1-13-2010 Michigan:
Albert Garrett, President of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, issued the following statement:
"Because the Michigan Legislature has failed to approve a transfer of funds within the Department of Human Services, the Department will be forced to close two halfway houses and a residential treatment center," stated Garrett. "Pine Lodge in Lansing, Academy Hall in Kalamazoo, and the Nokomis Challenge Center in Prudenville are slated for closure on January 15, 2010.
"This closure will displace a total of 36 or more juvenile offenders -- including violent offenders, sex offenders and substance abusers -- and 44 employees represented by AFSCME," continued Garrett. "This closure is completely unnecessary, and could be readily avoided if only the Legislature would act to authorize the transfer of funds which have already been appropriated.
"The closure of these three facilities will send some of these juvenile offenders to homeless shelters, and will release sex offenders into our communities unsupervised," concluded Garrett. "The responsibility clearly lies with House Appropriations Chair George Cushingberry, Jr. (D-8) and Senate Appropriations Chair Ron Jelinek (R-21) as well as Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairs Rep. Dudley Spade (D-57) and Sen. Bill Hardiman (R-29). Governor Granholm has already sent a transfer request, and the money has already been found and appropriated. If these facilities close, and tragedy ensues, we must ask these legislators why they did not act on the transfer request."
Albert Garrett is also Michigan Vice President for AFSCME International. Michigan AFSCME Council 25 represents more than 90,000 public workers across Michigan. AFSCME International represents 1.4 million public workers nationwide. News releases issued by Michigan AFSCME Council 25 are available at http://laborweb.afscme.org/sites/MI_C_25. ..Source.. SOURCE Michigan AFSCME Council 25
January 13, 2010
AFSCME's Garrett: Legislature's Failure to Act Places Public at Risk
December 30, 2009
Decision denies access to sex offender treatment
12-30-2009 New Zealand:
Corrections decision denies access to sex offender treatment
“The Department of Corrections decision to employ its own clinical psychologist in Nelson, forcing the Nelson Sex Offenders Programme to close, flies in the face of government’s recent announcement about tackling justice sector fragmentation”, says Kim Workman, Director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment.” He was commenting on an announcement to that effect (Nelson Mail, 29 December 2009)
“That decision not only denies access to group therapy for Corrections clients. It denies treatment to CYFS and community referrals, or from people who self-refer. Earlier this month, the Minister of Justice, Simon Power, promised that the government’s ‘Drivers of Crime” strategy would focus on improving outcomes by tackling fragmentation, ensuring ministerial and chief executive co-ordination of justice sector agencies, improving value for money, and improving the relationship between government and the community. This decision flies in the face of that.”
“Earlier this year, the NZ Taskforce on Sexual Violence proposed setting up of a community based programme which was to be available to Corrections clients, and also to people referred from within the community who had committed sexual offences but who had not been before the courts. These people are sometimes referred to as non mandated offenders as there is no court sentence mandating their attendance at the treatment programme.”
“New Zealand crime survey statistics show that only 9% of victims of sexual violence report it to the Police.”
“If the nation wants to achieve a long term reduction in sexual violence there has to be options to address sexual violence for the offenders who commit the 91% of the sex crimes not reported to the Police. We are starting to see in some areas of New Zealand, increasing confidence in the community about referring sexual abusers to community treatment organisations, knowing that they will not be subject to criminal prosecution. This is particularly so in the case of family sexual abuse.”
“Currently there is no funding stream for treatment of non mandated people who have sexually offended against adults. That is also a matter that the Ministry of Justice needs to address.” ..Source..
December 24, 2009
9 treating state's sex offenders lose jobs
I need to understand why, why spend millions of dollars on tracking sex offenders -which does not prevent new sex offensaes- and the state cannot spend a dime on treatment which does prevent new sex offenses. It seems to me that, the answer here is to divert some of the funding to PREVENTION if the real goal is to prevent new sex offenses. i.e., sex offender treatment.12-24-2009 Iowa:
The Iowa prison system's only sex offender treatment program will lose eight of its 13 counselors and its only social worker to layoffs next month.
Inmates who have molested children, raped women and committed other sex crimes will not get treatment as quickly or as intensively, and some might be released without any rehabilitation, according to staff at the prison in Mount Pleasant.
