Porter County sex offenders to pay fees

VALPARAISO, Indiana

The Porter County Sheriff's Department invests a lot of time and money in maintaining the county's sex offender and violent offender registry.

But starting May 1, the department will charge fees to offenders to recoup some of the costs of keeping track of them.

Offenders -- such as convicted child molesters and rapists who are required to register -- will have to pay a $50 annual registration fee. Offenders who move will pay a $5 change of address fee.
Because the registry is part of a state mandate, Indiana law allows counties to implement the fee. State law also dictates who must register for the local lists.

"We've had to create a position to track and register these offenders. New equipment and manpower is needed to do this, and that's the reason for the fees," said Lt. Chris Eckert, police spokesman.

With 125 to 150 offenders to keep track of, several of whom move each month, the fees are expected to raise $6,000 to $10,000 annually. Ten percent of the fees will go back to the state, and the remainder will remain with the Sheriff's Department.

The registry is designed to let residents know if a sex offender or violent offender is living near them. To see the registry, visit portercountysheriff.com and click on sex offenders. [ED: So now sex offenders are going to have pay for the privilege of having vastly fewer rights and suffering continuous legally sanctioned harassment. This is reminiscent of the Nazis charging the Jews for the damage caused by Kristallnacht in which hundreds (of Jews) were killed and terrorized and their homes and businesses destroyed.]

Methuen School Committeeman wants sex offender fliers on school walls

METHUEN, New Hampshire — A School Committeeman is proposing some schools hang fliers showing the faces of the city's most dangerous sex offenders on its walls to help children protect themselves.

Committeeman Evan Chaisson wants to put these fliers showing Level 3 sex offenders' names, photographs, personal information and crimes inside locked glass cases in the main offices of schools. He wants the posters to be seen by students in grades five and up.

He says it will help students recognize the offenders if they ever see them in person.
"They're at the age where they could understand what a sex offender is," Chaisson said.

Chaisson's comments came after school officials moved a bus stop located in front of the home of a man who, according to police, may have to register as a sex offender.

Methuen has four registered Level 3 offenders, which are considered to be a "high risk" to re-offend, according to the state's Sex Offender Registry Board. The fliers of these men's faces have made it into some public areas, including the Nevins Memorial Library — but not in public schools.
Besides hanging the fliers in a spot where they cannot be tampered with, Chaisson said, teachers could incorporate the information into their curriculum.

"We could incorporate, maybe, into the health programs and their DARE programs and stuff like that," Chaisson said.

"I think it's a great idea," said Robin Gordon, a member of the Methuen High School Parent Teacher Organization. "Too often kids ... they think strangers are going to look different than your next-door neighbor. It could be your next-door neighbor. It could be anybody."

Schools' reaction
Superintendent Jeanne Whitten has "mixed feelings." Officials need to be careful not to frighten children, she said.

"These are scary faces, and the text is very scary," she told the School Committee. "We have to do this with great sensitivity and thoughtfulness."

"But on the other side of the coin," she said during a recent interview, "you want kids to be aware."
Whitten noted principals have binders full of the Level 3 sex offenders' postings. That information is available to school staff, but it's not put on display for students to see.

The principals will soon discuss Chaisson's proposal, Whitten said.

The city has 43 Level 2 sex offenders, which are deemed a "moderate" risk of re-offending. People can get information on those offenders by requesting it from the Police Department or through the Sex Offender Registry Board. Level 1 offenders are considered to have a "low" chance of re-offending, and their information is not publicly available.

Staff members at Nevins Memorial Library — the city's public library — post Level 3 sex offender fliers on the kiosks around the building, near where they hang advertisements for community events.

"The Police Department asked us to a long time ago," said library Director Krista McLeod. "We feels it's public information. We just feel that people need to be informed."

Library patrons have not had much of a reaction to the fliers, at least that McLeod is aware of.
"I'm sure that people see them, but I've never had any concerns one way or another," she said. "For the most part, I think people probably think it's a good idea."

But is it right?
If school officials are going to hang sex offender fliers, they should incorporate some education about predators at the same time, said Doreen Arcus, a University of Massachusetts Lowell associate professor of psychology with a specialty in childhood development.
"To just have these fliers up, I think, runs the risk of being threatening to students," Arcus said. "Unless it's part of a whole effort designed to help them put it in context and to help them develop the good boundaries and good safety skills, and to empower them."

