5-10-2011 Virginia:
RICHMOND — Lawmakers have several unanswered questions as a team of legislative staffers begins working on a study of the state’s ballooning violent sexual predator program.
Members of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission on Monday received updates on a series of studies looking at ways to curb the program’s growth.
The violent sexual predator program is expected to house 300 convicted sex offenders in state-run treatment facility in Nottoway County by this summer. A judge civilly commits offenders to the program committed following psychological assessments and a series of legal reviews. The commitments come after the offenders complete their prison sentences.
Several offenders are committed to the center each month — a total of 85 were committed this past year. But because few ever leave the program, the number of participants quickly has reached the facility’s capacity, said Justin Brown, a JLARC staff member.
More than 600 offenders are on pace to be in the program by 2016, he said.
Delegate Johnny Joannou, D-Portsmouth, said he wants to know whether the state’s assessment tool is effective and how it compares to other states.
While offenders are still in prison, they are given a 10-question assessment and then scored zero to 12. Typically, anyone who scores 5 or higher continues to the next step of determining whether they should be civilly committed, Brown said.
Brown said the study will evaluate the challenges these offenders encounter when they return to their communities. Many have a hard time finding housing, for example, because apartment owners don’t want to lease to sex offenders.
Because finding housing is difficult, few offenders never leave the program, which is the primary reason the program is growing so rapidly, Brown said.
The study also will review the costs of the program, which Brown said includes more than just housing and treatment. The Department of Corrections, courts and attorney general’s office all incur costs to run the program.
Joannou said the study also should look into how being deemed a “sexual predator” affects the offenders once they leave the prison system. The designation bars many from employment at military installations and shipyards.
Delegate Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, chided the program for allowing its security to cost more than it costs the state to run a prison.
“I don’t understand that. These people have already served their time. They ought to be more or less free to move about within the four walls,” he said.
Morgan asked the staff also to review whether the state has a legal obligation to continue treating the offenders, if they are not responding to the treatment. He said that could justify continuing to detain them without the high cost of psychological treatment.
“I certainly do not want these people on the streets, especially if they are a danger to the public,” he said.
Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, questioned whether longer prison sentences would have an impact on the pace that these offenders are being committed.
Brown said the study also will review alternatives for reducing those cost and making the program more effective. Staff members plan to look at the 19 other programs in the country for comparisons, but Brown said some states have been hesitant to release specifics about their programs.
The study also will review whether expanding the range of crimes that make an offender eligible for the program has contributed to the program’s growth.
Gov. Bob McDonnell has called for adding beds to the growing program. He sought funding for a second facility and to expand the facility in Nottoway County during the 2011 session.
Lawmakers ultimately did not fund the second treatment center but agreed to pay for expanding the capacity of the facility in Nottoway. They also commissioned the study to determine how to curb the use of the program.
Such programs have generated controversy around the country.
The study is slated to be complete in November, ahead of the next General Assembly session when lawmakers will craft a new two-year budget. ..Source.. by Amanda Iacone, Virginia Statehouse News
May 11, 2011
Questions mount as Virginia’s sexual predator population grows
Rising Numbers in VA Civil Commitment Program Sparks Investigation
5-10-2011 Virginia:
State lawmakers want more information about Virginia's program to hold sexually violent predators in a facility after their prison terms are up. Now, the legislature's investigative arm is launching a months-long study of the civil commitment program.
Legislators are trying to understand why Virginia's Civil Commitment Program for sexually violent predators has grown explosively in the last few years.
Delegate Dave Albo (R) said, "I mean, it could be that there's more freaks. Or it could be that the definitions are now broader and we're bringing more people in, and it would be very important to know that."
The legislature's investigative arm is launching a study of the program, which houses more than 200 sex offenders that have served their prison time at a facility in Nottoway County.
State Senator Janet Howell (D) explained, "To me, I think we might be having a bubble right now that in the long range may not be there."
The program is supposed to treat sex offenders who are likely to re-offend, with the goal of one-day returning them to society. But very few patients are ever released.
Justin Brown, an investigative analyst said, "As important a part of the issue in terms of how many people are coming in, it's also important that very few people are leaving."
The study will look at similar efforts in nearly two-dozen other states. And it will look at alternatives to civil commitment.
