2-24-2012 Minnesota:
MINNEAPOLIS — A man who molested 29 boys, using soda and snacks to lure some to his home, will soon become the first sex offender to walk out of Minnesota's civil commitment program in more than a decade, a milestone for a program that has been criticized as a life sentence disguised as treatment.
Clarence Opheim's upcoming move to a halfway house is raising concerns in a state where the handling of sex offenders has long been a politically charged issue. But with the program facing constitutional challenges, some say it's time to begin releasing people who have made progress in treatment.
"It would be simpler for the administration, for us, for society to just lock people up forever," Gov. Mark Dayton said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month. "But it's not legal, and I don't even think it's moral."
Not everyone agrees. At a recent legislative hearing, some Republican lawmakers questioned why one of Dayton's commissioners didn't oppose Opheim's provisional discharge.
"We should have a law in the state — locked up for life, no chance for parole and/or the death penalty," Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, said.
Minnesota has never successfully discharged a sex offender from its commitment program. In the program's 19 years, one other man was freed with conditions in 2000, but was taken back into custody on a violation.
The program targets dangerous sex offenders deemed most likely to strike again. It allows the state to pursue civil commitment as they near the end of their prison sentence and a court decides whether to commit. Through Jan. 1, 635 sex offenders — about 3 percent of those in the state — had been committed.
Minnesota's program exploded after the 2003 abduction and slaying of Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old North Dakota college student, by a sex offender who had been freed after serving 23 years in prison for an assault and attempted abduction. Prison authorities hadn't sought to commit the man before his release.
Eric Janus, dean of William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul and an expert on the commitment law, said the program has always been politically difficult. Lawmakers feel pressure to cut costs — the sex offender program costs $317 per patient per day, compared with about $85 per day for an ordinary prisoner — but no one wants the wrong person released on his watch. The previous governor, Tim Pawlenty, issued an executive order in 2003 discouraging discharges.
Several challenges to the Minnesota law are pending in federal court, with attorneys arguing the program is unconstitutional. A judge has put the cases on hold while attorneys seek class-action status.
Commitment laws have withstood legal challenges when it could be shown their purpose was treatment, not detention. Some lawmakers say that's where Minnesota's law is vulnerable.
"If we never let anybody out, we don't have a real treatment program, we just have an incarceration program," said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester. "You can never get rid of all risks."
A 2010 legislative audit cited several reasons why Minnesota hasn't released anyone, including staffing issues that likely affected the progress of some offenders. Minnesota also has a tougher standard for release, requiring offenders to complete treatment before officials will endorse discharge. The audit said some states allow for discharge if an offender simply no longer meets criteria for commitment.
That audit also criticized several elements of the program, including inconsistent treatment and not enough of it. Dennis Benson, the program's executive director, said his staff has worked hard to address issues in the report — including hiring more people. He defended treatment, saying it is tailored to each person and is sound.
Some other states have had success releasing offenders. Wisconsin has placed 96 people on supervised release since 1995 — although 38 of them had their release revoked. Texas operates its program on an out-patient basis.
State officials point out Opheim, 64, isn't actually leaving the program. He's been given a provisional discharge, meaning he can be snapped up for violating any of 32 conditions.
At a halfway house in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Opheim will be monitored via GPS and visits and phone calls will be logged, Benson said. He will continue to get sex offender treatment, with possible support group meetings, and his progress will be monitored. He will have daily visits from a program staffer, and could be placed under surveillance.
Opheim already lives under similar conditions in housing outside the razor wire surrounding the state treatment facility in St. Peter. He moves freely about the campus, but requires an escort to move about the community — a condition that would continue at the halfway house for the foreseeable future, Benson said.
"We will always have some kind of control over what he does, where he lives, for probably the remainder of his life," Benson said.
Health and Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson said Opheim is not about to be followed by a flood of other sex offenders.
Since 2008, only nine other people have advanced to the final phase of treatment. And many hurdles remain for them: They need the support of their treatment team, the approval of a special review board and the approval of a Supreme Court appeals panel. Many of the nine are just beginning the final phase.
Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, called Opheim's release disturbing. In the years since her daughter's murder, Walker has traveled nationwide to raise awareness about sex offenders. She doesn't believe they can be cured.
"They are very good at what they do and their main fear is being caught. They want to continue to do what they are doing," she said. ..Source.. by LaCrossee Tribune.com
February 24, 2012
Gov. Dayton: You can't lock up sex offenders forever
July 21, 2010
Sexual predator costs soar
7-21-2010 Wisconsin:
Wisconsin taxpayers pay a steep price — $51.2 million this year — to keep sexual predators off the streets.