The program will shrink considerably in mid-January, Warden Ron Mullen said. Already, there is a long waiting list for the 300-bed program.
"We're going to do as much as we can with the resources we have left," Mullen said.
All of the program's counselors fall under the Iowa United Professionals labor union, the only public employee union that declined to accept unpaid days off to address the state's budget crisis.
Bradley Hoenig, one of the five counselors who will keep his job, believes some inmates will be released before getting adequate therapy.
"Not only that," Hoenig said, "I think there will be some medium- and high-risk individuals walking out without any treatment."
The Iowa Board of Parole is usually reluctant to give early parole to sex offenders who have had no treatment, but those who reach the end of their sentences must be released even if they have not received treatment.
Gail Huckins, director of the sex offender treatment program, said Tuesday the staff will have to redesign the program, possibly by shortening treatment.
"We certainly don't have all the answers today," she said.
Sex offenders from throughout Iowa's prison system are sent to Mount Pleasant for treatment. Counselors work to teach offenders responsible social behavior, how to manage sexually deviant thoughts, and how to prevent a relapse.
Offenders are divided into one of three treatment tracks. Low-risk offenders get about six months of treatment. Medium-risk inmates get about nine months of treatment, and high-risk get 14 to 16 months.
Typically, 20 to 50 inmates are on a waiting list for each of the three tracks, Huckins said.
After the layoffs, the low-risk offenders may get a brief education program, and the programs for medium- and high-risk offenders could be combined into one shorter program, Hoenig said.
"The high-risk group could see their treatment cut in half," he said.
Mullen said details are still being worked out, but he agreed that "it's going to take longer for an offender to get into the program, and it's going to affect our ability to move people through as quickly as we are now."
He added that when offenders are released, they can continue to get supervision and treatment in the community-based corrections system.
Mount Pleasant's sex offender treatment program saves the state money because it helps make sex offenders eligible for parole, staff said.
Huckins said treatment works.
"The change process we see in an individual from beginning of the treatment process to end is phenomenal in what they are able to learn and digest," she said. "It's gratifying to see such a change process in individuals."
Generally speaking, sex offenders have the lowest rate of committing new crimes among prisoners in the Iowa criminal justice system, Mullen said.
Research by the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning shows offenders who successfully complete sex offender treatment have lower rates of rearrest for sex offenses than other offenders.
Among those successfully treated, 0.7 percent were arrested for a new sex crime within two years, while among those who got no treatment, 3.2 percent had a new arrest, according to a 2006 Department of Corrections report.
When Gov. Chet Culver asked Iowa's three public employee unions last fall to accept concessions in pay to spare layoffs, two unions agreed: the State Police Officers Council and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The concessions averted 606 layoffs for workers who fall under those two labor contracts.
But Iowa United Professionals leaders refused the offer without giving dues-paying members the chance to vote, according to workers and the governor's staff.
"IUP has not served us - or the people of Iowa - and we have voiced our displeasure with that union loud and clear," said Terry Moore, one of the eight Mount Pleasant prison counselors who will lose his job.
"What upsets us most, though, is not the loss of our jobs, but the pending decimation of a viable program that keeps sex offenders from committing new crimes against new victims," Moore said.
Union officials did not return phone calls this week.
Sean Crawford will lose his $45,000-a-year job counseling sex offenders with special needs, such as an IQ score below 85, a reading level below sixth grade or other mental or social inadequacies.
"Ultimately, my biggest concern with this type of reduction in the program is that it's going to affect the number of offenders getting treatment, and it will affect the number offenders released without completing treatment," he said. "As a citizen of the state, that concerns me that there's a likelihood of untreated sex offenders returning to their communities."
Pink slips handed out last week give workers 20 working days before they must leave their jobs.
The Mount Pleasant prison houses 913 men and 83 women. Its budget is about $24.5 million after the 10 percent across-the-board cut Culver ordered for this budget year. ..Source.. JENNIFER JACOBS
December 22, 2009
An In-State Treatment Facility For Registered Sex Offenders Still Just A Pipe Dream
12-22-2009 Connecticut:
With the July 2007 slayings of a Cheshire mother and her two daughters fresh on their minds, legislators moved quickly last year to toughen up the state's criminal justice system.