Chaisson agreed.

"At least we're all on the same page," he said. "We all have the children at heart here."
Educators should teach students to recognize potential predators and to know what to do when they encounter one, Arcus said.

It's not good to simply make children think "there's danger lurking on every street corner," and they run the risk of "immobilizing" students if they simply hang fliers without doing anything else, she said.

"Because you don't want kids walking around being scared all the time — that's not good for them," she said.

School staff members need to be mindful that some students are victims of sexual abuse, and teachers often do not know who those students are, Arcus added.

"For a child who has him or herself been sexually molested, to see these faces leering off school walls can be a very stressful experience," she said. "And although we don't like to think that our children have had those histories, there is a substantial number of children who have."

Arcus said she wouldn't like to see the posters hung in schools without being counterbalanced by positive messages about who is there to protect them.

Nancy Scannell, director of policy and planning at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, raised similar points.

"Obviously, we support, totally, the notion of providing kids and communities with every tool possible to keep themselves safe," she said.

But efforts like this can have unintended consequences when "they're implemented piecemeal," she said.

"We're very concerned about the possibility that there could be a posting of a family member of a child in the school," Scannell added.

The society believes parents are best suited to discuss sex offenders with their children. Also, students can get a false sense that the sex offenders on the fliers are the only people they need to be aware of, Scannell said.

She said Chaisson's proposal "requires some discussion" and there is no easy answer on what is best to do.

Veteran School Committee member Robert Vogler said hanging fliers should be part of a broad educational effort.

"It has to be done not to instill a certain amount of fear in the kids," he said.

The state Department of Education could not say whether other schools have posted these fliers in their buildings, saying it was a local issue.

[Ed: Run children! Run for your lives! The boogeymen are coming to get you!]

No exit: sex offenders jailed for all time

New South Wales, Australia

In the past years, 10 men have been kept in NSW prisons months after they finished doing their time. Their sentences have expired but the Government brands them "high-risk, hard-core" offenders, and the courts have ordered further detention.

All are serious sex offenders - men with a long history of raping or sexually assaulting women, girls or boys in abhorrent crimes.

It has been a year since the introduction of the Serious Sex Offender legislation, which allows the detention or close supervision of serious sex offenders past their release date "for the safety and protection of the community". The legislation is designed to encourage them to undertake treatment, which is believed to reduce the chance they will reoffend.

The new law has caused a debate over the best way to deal with sex offenders - whether they should be freed at the end of their sentence, locked up forever or released only after successful treatment.

The Government defends its tough stance but others are unconvinced about the law's effectiveness. The real test will come after those men who have agreed to treatment seek release.

Already the Government has applied to keep two of the men, who have enrolled in the recommended treatment program, in jail for up to five more years when their detention ends.
When it was introduced, the Government said the scheme was designed for "a handful" of serious offenders who had not tried to rehabilitate in prison. The intent was to allow them to be placed under long-term supervision, or "in only the worst cases, kept in custody".

Only one of the 10 men kept in prison since the law was introduced - Neville Francis Hadson - is living in the community under strict supervision, after four extra months in prison.

Another, Raymond Barry Cornwall, was released on supervision last December but removed his electronic anklet within an hour of being freed and is serving a sentence for this breach.

The first of the men subjected to the new law, Kenneth Davidson Tillman, was kept under surveillance by private investigators from 6am to 6.30pm for 12 days when released, before he was returned to detention after an appeal.

Those who have been detained are expected to finish approved treatment programs, available only in custody, to reduce their likelihood of reoffending before they are considered for release.
But Tillman's case has reportedly been taken up by the UN Human Rights Committee. The legislation has strong opposition from the civil rights lobby.

The public has "charged emotional views" about sex offenders, says Cameron Murphy, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. "Many of the measures sound good, make people feel good, but I'm struggling to see how they in effect assist the community," he says.

Detention is additional punishment which undermines the criminal justice system, Murphy says, and it is the human right of prisoners to know their maximum prison term at the time of sentence. In effect, people are being incarcerated not for something they have done, but something they might do in the future.