But there is no public clamor to cut funds for the secure treatment facilities that hold those deemed sexually violent, even at a time when state finances are heavily strained.
"It's a price that people are willing to pay," state Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, said. "These are the worst of the worst and they have a high probability to re-offend."
The annual cost per offender at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston — which provides specialized treatment to convicted sex offenders who have been civilly committed under the predator law — is $142,334, said Beth Kaplan, communications specialist with the state Department of Health Services.
That figure dwarfs the $31,806 annual per inmate cost in the state's adult prison system. The disparity is due mainly to the wide variety of psychiatric-based treatment and programming methods in place at Sand Ridge.
Kaufert doesn't take issue with the ever-rising cost of treating sex offenders under Wisconsin's predator law. When Sand Ridge opened in June 2001, the annual cost per offender was $87,000.
"I think the Legislature and the general public don't really look at the cost of housing these individuals," he said. "The cost to keep those individuals away from society is something I've never heard anyone complain about."
Kaufert said legislators don't decry the cost of housing predators "because no one wants to appear that they are being lenient on sex offenders," especially when they are facing re-election.
The number of sex offenders who have been confined under the predator law is much higher than predicted, which has further added to the costs, Kaufert said.
In addition to the 280-plus offenders being held at Sand Ridge on a monthly basis, another 90 or so are regularly confined at the Wisconsin Resource Center near Oshkosh. The estimated cost to operate Sand Ridge this year is $40.6 million, and the cost to operate the Resource Center is estimated at $10.6, Kaplan said.
"It was estimated when it started that there would be a small percentage of sex offenders meeting the criteria (for civil commitment) and the overall cost wouldn't be that great," Kaufert said. "Now, we have seen the numbers climb. But you can't put the genie back in the bottle."
Measuring the effect
The high cost of keeping sex offenders confined beyond their prison-release dates poses a question in the mind of Gene Bartman, supervisor of the Appleton office of the State Public Defender.
"I would think (the state) would want to do a study on the cost-effectiveness, now that we have more than a decade of experience with this type of commitment," said Bartman, who has represented defendants in predator cases.
"There is inherent in the process the claim that people are able to predict the chances that someone will re-offend. So there ought to be the ability to determine whether or not the increased amount of money being spent per patient is an effective use of public funds."
Bartman understands the reasoning behind the creation of the sexual predator law.
"There is probably not a scarier issue than the notion that someone's child may be abused," he said. "And there's been a number of highly publicized, terrible incidents involving people with (criminal) records and what they've done to children. The reality is that those kinds of events have a lot to do with driving public policy. I'm not surprised that a very large investment is put forward for things that people are extremely afraid of."
Still, Bartman believes that the system of confining sex offenders indefinitely should be examined.
"I'm not prepared to condemn the program, but I don't know the statistics. Nobody wants their child to be at risk, but I don't know if there's proof that this particular program and the millions spent on it is giving the kind of security that people want. That's why a study should be done."
Fear factor
Winnebago County District Attorney Christian Gossett was taken aback at the high cost of keeping sex offenders in mental health facilities.
But he said it is money well spent.
"We're talking about the most vulnerable segment or our population — children," Gossett said. "Generally, the public is willing to do what it takes to protect children."
Gossett said those who are confined under the predator law pose a risk to communities if they are released.
"The big problem with the type of people who get the commitment is they are people who can't be treated. There's not really a cure for it. (Releasing them) is what people fear the most."
Kyle Christianson, policy-research analyst with the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a private government research organization, said the public appears to be highly supportive of spending tax dollars to keep sex offenders in custody.
"Most of the criticism is with (incarcerating) the non-violent offenders," Christianson said. "(Citizens) are more willing to let go of (them)." ..Source.. Gannett Wisconsin Media
July 10, 2010
Sex offender treatment presents a political quandary
7-10-2010 Minnesota:
MOOSE LAKE, Minn. — Keeping sex offenders locked up in treatment after they finish their prison sentences emerged as a popular get-tough tactic in the 1990s, when states were flush with cash. But the costs have soared far beyond what anyone envisioned.
An Associated Press analysis found that the 20 states with so-called “civil commitment” programs will spend nearly $500 million this year alone to confine and treat 5,200 offenders still considered too dangerous to put back on the streets.
The annual costs per offender topped out at $175,000 in New York and $173,000 in California, and averaged $96,000 a year, about double what it would cost to send them to an Ivy League university. In some states, like Minnesota, sex offender treatment costs more than five times more than keeping offenders in prison. And those estimates do not include the considerable legal expenses necessary to commit someone.