But one of their reforms — creation of a residential treatment facility with a range of services for sex offenders on parole or probation — never happened, even though it was part of a bill that passed by wide margins in both the state House of Representatives and the Senate.
Now, a three-time convicted rapist — considered so dangerous and untreatable he was denied admission to sex offender programs in Connecticut and seven other states only two years ago — will have nowhere to go when he is released from prison on Christmas Eve.
Instead, 52-year-old Ransome Lee Moody will be waiting in line for a bed at Immanuel Baptist Homeless Shelter in New Haven, a place where indigent offenders who have done their time often go for housing when there are no other options.
Judicial officials say Connecticut badly needs a sex offender treatment facility for recently released inmates in Connecticut. They blame state budget woes for the failure to create one.
"It's a very significant gap in how the state provides the appropriate services for these kinds of defendants," Moody's public defender, James S. McKay, said. "And it's potentially dangerous for the public if the defendant doesn't get the benefit of the right services. Yes, it's expensive. But there are also costs for not doing it."
Probation officials have informed the 75-bed Immanuel Baptist shelter about Moody's criminal history, Wesley L. Thorpe Sr., executive director of the shelter, said Monday. Less than half of those who regularly fill the warehouse-type shelter are former prison inmates.
"We're just hoping that nothing happens," Thorpe said.
Housing Wanted
Legislators recognized the need for housing sex offenders on probation and parole, including it in the 2008 crime-fighting bill they passed after the Petit home invasion in Cheshire. Two longtime criminals who had been out on parole are accused of breaking into the home of Dr. William Petit in July 2007 and killing his wife and two daughters.
The 2008 legislation toughened the state's criminal laws, including the addition of a new "home invasion" law and the allocation of $10 million for increased crime-fighting.
Part of that money was to be spent on housing for recently released sex offenders who would either receive inpatient treatment in a restricted facility or, if they were capable of looking for jobs and a new home, get placed in transitional or permanent housing.
State officials moved ahead on a plan to provide 12 beds for sex offenders on probation and another 12 beds for those on parole, to be housed in an existing building at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville. The Department of Correction put the project out to bid and selected a vendor.
William H. Carbone, head of the state Judicial Department's Court Support Services Division, said the court support services division and the Department of Correction planned to pool together $2 million for the facility.
But by the end of 2008, state revenues began to fall and a projected budget surplus dwindled.
"The budget ax kept falling every few months and money kept getting chipped away," Carbone said. "It's very frustrating because it's a worthwhile project that's badly needed. There's no question about that. At some point in the future, we hope there will be adequate funding."
Michael Cicchetti, deputy secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, said departments have to set priorities. "There's money in their budget, not as much as they would like, but every state agency is operating with less dollars," Cicchetti said. "It's really a question of how they want to use it. "
"This is one of the things caught up in this budget nightmare up here," said State Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, one of the legislature's leading authorities on criminal justice who has advocated strongly for a treatment facility for sex offenders. "I realize that tough decisions have to be made but if I was the governor, I would put a secure facility up and running for this guy and others like him who could potentially be a threat to public safety."
A History Of Problems
Moody was 17 when he first went to prison in 1974 for raping a 9-year-old girl. By 1978, he was out of prison and in Florida, where he served seven years in prison for several crimes, including burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.
While living in Middletown in 1985, Moody was charged with raping two women. In one case, Moody cut a window screen, entered a woman's home and raped her several times at knifepoint, prosecutors said. In the other case, Moody raped a hearing-impaired woman on the grounds of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.
Moody was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the rapes and was released in April 2001. He was back in police custody two months later for violating his probation when he used drugs.He was released again after a July 2001 court hearing — and arrested again in February 2002 for violating his probation after he tested positive for smoking marijuana. Judge Elaine Gordon imposed a sentence of 18 months, but in January 2003 she modified the sentence, reducing it to time served, though she imposed a number of conditions of probation, according to a court transcript.
In May 2003, Moody violated his probation again; he was arrested for exposing himself to a woman near Connecticut Valley Hospital.