"Would it be wise for us to increase incarceration terms for people that are probably going to be civily committed at the other end?" asked Howell.
The facility is nearing capacity and unless the study comes up with another solution, legislators have ordered the offenders to double-bunk, perhaps as early as this fall.
The study is supposed to finish up in about six months. It also will include a discussion of more controversial alternatives, including voluntary physical castration, as some lawmakers suggested earlier this year. ..Source.. by NBC29.com
February 23, 2011
Sound compromise on sex offenders
The comment, "separate by sight and sound" that is plain stupid, physically makes sense, but S&S. Plain unbelievable.2-23-2011 Virginia:
Virginia's civil commitment program for sex offenders aims to protect society from the worst of the worst and rehabilitate those most likely to offend again.
It's also reserved for those who have already completed prison terms.
State law requires that residents at the state's treatment center in Burkeville receive an annual review in the locality of their conviction to determine whether they should remain committed.
Such protections are critical to the legal integrity of a civil commitment program. No matter how heinous their crimes, the offenders have served their prison time; they are held only until they no longer represent a threat to the public.
Because of the difference between criminal and civil custody, offenders in the program are required to "be segregated by sight and sound at all times from prisoners in the custody of a correctional facility" when traveling to and from their court reviews.
Unfortunately, as the size, scope and budget of the commitment program has ballooned in recent years, that segregation hasn't always happened.
The growing number of offenders - currently more than 200 - make separation a logistical impossibility, according to some law enforcement authorities.
Sheriffs and the state attorney general's office claim that despite the law, offenders up for an annual review could be locked up with the general population in local jails because the imprisonment is for a short period of time, and it saves the expense of providing separate space.
A measure introduced in the General Assembly would have amended current law to permit the practice. Last week, legislators rightfully balked at the prospect of a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. A court ruling in favor of offenders' rights would have thrown Virginia's program into chaos.
So delegates amended HB 1698 to permit residents committed to the treatment center in Burkeville to instead undergo their annual review via videoconference.
The amendment represents a prudent compromise, protecting the rights of offenders who've already served prison time and saving sheriffs across the state from coordinating the segregated travel and detention of those up for review.
A version of the bill in the Senate includes the same changes. Both should pass.
Del. Clay Athey, the Front Royal Republican who introduced the House bill, said the change aimed to address the most significant concern.
"I think the bill is better now than when it started," he said.
He's right. ..Source.. The Virginian-Pilot
January 15, 2011
Cost of sex offender program shocks lawmakers
1-15-2011 Virginia:
Lawmakers expressed shock Friday over the exponentially rising cost of a program to keep some sex offenders locked up after they complete their criminal sentences.
The annual operating cost of Virginia's Sexually Violent Predator Program is projected to hit $32 million next year - more than a tenfold increase in eight years.
The General Assembly created the program in 1998 to keep sex offenders deemed likely to re-offend off the streets after they finish their criminal sentences. The process is known as civil commitment.
The 300-bed Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Nottoway County, built just two years ago for $62 million, will be filled by this fall, the House Appropriations Committee was told Friday.
Gov. Bob McDonnell has proposed spending an additional $68.5 million this year to accommodate the growing number of offenders coming into the program, including $43.5 million in borrowed money to convert a closed prison in Brunswick County into a second 300-bed treatment center.
The numbers generated bipartisan alarm on the budget-writing panel.
"This has just exploded," said Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk.
"I worry about where we're heading," said Del. James Scott, D-Fairfax County.
Del. Johnny Joannou, D-Portsmouth, likened the program's mushrooming cost to the repeal of the local car tax a decade ago, which also blew a bigger-than-expected hole in the budget.
The committee took no action Friday, but several members expressed reservations about McDonnell's proposal.
The panel grilled Olivia Garland, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, about how and why the program has grown so dramatically.
Initially the pool of offenders was limited to four crimes: rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration and aggravated sexual battery. In 2006, however, the Assembly expanded the list of crimes to 28.
In addition, the state switched to a different screening test, which lowered the threshold for commitment.
As a result, Garland said, the number of offenders coming into the program, initially about one a month, now averages six to eight a month.
There are 252 offenders in the program. So far, 11 have been released.
The average annual operating cost is $91,000 per resident. That's low compared to the cost in some of the other 19 states with similar programs, Garland said. In New York, for instance, the per-resident cost is $175,000.