The programs have created a political quandary for lawmakers who desperately need to cut spending in the midst of a recession but don’t want to be seen as soft on rapists and child molesters.
“I’ve heard people in a lot of the states quietly say, ‘Oh, my God, I wish we’d never gotten this law,’” said W. Lawrence Fitch, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. “No one would ever dare offer repeal because it’s just untenable.”
Preventing repeat offenses
The laws target sex offenders who are considered likely to strike again. When one of them is close to finishing a prison sentence, prosecutors file a civil case to prove that person still threatens the public and needs treatment. If the court agrees, the prisoner is committed in much the same way that someone with a serious mental illness would be sent to an institution.
The heavy financial burden of treating confined sex offenders has left lawmakers with less money as they make agonizing cuts to areas such as education and health care. Politicians who spent years cracking down on sex crimes now struggle to pay for their tougher laws.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Lock everybody up and throw away the key,’” said state Rep. Michael Paymar, a St. Paul Democrat who heads a public safety budget panel. “But it’s just not practical.”
The laws have withstood legal challenges all the way to the Supreme Court. They are considered constitutional as long as their purpose is treatment, not detention. But living up to that standard can cost far more than traditional prison. And the costs persist for years because most inmates will never be released.
Costly treatment
The programs have given rise to new and bigger treatment centers: California opened a 1,500-bed facility for sexual predators in 2005. Minnesota opened a 400-bed building last year and plans another expansion at Moose Lake, 110 miles north of the Twin Cities.
The Moose Lake complex, located just off the highway leading to this woodsy Minnesota town, looks like a medium-security prison, with layers of secure doors and guards monitoring cell blocks of patients.
More than 400 men live there behind tall fences topped with razor wire. They spend their days shuffling between meals, group therapy sessions and activities such as painting state park signs.
The confinement is costly mainly because of the need to hire behavioral therapists, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists.
For every 25 to 50 offenders, there is a five- to six-member treatment team. Parts of the facility resemble a community college campus, with chairs arranged around the edges of rooms for group therapy sessions. There is a separate unit for about 8 percent of the sex offenders who refuse to participate in treatment, and another one for aging clients, some of whom use wheelchairs and walkers.
“They had no idea 10 years ago, seven years ago, what this program was going to cost,” said Dennis Benson, a former prison warden who now oversees Minnesota’s civilly committed sex offenders.
Minnesota already spends $65 million a year to house and treat sex offenders. State lawmakers usually don’t complain about the costs, but they balked when Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked to borrow $90 million to complete the expansion of the Moose Lake facility. They eventually gave him slightly more than half that amount, despite a growing deficit of $1 billion.
“We have to cut something else to pay for it,” said Sen. Linda Berglin, a Minneapolis Democrat who supervises the budget for civil-commitment cases as head of a health and welfare spending panel.
In most states, the number of confined sex offenders has steadily increased, requiring ever-greater spending.
Iowa spends nearly $7 million to confine 80 offenders, almost double 2005’s $3.6 million budget for 48 patients. Virginia’s program has swelled from 45 patients five years ago to more than 200 this year, with annual costs climbing from $10 million to almost $16 million.
Some states have steered clear of the civil-commitment system, partly because of financial reasons. In Louisiana, legislation died last year after top lawmakers questioned the cost and constitutional issues. Vermont legislators rejected a similar proposal.
Unnecessary treatment?
There is also the continuing debate about whether psychological treatment of sex offenders has any real effect on making predators less threatening.
Fitch, the Maryland expert, said research suggests that treatment lowers their risk of committing more sex crimes only slightly, something like less than 20 percent. He said states without civil commitment for sex offenders tend to focus on controlling behavior more than psychology. Colorado, for example, manages them through intensive supervision, lie-detector tests, tracking devices and counseling.
Not all civil commitment programs are financially strained. The cost of Arizona’s system actually dropped slightly in the last five years. In Wisconsin, the Sand Ridge center has expanded gradually without any outcry about the money involved.
Wisconsin has released 61 sex offenders since adopting a civil-commitment system in 1994.
But in Minnesota, no one has ever gotten out. One man was released provisionally but got pulled back for a technical violation and later died in confinement.
“Are Minnesota sex offenders that much more dangerous than Wisconsin sex offenders? Why can’t we do that?” asked Eric Janus, an expert on civil commitment who heads William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
Missouri and Pennsylvania have released one patient each. Nebraska has released just one person since 2006. Texas has yet to release anyone from its outpatient program.
That compares with states like California, which has put nearly 200 offenders back into the community, and New Jersey, where 123 have been let go.
At least 62 sex offenders have died while confined in six states that tracked such deaths.