During a July 2004 violation-of-probation hearing, Middlesex State's Attorney Timothy J. Liston pushed to keep Moody in jail as long as possible. He cited reports from probation officials who said only a "substantial amount of time" in prison — not treatment — would protect the community from Moody's "violent acts," a court transcript shows.
Judge Robert L. Holzberg sentenced Moody to six years in prison and ordered him to get "intensive" sexual offender treatment. Moody was released Aug. 31, 2007. Unable to live with family, Moody sought housing at a Hartford homeless shelter.
A month after his release, probation officials lost track of Moody, and authorities went searching for him. A GPS tracking device Moody was wearing led police to Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, where Moody had sought help for suicidal thoughts. He told one official that he wanted to "end it" by either hurting himself or someone else.
Two months after his release, Moody violated his probation again. Project Green, a New Haven drug rehabilitation program with 24-hour supervision, kicked him out of its program, the only program in eight states willing to house Moody. Officials said Moody left the program "in direct violation of his probation."
By then, probation officials, with the help of other state agencies and Judge Holzberg, throughout multiple court hearings tried to devise a treatment and housing plan for Moody, but officials testified that no sex offender program existed for someone like Moody, who officials said continued to present a "high degree of risk of sexually assaultive behavior."
Finding A Solution
When it appeared that an inpatient sex offender treatment program was coming to Connecticut, it seemed the perfect spot for Moody. Holzberg ordered Moody into such a facility as a condition of his probation.
But last month, McKay said "we're quite a long distance from the hopes of Judge Holzberg." McKay told Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford the facility would have taken care of Moody's housing and his therapeutic needs.
"But the problem is that there isn't one," Clifford said. "It is a hope. And that was the legislature's hope also. But with the budget crisis, we don't have it."
In the meantime, probation and parole officials will struggle to find options for homeless sex offenders, addressing public safety but also helping offenders adjust to life outside prison walls.
In Moody's case, probation officials plan to monitor his movements with the help of a 24-hour GPS monitoring device. He will be required to report seven days a week to a program where he will receive life-skills training. The program will pick him up from the shelter and bring him back in the afternoon.
Probation officials said if that shelter is full, Moody could look for a bed at two other New Haven shelters. And in what they called a rare case that all beds will be filled, Moody could end up on the streets.
When asked at last month's hearing if Moody would be guaranteed a bed, Chief Probation Officer William Anselmo admitted it was not a sure thing.
"We can do our best," Anselmo told Clifford. "We don't have a safe house. We don't drop them off at a motel and pay for the night. Unfortunately, we do have some sex offenders supervised by probation, registered offenders that do live under the bridge for a couple of nights. We've had guys sleeping on the green in New Haven. Unfortunately, we just do not have the resource to put somebody up for the night."
Clifford replied: "Well, I'd rather have a situation where Mr. Moody would not be sleeping on a park bench in New Haven."
"That's our wish too, your honor," Anselmo said. ..Source.. ALAINE GRIFFIN
July 19, 2009
CA- Calif. Leaders Urged to Reform Costly Prison System
7-19-2009 California:
The leader of a Christian organization dedicated to criminal justice reform is urging California’s “irresponsible leaders” to pull the state’s prisons out of the vicious cycle they’ve been in over the past decade or two.
“Even ‘tough on crime’ Texas has made dramatic changes that will reduce their prison population by punishing many offenders in the community, where they have access to treatment programs, and are close to their families and work,” noted Prison Fellowship Vice President Pat Nolan, who leads Justice Fellowship, Prison Fellowship’s public policy arm.
“California on the other hand is going in the opposite direction,” he added in a commentary that appeared this week in the Huffington Post.
In total, California spends $10 billion a year on its prison system, which – as NPR’s Laura Sullivan recently pointed out – was once a model for states to follow but now is a model of what to avoid.
To keep one inmate locked in jail, the state now requires around $46,000 each year – not including substance abuse treatment, mental health programs, educational or vocational training.
To reduce its $26.3 billion budget deficit, the state of California has proposed a cut of $1.2 billion in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget.
But according to Nolan, significant reforms of department have so far been off the table, and to date the trend in California has been to eliminate drug treatment programs, sex offender counseling, “and virtually every program which prepares inmates to live healthy, productive lives after they are released.”