A big factor in the cost is the high staffing ratio required for such a program, she said: roughly two staffers for every resident.
Garland cited several reasons why Virginia's program is growing faster than those in many other states.
Unlike most states, Virginia commits mentally ill offenders and those who have been judged "unrestorably incompetent to stand trial."
Also, most states require that an offender show a history or pattern of sexually dangerous behavior before becoming eligible for commitment. In Virginia, it takes only one offense.
The department is exploring ways to curb the program's growth, Garland said.
For some lawmakers, that can't come too soon.
Del. Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, said the state needs to examine why so few offenders are being released.
"We have an elaborate get-you-in system," she said. "I think we also need an elaborate get-you-out system." ..Source..
December 19, 2010
Some question Va's costly civil commitment program
12-19-2010 Virginia:
BURKEVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Virginia's program to indefinitely detain sexually violent predators was made for people like Richard Ausley, a repeat child molester who kidnapped a 13-year-old boy, locked him in an underground box and raped him for a week until the boy was rescued.
But the mental health facility that houses violent sex offenders also confines dozens of convicts that state officials say could be conditionally released if they had somewhere to go.
With more than 200 sex offenders being held after their prison sentences have ended - and Gov. Bob McDonnell proposing spending millions more on a new facility to house them - some question whether Virginia's program to civilly commit the "worst of the worst" has gone too far. They also question if the state can afford the nearly $100,000 a year it costs to confine and treat each offender.
"Something is not right," said Paul Martin Andrews, whose 1973 kidnapping and assault by Ausley prompted him to lobby lawmakers in 2003 to fund Virginia's civil commitment program. "We don't have that many sex offenders that rise to the level that they should be getting commitments on them."
Virginia is one of 20 states that have a civil commitment program. An offender is eligible if he has committed certain sex crimes and a psychiatrist determines he has a mental abnormality - like being anti-social - that makes him likely to offend again. A judge or jury makes the final determination.
As of Dec. 1, 239 offenders were housed at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation under Virginia's civil commitment program. The 300-bed facility, which opened in 2008, is expected to be full by next year.
When the law was passed in 1999, only four crimes - rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration and aggravated sexual battery - qualified offenders for civil commitment.
As part of sweeping legislation to crack down on sex offenders in 2006, the General Assembly expanded that number to 28, including statutory rape and attempted assaults. It also changed the test used to determine if an offender would reoffend, which lowered the threshold to be considered for the program.
The changes dramatically increased the pool of those eligible for civil commitment, and commitments shot up from three per month to an average of 12. As a result, the program's budget ballooned from $2.7 million in 2004 to an expected $24 million this year.
On Friday, Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed spending another $43.5 million to renovate a closed prison in Brunswick to use when the Burkeville center is full. He requested $612,000 to treat more offenders in the community.
"A law composed with noble intentions for use in a small number of extreme cases is now being overused to the point of injustice," said Charlie Burnham, a northern Virginia attorney who has represented sex offenders.
Despite the budget or moral implications, Virginia is not likely to makes changes to the program, House Majority Leader Kirk Cox said.
"The problem is the public is probably as concerned about sexually violent predators, and rightly so, than any other group of criminals," said Cox, R-Chesterfield. "We'd better not make any mistakes there."
Pamela Sargent, a senior assistant attorney general in charge of the civil commitment unit, insists the program only targets the "worst of the worst."
Only one out of every 250 sex offenders released from prison are considered for commitment, she said. Of the more than 600 eligible cases, her office has sought to have someone deemed a sexually violent predator 60 percent of the time, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Sargent said staff lawyers who pursue such cases try to balance an offender's rights and need for treatment against his risk to others.
"Especially with these pedophiles, if they don't get treatment they're going to do it again," she said. "That's their sexual interest. That's their sexual urge, and it doesn't go away."
Many argue civil commitment should be limited to violent offenders - those like Richard Ausley.
On the day Ausley kidnapped Andrews, Ausley was supposed to be in a Portsmouth courtroom for a hearing on the rape of another teenager. Ausley chained Andrews inside a box buried in the woods and sexually assaulted and beat him for a week until rabbit hunters heard Andrews' screams and rescued him.