Minnesota’s law was passed in 1994 after the state Supreme Court overturned the commitment of Dennis Linehan, a repeat sex offender who had served 27 years in prison for kidnapping a 14-year-old babysitter found strangled in 1965.
After public outrage, Gov. Arne Carlson called the Legislature into a one-day special session to broaden the civil commitment statute. Linehan was swiftly recommitted.
Sjodin connection
The program grew steadily over the next decade, then exploded after the 2003 abduction and slaying of Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old UND student, by a Minnesota sex offender. The suspect, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., had been freed after finishing a 23-year sentence for an attempted abduction. Prison authorities did not recommend civil commitment.
After Sjodin’s murder, state prison authorities began referring all high-risk sex offenders for commitment. The program’s population jumped from 167 in 2000 to 565 this year. It is projected to reach 1,000 in six or seven years.
Paymar, the St. Paul lawmaker, said he would like to see the state move toward a system of indeterminate criminal sentences for sex crimes, giving prison authorities more discretion over when to release sex offenders who might otherwise be candidates for civil commitment.
Even as he questioned Minnesota’s spending, Paymar chose his words carefully.
“No one wants to be — certainly here in this body — perceived to be soft on sex offenders,” he said.
In California, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher echoed that sentiment, saying public safety trumps any discussion of the expense of civil commitment. Fletcher, a Republican, represents a San Diego district where 17-year-old Chelsea King was raped and murdered by a convicted child molester in February. The offender, John Albert Gardner III, also raped and murdered Amber Dubois, 14, near Fletcher’s district.
“At the end of the day,” Fletcher said, “you have to keep them incarcerated whatever the cost.” ..Source.. Martiga Lohn
Va. sexual predator program faces $26M shortfall
7-10-2010 Virginia:
BURKEVILLE — Virginia's program for indefinitely containing those deemed to be sexually violent predators is facing a more than $26 million budget shortfall over the next two years after a dramatic expansion in crimes that qualify offenders for so-called civil commitment.
Appropriations for the program have grown from $2.7 million in 2004 to more than $17 million for the fiscal year that ended July 1. Officials anticipate needing $24 million to run the program this year — nearly $9 million more than budgeted — with the cost jumping to more than $32 million — or more than $17 million over budget — the following year.
Legislative leaders say if they can't find ways to trim the program's budget they will be forced to take money from other programs, many of which received dramatic cuts last winter when legislators trimmed billions in core services such as education and health care to balance the state's budget.
"For $26 million, which children are we willing to sacrifice? I'm not willing to sacrifice any children," said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, architect of the civil commitment law. "It's never been cheap. It was never expected that it would be cheap, but it's extremely important."
Virginia passed its civil commitment law in 1999, but didn't fund the program until 2003 when a notorious child molester was due to be released and his victim pushed legislators to keep him and others off the streets. Richard Alvin Ausley, 64, was beaten and strangled to death by his cellmate before he could be committed.
Under the program, those who commit certain sexual offenses are evaluated months before their prison release date. If they meet the criteria, the attorney general's office begins court proceedings to have them civilly committed. A judge or jury determines whether the offender should be committed for treatment, conditionally released and monitored or released with no further requirements.
Originally, only four crimes — rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration and aggravated sexual battery — qualified offenders for civil commitment. But in 2006 the General Assembly expanded that to 28 crimes, including certain abductions, carnal knowledge of a child and a conspiracy or attempt to commit certain crimes.
Griffith said the expansion was needed to catch those violent predators who would plead guilty to lesser crimes or those who were difficult to prosecute because of the age of their victims.
The new law increased the number of offenders eligible for commitment by about 350 percent, and commitments jumped from about one per month to five each month.
In the beginning, those who were civilly committed were housed in a 48-bed facility in Petersburg. In 2008, the $62 million, 300-bed Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation opened in Burkeville.
Now with 212 residents, the facility is expected to be full by October 2011 and be nearly 60 beds over capacity by July 2012 — when staffing levels will need to nearly double what they are now. If those commitment levels continue, officials expect the number of residents to be more than 700 by 2017.
Officials plan to spend about $200,000 to reopen the Petersburg facility next year. The department also is considering building another facility, establishing a step-down facility for residents who are successfully completing treatment and expanding opportunities for conditional release, said Meghan McGuire, spokeswoman for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which runs the program.
Once committed, offenders are reviewed periodically to see if they can be released, but very few ever are.
So far, only seven individuals have been conditionally released from the facility, and none of those have reoffended, McGuire said.
Another 42 offenders have been granted conditional release straight from prison. Of those, nine have been taken back into custody, all but two for technical violations such as drinking or failing to attend treatment. The other two received new sexual charges.