“These cuts allow the prisons to keep the maximum number of inmates incarcerated, but with no programs to occupy their time productively. Why? It certainly isn't making us safer,” Nolan added.
Furthermore, in 2006, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state prison system had reached "a crisis point," the governor called for the construction of at least two more prisons and the addition of thousands of beds in existing facilities to deal with what he called "dangerously overcrowded" prisons.
At the time, California was housing more than 171,000 inmates and had the highest recidivism rate in the nation, with 70 percent of parolees returning to prison after their release.
“As California's irresponsible leaders have reduced the Golden State to issuing IOU's, one would think they would be looking to the prison budget as a place to save money,” noted Nolan this week.
But as Nolan and other experts have noted, many of the cuts California has made has been to health care and other programs that help rehabilitate inmates and keep them from coming back to prison.
And as a result, more parolees are returning – many of which for violating their parole on technical terms, such as missing an appointment with a parole officer – and prisons continue to be overcrowded.
Meanwhile, in states like Texas, reforms have been made to cut down on the number of returning inmates, thus creating a positive cycle that allows more money to be saved and more to be directed to programs that will continue to bring down the number of people incarcerated.
“These reforms have allowed Texas to scrap plans to build three more prisons, saving hundreds of millions of dollars,” Nolan noted. “Texas is investing one-third of the savings into these community alternative punishments and treatment. The other two-thirds will go to roads, hospitals and schools.”
“[I]ntelligent policies,” such as those in Texas, “keep the public safe while also saving the taxpayers significant dollars,” Nolan added. “Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina have also reduced their prison population while reducing their crime rates.”
“It's time for California to follow suit,” he concluded.
Aside from California, Nolan and his organization say America as a whole is in need of significant intervention when it comes to the prison system.
“The soaring costs of imprisonment are hindering spending on other vital programs-such as schools, basic health care for children and core community services,” Justice Fellowship reports.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Americans will spend $62 billion this year to incarcerate their fellow citizens and more than half of the 700,000 inmates who will be released will be re-incarcerated within three years unless there is significant intervention.
Since it was founded in 1983 by evangelical leader Chuck Colson, Justice Fellowship has sought to change America’s criminal justice system at every level so that it reflects the principles of restorative justice, which requires the system to do more than warehouse offenders.
“Restorative justice teaches that crime harms victims, communities, and offenders,” the organization states. “We promote a system that effectively repairs these injuries and brings greater peace and security to lives and communities.”
Other restorative justice organizations include Just Alternatives, Justice and Mercy, the Victim Offender Mediation Association, and Awana Lifeline. ..Source.. by Lawrence D. Jones, Christian Post Reporter
June 1, 2009
VT- Sex offenders not getting treatment
6-1-2009 Vermont:
BENNINGTON – Local officials have expressed concerns after learning that the Department of Corrections has not provided treatment for sex offenders living in local communities in Bennington and Rutland counties for several weeks because the contract to provide that service was broken.
Corrections Deputy Commissioner Lisa Menard said that while there was not currently a clinical provider under contract to treat sex offenders, regular meetings are still taking place. The meetings are run by experienced staff members from Probation and Parole who discuss subjects like risk factors.
Menard said the weekly meetings also provide another element of supervision.
Georgia Cumming, the department's program director for sex offenders, said she didn't know the exact date the previous contract was broken, but said it was earlier in May.
Cumming said a provider had been found and would take over starting Monday to provide full coverage for Rutland County, so sex offenders there will only have missed a few weeks of treatment.
But Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito said given the nature of the contract and the requirements for filling it, which include advertising the position and approving any prospective candidates, it could take as long as three months to find a replacement in Bennington County.
"That gap is being filled partially by the (Department of Corrections), but for treatment like this, you really need a licensed provider. Unfortunately, the state doesn't have the luxury of being able to afford to have any back-up providers," Pallito said.
Pallito said the department was committed to finding a new treatment provider and said there had already been some interest shown in the job after ads were placed in trade publications and the "electronic billboard."
Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he had already told Pallito that he was concerned and expected the position to be filled as soon as possible.
"The idea that parole officers are doing a little bit extra just doesn't cut it, given what we've been through in this state," he said.
As the primary investigator of sex crimes for the town, Bennington Police Detective Lawrence Cole said he understood sex offenders who had been returned to the community needed experienced support.