Ausley never lived to be committed. The 64-year-old was beaten and strangled by his cellmate, who had been sexually assaulted as a boy.
When lawmakers passed the law more then a decade ago, they did not fund it. In 2003, as Ausley's prison term would have expired, Andrews convinced the General Assembly to fund it.
"It was for people who we have no other means of controlling," Andrews said of the law. "It is for the high-risk sex offenders, people that we know with near certainty will offend again."
But some are committed simply because they have no place to go - and few ever leave the facility once they get in.
Dr. Steven Wolf, director of the state's Office of Sexually Violent Predator Services, estimates at least 25 offenders could be released and monitored in the community if they had suitable housing. The cost would be about $21,000 per year for each offender, or or about a fourth of holding someone in the psychiatric facility.
At 19, William Dewey was charged with having sex with a 14-year-old in Delaware and raping a 12-year-old in Virginia. After spending eight years in prison, where he excelled in school and work programs and was an usher in the church, evaluators said Dewey was a good candidate for release. He had no family or friends in Virginia who could take him in, so this year he ended up in the Burkeville facility.
"That's really disturbing to me that you say that I'm OK to be released into society but then because I don't have a suitable home plan you commit me for Virginia's convenience," said Dewey, now 33.
Evan Nelson, a psychologist who has conducted about 200 evaluations of those considered for commitment, said while it's not unreasonable to want offenders to receive specialized treatment, more should be done to avoid hospitalization. He suggests Virginia either build halfway houses or provide social workers to help find community-based housing and treatment.
But he realizes that takes money, and most politicians don't want to be seen as supporting sex offenders.
"It's politically unpopular to stand up and say the SVP law needs to be brought back into balance," he said.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said he had "stopped counting months ago" about how many offenders had been committed since he took office in January. He said there's no doubt treating some offenders in the community would be cheaper, but legislators don't seem to want to do that.
"The question is does the General Assembly want to put the money into doing it in a detention environment or save the money and risk some level of in-community residency for these folks while continuing the treatment?" he said. "Thusfar, it's been a detention-only approach."
For each of the first five years of commitment, offenders go before a judge for a hearing to see if they're appropriate for release. After that, they can get a hearing only every two years.
Since 2003, only 10 offenders have been released from the treatment facility. None have committed new crimes. Another 46 offenders were deemed a sexually violent predator but conditionally released rather than being committed, and one was convicted of a new sex crime.
"I don't want to say this program is bad. This program is absolutely necessary," Andrews said. "Is it necessary that every single sex offender go through this program? Absolutely not." ..Source.. DENA POTTER
September 21, 2010
Va. facility for sex predators to exceed limit in 2012
If sex offenders are the only danger to society, requiring them to be held beyond their criminal sentences, why have lawmakers defined other conduct as criminal and requiring a prison sentence, but not to be held beyond that? I do believe, that recidivism rates of non sex offenders prove they are a far more dangerous group after prison than sex offenders are. If this is not discrimination then why was it necessary to integrate schools, to have equal rights for both men and women, to require employers to treat all employees equally, to trteat all religions equally, etc etc etc?9-21-2010 Virginia:
The number of Virginia criminals labeled "sexually violent predators" is growing at such a rate that it's straining both the budget for treating them and the capacity of a two-year-old facility built to hold them after they finish serving their sentences.
Built to hold 300 people, the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Nottoway County currently holds 214. By mid-2012, its population is expected to hit 356 and, five years after that, to 738, members of the House of Delegates Appropriation Committee were told Monday.
Offenders are sent to the $62 million rehabilitation center through a process known as civil commitment, which allows the state to confine certain criminals even after they've served their time. Before the center opened in 2008, some resided in a 48-bed treatment facility in Petersburg.
Now that the center is reaching its occupancy limits, there is talk of reopening that unit or another state building, possibly an old correctional unit, for more space.
Officials project that escalating costs will leave the facility with a roughly $25 million budget shortfall over the next two years. The current annual budget is nearly $16 million, up from less than $3 million in 2004.
Growth in the program appears to be linked to a 2006 law change. That year, the list of crimes that qualified someone as sexually violent was expanded from four - rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration and aggravated sexual battery - to 28.