The cost to conditionally release an offender is about $21,000 per year, well below the more than $91,000 per year it takes to house each offender in the Burkeville facility.
Although the number of those committed has increased dramatically, the attorney general's office only pursues civil commitment for about one in every 250 sex offenders who are released from prison, said Pamela Sergeant, who heads the office's civil commitment program.
"I think it protects the public and finally gets these people some treatment so they won't do it again and make new victims," she said. "To me the paramount issue is preventing more victims."
The facility sits next to Route 360 in Nottoway County, a cross between a prison and a psychiatric hospital. Tall, razor-wire fencing separates the fuchsia-blossomed crape myrtles on the outside from the lovely manicured grounds on the inside. Each offender has his own room, but they are strikingly similar to prison cells.
Most days are filled with group therapy classes exploring everything from anger management to recovering from their own abuse. In between classes, offenders play video games or go outside. Their rooms aren't locked.
Motivated offenders could complete the treatment considered necessary to be a candidate for release in about three years, officials say, but few do.
"Especially with these pedophiles, if they don't get treatment they're going to do it again," Sergeant said. "That's their sexual interest. That's their sexual urge, and it doesn't go away." ..Source.. by NewsLeader.com
July 8, 2010
King County sex predator released from state center after 20 years
7-6-2010 Washington:
A 70-year-old county rapist facing indefinite commitment at a state-run center housing sexual predators will be released.
When he was moved out of Department of Social and Health Services custody later Wednesday, Andre B. Young became the third King County offender to be released from the Special Commitment Center program based on McNeil Island.
The program was created in 1990 to keep a small number of sex offenders who'd completed their prison terms from returning to society. Those held at the center have been deemed to be violent sexual predators due to a mental defect, and can be detained their indefinitely following a civil trial.
Young, a six-time convicted rapist, was committed shortly after the program was launched and has remained under Department of Social and Health Services supervision since, according to a King County Prosecutor's Office statement issued Wednesday. He's been fighting his detention since; Young was among a first group of offenders to challenge the constitutionality of the civil commitment law in federal court.
Prosecutors were preparing to oppose Young's request for release -- what would have prompted his third trial in the matter -- but dropped the effort over concerns that it would prove difficult to show the elderly man was likely to commit a violent sexual offense if released. According to the Prosecutor's Office statement, three experts, including two employed by the state, found that Young no longer could be deemed likely to re-offend.
As part of the agreed order endorsed by prosecutors and Young's attorneys, Young will be released with a number of restrictions on his behavior, including a prohibition against possessing a "rape kit" or pornography. He's also required to register as a sex offender with Pierce County authorities after moving to a Tacoma home.
In a statement Wednesday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg described the dismissal as an example of how the law was intended to work.
"This law provides treatment for sex offenders within a secure setting that protects the public," Satterberg said.
"The detention is based on a medical model and is supposed to last until the subject is no longer considered likely to re-offend," he added.
Since its inception, the civil commitment program has drawn fire from the defense bar and civil liberties advocates, who've contended the center served as a prison by another name.
Speaking earlier this year, Pete MacDonald, a public defender representing 13 center residents, argued that the Special Commitment Center does not deliver the rehabilitation promised.
"It's a de facto warehouse, regardless of what the intention is," said MacDonald, an attorney with The Defender Association.
"People probably don't care about this," he continued, "but this is a civil liberties issue."
Four years into the effort, offenders housed at the facility filed a federal lawsuit that prompted an $11 million fine -- later dismissed -- and federal court oversight of the facility. Thirteen years passed before an order by U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ended that oversight after the judge found the Special Commitment Center was providing the treatment required under law and a path out for offenders.
"This case is most troublesome to the court in that there seems to be no right answer, and no good fix for the situation these plaintiffs face," Martinez said in his ruling. "The court can do its best to ensure adequate treatment and facilities, but ultimately must succumb to the limitations of the law."
Prosecutors note that approximately one percent of sex offenders being released into the community are detained under the state's civil commitment law.
Approximately 290 sexually violent predators are currently detained at the Special Commitment Center. At least four have been released into the community, and more than a dozen others are living off the island either in halfway houses or private homes under state supervision. ..Source.. Levi Pulkkinen
May 12, 2010
CCUSO 'Release Program' explained
Civil commitment spin-ology continues, after 12 years no one has ever reached a point of release and spinology is used to deny these folks years after year!5-12-2010 Iowa:
Eight of 80 Cherokee patients progressing in treatment
Eight of the current 80 patents sentenced to the Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute are progressing through CCUSO's complex treatment stages to become potential clients for the Department of Human Services (DHS) Transitional Release Program.