"Without the proper programming, I wonder if we're setting ourselves up to have people veer off the right side of the law," he said.
Several Bennington County officials said they were also concerned because they hadn't been notified by the Department of Corrections that sex offenders living in their community were not getting clinical treatment.
Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage said her office, Cole, the Bennington County Special Victims Unit and other agencies had worked together to create a successful team that had attracted positive attention for its response to sex crimes. But she said part of the success had been the trust that all members of the team were doing their part.
"My office makes plea agreements all the time in cases that require sex offender treatment. The fact that we don't have someone doing that right now would have been good to know," she said.
Marthage said the former treatment provider had been a valued member of the team, and while she acknowledged the Department of Corrections did not have to consult with her before breaking the contract, it was "very distressing" that her office didn't learn of the decision until after the fact.
Sears said that as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he is in frequent contact with the Department of Corrections, but said he only learned about the change when he was contacted by the former treatment provider.
Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd said he was not surprised that the town government had not gotten notification.
"(The Department of Corrections) may believe that the situation is under control but I'm concerned that they just don't get it. They don't understand how a community feels. They don't understand how vulnerable a community feels," he said.
Hurd said the department's response was "poor communication at the least, arrogance at the worst."
Rutland City Police Detective Sgt. Kevin Stevens said on Friday he had not been notified about the lack of treatment but said he didn't believe it would have a direct impact on police. However, he said he did believe it raised some questions.
"Should (the local sex offenders) be put back in the (correctional) center? Because if they're not in treatment, than they are a greater risk," he said.
Pallito said it wouldn't have been a "high-level of notification" because he believed that local law enforcement agencies would have been aware of the change in treatment.
Menard said she could not discuss why the contract ended but said it was "not expected" rather than a contract that had not been renewed after it ended.
According to Cumming, the gap in treatment would not change a sex offender's length of probation. The average time in treatment is about two years, but because people move at their own pace through treatment, they wouldn't have to "make up for lost time."
The state is looking for someone who would have a master's level degree in a field like psychology or social work and someone who has experience working with sex offenders to fill the position in Bennington County. ..Source.. by PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER
December 21, 2008
UT- Economy forces state to scrimp on treatment for young sex offenders
12-21-2008 Utah:
Budget cuts » The state is scrapping plans for a new center and could close a long-term lockup facility.
Despite Utah's young demographics and a booming number of juvenile sex offenders, upcoming budget cuts will hit kids in trouble hard.
An expected $3 million shortfall through 2010 means fewer juvenile sex offenders will be evaluated and treated as efforts to build a new center have been scrapped. More kids will be crowded together if a long-term lockup center is closed. And funds will be chopped from a slew of community programs including one that gives police a place to take arrested juveniles if their parents can't be found right away.
"We're concerned," said Director of JJS Dan Maldonado. "Anything involving the justice community is really important, and we're a big part of that."
After 15 years of efforts to start a center to identify those juvenile sex offenders in danger of becoming predators, Juvenile Justice officials finally found a welcoming property. The budget downturn will force them to eliminate $600,000 pegged for the center and restart the process of finding land in a time when the number of young sex offenders is exploding.
In the mid- to late-1990s, an estimated 7 to 10 percent of the juvenile offender population was in for sex crimes. The number has now doubled to 20 percent, Maldonado said, and there are many more offenders among the nearly 10,000 kids taken in annually by the Department of Child and Family Services and the courts. Rob Butters, co-chair of the Utah Network on Juveniles Offending Sexually (NOJOS), said the increase is due in large part to more victims coming forward to report crimes.
Butters said Utah now has a pair of gaps in its system. In addition to losing the prospect of an assessment center, Valley Mental Health last year cut contracts providing mentally ill juvenile sex offenders much-needed psychiatric help. Without treatment alternatives, young offenders tend to land in lock-ups more often, he said.
As a clinical social worker, Butters said he once treated a 16-year-old boy who fit a fairly typical mold for young offenders -- exposure to pornography in pubescent stages and being slightly socially awkward or bored. The young man has since gone on to graduate from college, is married, has a child and plans to study law so he can help kids in similar situations.
