’ve now had enough time to track these other programs around the nation and know if these programs are going to make a difference,” said Hutchings. “And the answer is yes, they will. Now it’s a matter of determining the way to do it to have the safest results for the citizens of Utah.”
“It’s a difficult policy area, and one that everyone seems to have some type of opinion on and thought on,” stated Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice executive director Ron Gordon. “As we approach that population of offenders, I hope our approach would be the same as with all other populations. There are a number of different considerations that have to take place, and I hope we don’t shy away from any of them just because it might be tough.”
Utah’s prison-based sex offender treatment is an 18-month program with a limited number of beds. There is often a waiting list and, in some cases, offenders may be kept in prison longer in order to complete treatment.
“That’s been a constant, really, for every public hearing and in the more targeted hearings with prosecutors and victims’ advocates, prisoner advocates, everyone,” said Gordon. “They’re all advocating for increased treatment opportunities.”
Devoting more resources to treatment, however, will not stem the influx of sex offenders facing longer prison terms under the harsher laws, warned Clark Harms, a member of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
“I’m not saying that we ought not to punish,” he told the subcommittee. “But I’m saying that [sentences of] 25 to life, or even a presumption of 15 years to life on regular first-degree felony sex offenses, you’re going to have to, eventually, the board is going to get to a point where we have to start letting everyone else out because all we have room for are murderers and sex offenders.”
“If that’s where we want to be,” Harms added, “fine.” ..Source.. by Mark Wilson and Christopher Zoukis
October 15, 2015
Newton prison to house 200 sex offenders for treatment
10-15-15 Iowa:
Iowa Department of Corrections officials plan to move the state’s sex offender treatment program, which serves about 200 inmates with criminal histories of sex crimes, to the Newton Correctional Facility.
State Corrections Director Jerry Bartruff confirmed this week to the Des Moines Register that a decision has been made to shift the program to Newton from the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility, where it has operated for decades. The treatment is provided to inmates with backgrounds of crimes ranging from rape to child molestation.
The program's impending move is news to local officials in Newton — about 35 miles east of Des Moines — who say they haven’t received any advance notice about the changes.
“This is the first I have heard about it. This is going to catch people by surprise, quite frankly,” said state Rep. Dan Kelley, D-Newton.
The Mount Pleasant prison, which houses a total of 875 inmates, has a dormitory-style environment that has prevented the treatment of some sex offenders for security or disciplinary reasons, Bartruff said.
In contrast, the medium-security Newton prison — which has about 1,300 inmates confined to cells and dormitories — offers a more versatile and secure setting that will permit the treatment of more sex offenders, Bartruff said.
Assistant Corrections Director Fred Scaletta said a work group representing both institutions will be formed to develop a transition plan and a timeline for implementing the changes.
“This will take quite a bit of time, several months, to get done, but there will be no reduction in staff” at either state prison, Scaletta said.
The future mission for the Mount Pleasant prison will focus on preparing inmates for release to the community, as well as substance abuse treatment, and housing inmates classified as part of the general prison population, Scaletta said.
As part of the shift, the Mount Pleasant prison will be downgraded from a medium-security environment to a minimum-security facility, which means there will be fewer restrictions on inmate movement.
State Sen. Chaz Allen, D-Newton, and Frank Liebl, executive director of the Newton Development Corp, both said they had no knowledge about plans to move the sex offender treatment program to the Newton prison until they were contacted this week by a reporter.
But neither said they had any immediate worries and they don’t expert alarm in the community.
“The prison has been out there a long time” with relatively few problems, Allen said. “In talking with folks at both facilities, this is a better plan because Newton is a secure facility and Mount Pleasant is not as secure.”
Scaletta said state prison officials hadn’t intended any secrecy behind the shift of the sex offender treatment program from Mount Pleasant to Newton. He said the Iowa Board of Corrections had been advised of the changes at a public meeting, and legislative caucus staffs and some legislators were also aware of the plans.
State Rep. David Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, said he initially felt apprehension when he heard about plans to shift the sex offender program to Newton. But he’s been assured by employees at the Mount Pleasant prison that it’s a positive change and there will be no loss of staff. He added that Newton residents shouldn’t have any worries about public safety after the sex offender program is moved to the state prison there.
“We have had hundreds of sex offenders here for years, and we haven’t had any incidents locally,” Heaton said.
State Sen. Rich Taylor, D-Mount Pleasant, said he doesn’t’ necessarily agree with all of the changes. But he recognizes that Bartruff — who assumed Iowa’s top corrections post earlier this year — may have a different perspective.