Of those eight patients, none are scheduled to be released through the program to Cherokee, and there are no patients anticipated to be released in Cherokee in the future, according to Dr. Jason Smith, Cherokee CCUSO Director.
Smith was responding to a Page 1 story in the Sunday Des Moines Register, whose headline read "9 sex offenders near freedom." That headline was misleading, as were parts of the story, explained Smith, who runs the CCUSO program here for the Iowa DHS.
Since the CCUSO program was begun in Iowa 12 years ago, no patient has "graduated" from treatment and been transitioned into a community setting anywhere. However, a reported 13 patients have been released by court order for various legal reasons, but no patient has been identified as safe enough to graduate, according to the judges and/or those involved in the treatment program.
"Basically, we're operating the same program we've always run since Day One," explained Smith. "It's our Transitional Release Program. It's all based on their level of achievement, which has to do with how they conduct themselves, and how they are progressing in treatment. The final stage is learning how to balance treatment and work."
It hasn't worked yet, and likely never will. Program is designed to keep folks INTERNED and no more.
Smith said that polygraph tests, physiological tests, and professional evaluations are used to verify results for each of the five stages of treatment.
Patents are evaluated on 10 criteria every 90 days. As their scores increase, they can become eligible for the next phase.
There are no scheduled release dates for CCUSO patients. They must work their way through five phases of treatment, which includes therapy and behavior monitoring. Smith said eight of the facility's 80 patients are currently advancing hrough the various treatment stages, which includes moving into their own apartments within the maximum security CCUSO facility, and supervised outings such as a trip to Sioux City to see a therapist. If no problems ever arise in these settings, a patient might advance to a conditional release similar to a half-way house program with or without full-time supervision, depending upon the patient's professional risk assessment.
If the patient surpasses all the criteria after that point, he could possibly be discharged to a chosen community in the future and that could entail supervision, electronic monitoring, reporting to a supervisor, etc., or no supervision at all, said Smith.
"The program is rigorous," added Smith. "We and the DHS can make our recommendations to District Court, but it's then up to the judge to make a ruling on whether the patient is to be released in the Trasitional Program, or discharged. The people we don't have control over are those released by the judges."
Where any released patients choose to settle, it must be in communities that have ongoing treatment services, added Smith.
The eight Cherokee patients advancing in the treatment program are occasionally being released for periods of time during the day under supervision before returned to the facility. They are required to look for work, find additional treatment, and must try to reconnect with friends and family.
Smith said all patents are subject to lifetime registration with law enforcement. "We always want them supervised so we can montor how they are adpating,' explained Smith.
No matter how they respond to treatment while incarcerated, all CCUSO patients are entitled to an annual hearing before a judge. By law, the patients have a legal right to be released if they are no longer considered a high risk to reoffend.
To date, no patient in Iowa has ever completed all phases of the program and been released unconditionally by a judge.
Iowa is one of 20 states that have CCUSO facilities, but not all programs are similar. Iowa and other states provide for conditional releases once all criteria has been met. Others have strict legal guidelines that mandate when patients can be released.
CCUSO patients here range in age from 20s to 80s, with an average age of 45. A judge or jury must agree with state prosecutors that offenders are at such a high risk to reoffend after their prison terms are up, that civil commitment is warranted.
Time and numbers then influence the possibility of potential graduates. As CCUSO's population has grown, more patients progress through treatment and near the possibility of achieving eligibility for release. ..Source.. Paul Struck, Editor
April 20, 2010
Studying Minnesota's sex offender program
4-20-2010 Minnesota:
Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles said Tuesday that a detailed look at Minnesota's controversial sex offender program would hopefully answer many questions, but may not reach a definitive conclusion on whether it "either works or doesn't work."
Nobles acknowledged that the study, which he said his office would finish early next year, was tackling a topic that has created many headlines and much debate at the Legislature and would explore whether the program is effectively managed and provided "adequate treatment with reasonable opportunities" for patients to be discharged.
But Nobles said the study also needed to take a longer view of the program, looking at the costs of incarcerating a sex offender versus the costs of releasing them into society and running the risk of having them commit other sex crimes. "Sometimes, it's impossible to calculate," he said.
The state's sex offender program, which has grown from 149 patients in 2000 to 552 this year, has created political tension between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislators over whether its costs can be contained and how much more should be spent without a thorough review of whether it is working. The governor and DFLers clashed earlier this year over Pawlenty's proposal to build a new facility in Moose Lake to accommodate the program's growth.
Convicted sex offenders are sent into the program using civil commitments after they finish serving their prison terms, but state officials acknowledge that no patient has yet been successfully treated. The program came to the forefront after the widely-publicized abduction and murder of Dru Sjodin by a convicted sex offender early in the governor's administration.