That increased by 350 percent the number of people eligible for civil commitment, explained James W. Stewart III, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. The number of people referred to the center jumped from about one a month to five or six times that.
Once there, residents remain at the facility until a finding is reached that they no longer pose a public threat, Stewart explained. Patients are assessed once in each of their first five years at the rehabilitation center and every other year thereafter. So far, seven have been released.
That indefinite term of confinement gives state Del. Rosalyn Dance the impression Virginia effectively has "set up another penal system."
"If we're going to give them life, let's call it life," said the Petersburg Democrat, who wondered if the state is "throwing these people into a dark hole" and then sinking money into it.
Mary Devoy, an advocate for modifying some of Virginia's sex crime laws, believes some statutes designed to punish offenders go too far. She argued that in their zeal to target pedophiles and rapists - "the true threats to society" - lawmakers have enacted rules which can leave a lifetime stigma on teens convicted of underage consensual sex, for example.
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith defended Virginia's laws - including the 2006 expansion and the 1999 civil commitment statute he successfully carried - as tools designed to punish and reform repeat offenders with a pattern of aberrant behavior.
The commitment process has been an effective vehicle to determine which offenders have a high likelihood of committing new crimes, said Griffith, a Salem Republican and advocate for curbing sex crimes against children. "Releasing them out on the street is not an option for me." ..Source.. Julian Walker
The Virginian-Pilot
July 10, 2010
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
April 6, 2009
VA- Problems linger at sex-offender rehab center
4-6-2009 Virginia:
A new report finds that problems at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation didn't improve much in 2008, despite the center's having moved to its new $62 million facility in Nottoway County.
The program is the maximum-security home for 130 of the most dangerous sex offenders in Virginia. They are being held indefinitely -- at $131,000 apiece each year -- under civil-court orders for treatment after their prison sentences ended.
Since the program's beginning in a makeshift facility in Dinwiddie County in late 2003, state auditors have found fault with high staff turnover and the need for more treatment. Many of the center's residents even view the new facility as worse in ways than the prisons they came from.
"Clearly, there are still growing pains and challenges at VCBR," Meghan McGuire, spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, said of the March 23 report by the office of the inspector general.
McGuire said building a long-range recovery program will take time. "We are seeing improvement to morale," she said. McGuire also said an advisory committee was formed last year and is working on recommendations to help the center meet its mission.
(Posted by eAdvocate)
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that sex offenders with certain mental conditions can be committed civilly by courts and held beyond their prison terms for rehabilitation and treatment -- but not for further punishment.
The new report found that residents received an average of 6.6 hours a week of treatment.
Though an improvement on the 2.5 hours a week from the year before, the report said "active treatment levels . . . still remain much lower than desirable for an effective treatment program. Resident boredom and inactivity continue, with significant [adverse] behavioral results."
The staff turnover rate at the center, which has great impact on treatment and other issues, was 47.5 percent in the year that ended last June. The rate has hovered around 50 percent since the program began. For medical and nursing staff, the turnover rate was nearly 100 percent from 2007.
Staffing at such facilities across the country tends to be a problem because of the type of offenders held and because many are located in rural locations.
Concerns on the part of residents "include overly Spartan cells and furniture; a harsh environment; very limited resident privilege levels with regard to phone use, mail, television access and personal items; and limited educational, vocational and recreation opportunities."
Concerns on the part of staff include their personal safety around the offenders and the belief that management sides with the residents too often in disputes.
"Disruptive, noisy, angry residents raise tension levels among staff. Staff report that they hear from residents that residents know they cannot be touched and they taunt staff that they will be reported if the staff infringes on their 'freedom' to behave as they wish," the report said.
Among other things, the department has hired a vocational coordinator, but there are still no jobs for residents for a number of reasons.
The report noted a Catch-22 in the center's efforts to get jobs for residents. Prisons can provide jobs for inmates at 20 to 40 cents an hour under an exception to federal labor law. It appears, however, that people in a civil-commitment center must be paid at least minimum wage.
The department noted that since the inspector general's most recent visit in November, 20 residents have enrolled in college-level correspondence courses.
In an effort to improve the living conditions, some wooden beds from the former facility, located near Petersburg, have been moved to Nottoway, and the existing "slab beds" are being widened and getting more comfortable mattresses. ..News Source.. by Frank Green