“I think he is trying to do a good job and we have to give him a chance to run the department the way he thinks it needs to be run,” Taylor said.
A total of 191 inmates are currently receiving sex offender treatment at Mount Pleasant. Their average stay in the program is 11.3 months, although the tracks for treatment vary based upon an inmate’s risk to reoffend. ..Source.. by William Petroski
October 14, 2015
County goes out to bid for counseling of sex offenders
10-14-15 Arizona:
KINGMAN — Mohave County is going out for bids for treatment services for adult sex offenders.
The county’s probation department is looking for a firm to provide sex offender treatment services for adults on probation for sex offenses. The services include individual, group and family counseling, motivation enhancement and relapse prevention.
Treatment programs are from 18 to 24 months with twice a month sessions for sex offenders. The firm would assess an offender’s needs, provide individual or group counseling and assessment of re-offense risks
The service areas would include offices in Bullhead City, Kingman, Lake Havasu City and the Arizona Strip area.
The average sex offender caseload for Bullhead City, which includes Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley, Golden Shores and Oatman, is 50 to 60 offenders.
The average sex offender caseload for Kingman, which includes Wikieup, Meadview, Dolan Springs, Peach Springs and Golden Valley, is 75 to 85 offenders. Lake Havasu City averages about 20 to 30 offenders while the Arizona Strip averages about 15 to 25 offenders.
Treatment service providers have until Nov. 12 to submit bids to the county’s procurement department. A conference will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 28 in the Ocotillo Room at the county administration building, 700 W. Beale St. in Kingman. ..Source.. by JIM SECKLER
August 9, 2015
Vermont's Successful Sexual Offender Program Is Undergoing Big Changes
8-9-15 Vermont:
There are changes afoot in the way Vermont's Corrections Department houses and treats sexual offenders. The program has most recently been located at facilities in Windsor and Springfield. Now most of it is moving to the Northwest Correctional Center in St. Albans and there's a big turnover in service providers.
Vermont has long been recognized as a leader in sexual offender treatment, with recidivism rates hovering around 5 percent. Now that the program is moving to a new location, none of the independent contractors who have been working with incarcerated offenders have re-applied for their jobs, as required by the Department of Corrections.
The departing therapists do not want to speak publicly about their decisions to leave the program. Several say privately they would be willing to move from the Upper Valley to St. Albans but fear they would not have job security. A few are unhappy with the direction treatment is taking toward what corrections officials call "manualized intervention." Here's how DOC Program Services Director Kim Bushey defines that term:
"'Manualized' means that the curriculum has been developed in a particular order that usually builds on each other. Lessons build on each other, or skills practice build on each other and that there is some structured guidance around how the material gets presented," Bushey explained.
Bushey says she knows some therapists at first resisted the new written curriculum and would rather have more freedom to treat each individual offender differently. But she says it's based on sound research about what triggers sexual misbehavior, and what kinds of interventions are needed to change it. Now that the former therapists have left the program it will be overseen by a newly hired New Hampshire-based contractor called Re-Entry Resources. Bushey acknowledges that the company has more experience in substance abuse treatment than in sexual offender intervention.
"But we also have consultation and they have consultation with experts in the sex offender treatment and assessment world," she said.
Robert Lang, the state's contact for Re-Entry resources, declined to be interviewed. The Department of Corrections provided the $826,000 contract but it does not contain much information about the new the Manchester-New Hampshire based company. The contract covers two years and funds four interventionists.
Bushey says using this single contractor will easier to manage than the separate therapists. She believes Lang will be able to hire replacements for the outgoing therapists who will be able to get positive results by integrating written curriculum into group therapy.
"Now we are preparing for change because we are transitioning the program and we have a new contractor. So we are preparing to shift some of the curriculum around and provide a structured and individual model and a supervision model — but other than that nothing else has really changed," Bushey said.
Nevertheless, one sexual offender treatment specialist who has admired Vermont's program in the past does have concerns about the direction it seems to be taking.
David Prescott is past president of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders, and he has followed the trend away from individual therapy to heavier reliance on manuals. Even though he has used some of that curriculum successfully by revising it, he still can understand why veteran therapists have left Vermont's program.
"Changes such as going to a highly manualized treatment association — it has been responsible for people having second thoughts about staying in the field, and frankly one of them is me. I am very aware that research has shown that who the therapist is is very important to how well treatment actually works," said Prescott.
It's too soon to tell if the new contractor will get the positive recidivism results of the staff who have left. But the legislature's corrections oversight committee says it will keep a close eye on all the changes underway. ..Source.. by Charlotte Albright