"This is an incredibly important topic," said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, who attended Tuesday's hearing to discuss the study's details. ..Source.. Mike Kaszuba
March 14, 2010
Jury to decide fate of pedophile held at mental health facility
3-14-2010 Wisconsin:
Shawn Schulpius, 36, has spent his entire adult life in state-financed treatment for his pedophilia. Taxpayers continue to pay more than $100,000 a year for his care, but state psychologists say their work isn't done.
Schulpius' lawyer, however, contends that the 13 years of therapy and supervision has taught Schulpius to recognize, divert and suppress his sexual attraction to children and that he deserves discharge from state custody.
A Milwaukee County jury will decide Wednesday whether he remains much more likely than not to commit sex crimes against children, whether he'll return to Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center or return home.
By the time he was convicted of molesting a 4-year-old boy in 1991, Schulpius had sexually assaulted at least three other children, starting when he was 14, and perhaps as many as nine, prosecutors say. As his prison sentence was about to end in 1995, the state had Schulpius committed under Chapter 980. The 1994 law allows inmates deemed sexually violent to be held for mental health treatment after they complete prison terms.
Schulpius has been seeking release for years, and his case threatened the constitutional underpinning of Chapter 980 when it got all the way to the state Supreme Court in 2005.
Chapter 980 patients can petition for supervised release back into the community, and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge John Franke twice granted that request for Schulpius, in 1997 and 1999. But he remained at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston because the state could not find appropriate placement in Milwaukee County.
The Supreme Court found that violated Schulpius' right to due process, but also ruled that Franke effectively overruled his earlier findings when in 2000 he decided Schulpius was no longer eligible for supervised release.
This time, Schulpius seeks complete discharge from his Chapter 980 commitment. At his trial, state psychologists testified that he has pedophilia, and that while he has made progress, he still shows arousal to images of children and has been inconsistent about chronicling all the offenses he committed as a teenager.
Luis Rosell, an Iowa psychologist who works with sex offenders in several states, testified that he reviewed Schulpius' records and interviewed him twice. In his opinion, he said, Schulpius is less likely than not to reoffend.
Rosell questioned why, if the program at Sand Ridge is the model the state claims, the staff has never recommended anyone be released. Judges or juries have made those determinations for 60 patients discharged since Sand Ridge opened in 2001.
Where to place Chapter 980 patients such as Schulpius and Billy Lee Morford became a hot-button issue in 2003, when Morford was first quietly moved into a home on the northwest side of Milwaukee. Protests led to a search for alternative sites, each of which encountered its own resistance from neighbors. There was talk of making the state build a group facility somewhere in the county for sex offenders released under Chapter 980. In Schulpius' cases, the Supreme Court noted that lack of placement options could undermine the constitutionality of the law.
Morford ultimately satisfied his conditions of supervised release and was granted full termination in 2006. He is still listed on the state's sex offender registry, which includes offenders who were not deemed sexually violent and held under Chapter 980.
Today, there are 317 patients at Sand Ridge being held under Chapter 980, and prosecutors have sought to have 59 more people sent there, according to Stephanie Marquis, media relations manager for the state Department of Health Services.
Since 1994, 60 patients have won discharge from Chapter 980 commitment, and 18 are under community supervision statewide, Marquis said. None of those under community supervision resides in Milwaukee County.
Among the 18 states that allow post-prison civil commitment, Wisconsin places the most in community supervision, according to the state. ..Source.. Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel
December 30, 2009
Sexual predator law came with price
12-30-2009 Kansas:
State lawmakers have shown no enthusiasm for building a proposed $42.5 million, 90-bed expansion of the state's Sexual Predator Treatment Program at Larned State Hospital. And no wonder — with a $300 million-plus hole in the next state budget, spending even a dollar more on sex offenders seems like a really bad idea.
In an election year, it also would be politically awkward to slash state funding for public schools, social services and prisons yet build nice new digs for sexual predators.
"If the money is not there to do it, then it is not there to do it," said state Rep. Bob Grant, D-Cherokee, when the House-Senate Building Committee recently heard the proposal from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
"If we have $42 million, it would not be in my top priority list to put it into that kind of a program," said Rep. Jerry Williams, D-Chanute, echoing experts' doubts that sexual predators can be treated effectively at all.
The problem is that the Larned program — effective or not, budget shortfall or not — is the state's responsibility and cannot be neglected indefinitely without consequences.