"If you treat them, they probably won't do it again," Butters said, citing studies that show treated kids re-offend less than 10 percent of the time. "We want them to get on with their lives rather than put a scarlet letter on their forehead."
Treatment for the most common young offenders involves individual and group visits to therapy programs, but one of the major components is simply preoccupying the kids.
"There is some sex-specific treatment, but it's very much focused on all the other things going on in a kid's life," Butters said, adding that workers will often check grades or have youths attend social activities. "This new model really says all this clinical voodoo is OK, but let's really focus on helping these people live healthy, productive, happy lives. Social skills is a big part of that -- if you can't get your needs met one way, you turn to the Internet or underground deviant stuff."
If a child goes untreated, it's harder to change sexually deviant behavior in adults, Butters said.
"If we can stop this behavior now, it will save us so much money," Butters said.
But given the reality of the economy, Juvenile Justice workers know it's more likely they will lose more cash across the board in coming years.
Over the next two years, Juvenile Justice plans to eliminate $3.7 million from community programs, ranging from group homes to psychiatric hospital treatment. It will also eliminate $3 million from holding facilities, such as the Decker Lake Detention Center, which could force the department to cram twice as many juveniles into cells. Other proposed cuts include supervision and diversion programs for juveniles.
"We are very concerned about public safety first and foremost," Maldonado said. "We want to isolate sex offenders, and we spend time and energy in treating all of those kids and affording them opportunities for treatment."
Early treatment costs only a few thousand dollars, said Maldonado, and could help alleviate the heavy burden on the Department of Corrections, which pays around $30,000 per inmate each year and recently reported a growing waiting list for sex-offender treatment at its facilities.
The total number of offenders at the prisons doubled from August 1996 to August 2008, and Corrections says adult sex offenders make up 30 percent of the total inmate population. Even so, low funding means only 235 of the nearly 2,000 sex offenders imprisoned in August were receiving treatment as of November.
The young population of offenders is expected to continue to rise, posing what Maldonado called a "daunting task for the Legislature."
Cuts to social work programs that carry long-term benefits for the community concern some who warn of an "economic aftershock."
"It's when the economy is terrible and people are broke -- that's big business for social workers," Butters said. "People are desperate, but we also stop putting money into programs." ..News Source.. by Steve Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune
November 27, 2008
CT- Former school band assistant charged with violating probation
11-26-2008 Connecticut:
NORWALK - A former Brien McMahon High School band assistant, on probation since June after being convicted of having sex with a 16-year-old student in 2005, has been arrested on charges of violating probation.
Aaron Sumpter, 26, of 45 Baxter Drive, Norwalk, was arrested Monday by the probation department for allegedly consuming alcohol and cocaine, and not participating enough in his sex-offender treatment.
He was released on $12,500 bond and was due in court for arraignment on two violation of probation charges Monday.
After pleading guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault, first-degree reckless endangerment and driving while under the influence, Sumpter was given a suspended two-year prison sentence and three years of probation by Judge Burton Kaplan at state Superior Court in Norwalk on June 11.
Sumpter was charged with second-degree sexual assault on Feb. 23, 2006, after a police investigation determined he had a consensual sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female band member in late 2005. Sumpter was 23 at the time.
In an unusual plea agreement, Sumpter spent 35 days in jail before his sentencing in June.
If it is determined that he violated his probation, Sumpter could serve all or part of his suspended two-year sentence.
As part of probation, he was to participate in and complete sex offender evaluation and treatment and abstain from alcohol and drugs, his arrest warrant affidavit stated.
But last month, three of Sumpter's urine samples tested positive for cocaine and another in September tested positive for alcohol, the affidavit stated. During his Oct. 21 group sex offender class, Sumpter admitted to using cocaine.
On Oct. 21, he was warned by his probation officer that his probation was in violation status and any further non-compliance would result in a violation.
A third urine sample, taken that day, came back positive for cocaine, the affidavit said.
On Oct. 28, Sumpter was kicked out of the sex-offender treatment program for failure to keep a daily journal, and as a result, was not "effectively engaging in treatment," the warrant said. He also was cited for not providing his probation officer with a log showing all of the Internet sites he visited.
Sumpter's attorney, William Westcott, could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon. ..News Source.. by John Nickerson, Staff Writer