As it is, there have been reports in recent years of understaffing and poor conditions at the facility, and concerns that the costs of the sexual predator unit could undercut the hospital's ability to care for severely mentally ill patients elsewhere on its campus. Keeping a predator in such a program can cost four times more than keeping him in prison, and very few of those committed are ever released.
Legislators of 2010 face this costly problem because of a 1994 law inspired by the rape and murder of a Pittsburg State University student by Donald Ray Gideon, who was on parole after serving prison time for another rape.
Meant for sex offenders who have finished their prison time and been deemed a threat to society and civilly committed, the law also passed constitutional muster on a 5-4 vote in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997, back when there were nine individuals in the Larned program. When then-Attorney General Carla Stovall successfully defended the law again before the high court in 2001, the program held 70 predators.
With 189 in the program now and predictions that it will hit its 214 capacity by 2012, the program's benefits and sustainability are questionable. Lawmakers who see nothing wrong with civil commitment for the worst sex offenders need to accept that doing so comes with a price. Or if locking up predators is the priority, at least drop the "treatment" pretense and do so with longer prison sentences. ..Editorial.. by Rhonda Holman
December 25, 2009
(Civil Commitment) Program upgrade on outs
12-25-2009 Kansas:
Bid to expand state's sexual predator program questioned
TOPEKA (AP) — A proposal by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to spend more than $40 million to expand the state's Sexual Predator Treatment Program received a lukewarm response from lawmakers dealing with a budget crisis.
SRS officials proposed a 90-bed expansion at Larned State Hospital, where there currently are 189 offenders in the program.
The capacity for the program at Larned is 214, and experts expect that to be surpassed in 2012.
Under state law, sexual predators who are serving prison time can be kept indefinitely after their sentences end, if they are considered a threat to re-offend.
It was prompted by the 1993 rape and murder of a Pittsburg State University student by a sex offender who was released from prison seven months earlier.
As the program's costs rise, lawmakers are wondering if that money could better be spent elsewhere.
"My concern is that we're concerned about sex predators, but maybe we are not worried about mental health services at other institutions," said Rep. Bill Feuerborn, a Garnett Democrat. "I don't support the SRS plan to build new facilities at Larned."
The request came at a time when Gov. Mark Parkinson and state lawmakers have slashed spending in all areas of state government, including education, health and public safety. ..Source..
March 26, 2009
CA- 10News Examines Sex Predator Treatment Program
3-26-2009 California:
SAN DIEGO -- Locked away in Coalinga State Hospital are 760 sexual offenders, with 60 of them from San Diego County.
Among the 60 is Matthew Hedge, a sexually violent predator who could leave Coalinga and move into a trailer stationed outside of Donovan State Prison in a few weeks.
The nearby community has expressed outrage over the plan.
"Understandably, people don't want sex offenders living with them. However, when there is no place for a sex offender to live, they become homeless," said social worker Ernie Marshall.
Marshall said that is in nobody's best interest. He oversees patient therapy and treatment for sexually violent predators at Coalinga.
"It's better to have someone where we know where they're at, and we can help them maintain their safety, than have someone where we don't know where they're at, under stress, who has nothing to lose," said Marshall.
10News received an exclusive look at the five-phase program designed to help patients maintain themselves, since many experts said there is no cure.
"Within that, it's primarily psychological in nature in that they're looking at what decisions and what thoughts or beliefs they had that made it OK for them to sexually offend," said Marshall.
Treatment ranges from psychiatric to chemical castration. There are checks and balances along the way to make sure the patient is not faking recovery.
"We do physiological testing of both deviant and normative sexual arousal patterns," said Dr. Shannon Kelly of Coalinga State Hospital.
Marshall uses a special machine that is sensitive to any physical arousal, as images and sounds of both children and adults are shown to the patient.
"We need to identify it, be able to target it in treatment," said Marshall.
A camera is used to make sure the patients aren't being deceptive, and even if a patient passes this test there is still the lie detector.
"We just want to rule out any deception," said Marshall.
The patients have a real world simulation inside the hospital to prepare them for the outside life many have not seen for decades.
The hospital has a mall complete with a store, barber and library, and career learning centers.
Treatment providers boast about their record, as 11 patients have been conditionally released into society and none have re-offended.
Those who broke their terms of release, like John Norman and Hedge, are brought back into the hospital.
Marshall said that was possible because of the tight security used for those who are housed.
"If they make a mistake very early in the process, they come back here. The goal is to help them identity that mistake so they don't make it again," said Marshall.
State law mandates that sex offenders be released after they have done their time for the crime.
Mental health experts said this treatment is vital before that release happens.
According to the state, 135 sexually violent prisoners have been unconditionally released through the court system without treatment or tracking. ..News Source.. by 10News.com