Not so, says Howard Brown from the victims support group VOCAL. They are not being punished for possible future offences but for their failure to seek treatment in the past. In a democracy "the needs of the greater [community] sometimes supersede the needs of the individual", he says.
Murphy counters that, if we want sex offenders detained for life, we should debate this publicly, but the full punishment should be known at the time of sentence.

It is not the first time the NSW Government has detained people past their sentence. However, the legislation to detain the killer Gregory Wayne Kable in 1994 was later ruled unconstitutional.
Legislation to detain serious offenders in Western Australia withstood a High Court appeal in 2004, against the dissenting opinion of Justice Michael Kirby. He invoked the spectre of 1930s Germany, before saying: "In Australia, such punishment … is not available for crimes that are feared, anticipated or predicted to occur in the future, on evidence that is notoriously unreliable and otherwise would be inadmissible, and by people who do not have the gift of prophesy."
Queensland and Victoria also have legislation allowing for the detention of serious offenders.
NSW's deputy senior public defender, Andrew Haesler, SC, says Victoria leads the way with its program of preparing offenders for release, with planned and funded supervision and psychiatric treatment.

Some states in the US provide for mandatory "chemical castration" - medication that reduces testosterone levels, hence suppressing sex drive. Others have followed New Jersey in adopting "Megan's law", which allows for the public to be notified about the location of released sex offenders.

In Britain, sex offenders are sometimes kept under strict surveillance. Canada and New Zealand have similar schemes.

The NSW law has been criticised as an example of the Government wanting to be seen as tough on crime, but not spending the money to support it or offering alternative approaches.
Sex offenders are being targeted, suggests Dr Stephen Allnutt, a psychiatrist and conjoined senior lecturer at the University of NSW, because the public find their offences "quite abhorrent". But statistics show they actually reoffend less often than other criminals.

Among those classified in the worst category of sex offenders, 45 per cent will reoffend within 10 years. But within only two years 47 per cent of other offenders will have returned to prison, the Supreme Court was told in one of the cases.

Probably those most likely to commit further crimes when they come out of prison are untreated drug offenders, says Haesler, who has represented serious sex offenders fighting detention orders.
"I don't condone what my clients do, just because I am a defence lawyer. But we've got it wrong in locking them up for ever and ever."

The Government stands by its decision to target sex offenders only. "High-risk sex offenders who have not made any attempt to rehabilitate whilst in prison pose a very real threat to the public," says a spokesman for the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos.

While many factors turn someone into a sex offender, the profiles of the 10 men detained under the new law have similarities: alcohol abuse, relationship problems, broken homes, intimacy issues and - often - being the victim of sexual abuse.

Statistically, someone might fall into the group of high-risk offenders, sharing many of the risk factors, but there is no way of telling whether they will reoffend, says Linda Valenta, president of the Australian & New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse.

Asked if she would mind living next to a known sex offender, Valenta says abuse is close to home for many people. "A lot of people probably already do live next door to people who are abusing."
But treatment is proven to reduce recidivism rates by between 15 and 30 per cent, she says.
Brown is less optimistic, comparing sex offenders to alcoholics, who are never cured but can sometimes abstain.

Some psychologists believe treatment doesn't work, and argue that more treated than untreated offenders reoffend because they lie when they realise they can "graduate" only if they parrot the lines fed to them by therapists.

But even those pressured into treatment often change their attitude and receive real benefits from it, Valenta says.

Research shows recidivism is high for treatment dropouts. Interrupted treatment may make offenders worse by introducing them to bad role models and a range of new, sexually deviant behaviours and fantasies.

However, another study found those who deny their offences and accept no treatment reoffend less than others who seek treatment.

Allnutt warns about the reliability of such studies because for ethical reasons there are no control groups that receive "placebo" treatment.

The Custody-based Intensive Treatment program runs in the prison system for offenders deemed to present the highest risk of reoffending. They do no chores and do not socialise; their sole focus is the program.

David Bright, a research fellow at the University of NSW, helped set up the program in 1999 and led changes to it in 2005. He says the course aims to change prisoners' risk factors.
"Men who offend against children, for example, will often have attitudes that allow them to reoffend - that children enjoy sexual contact with adults, or that children or teenagers are allowing them or consenting to sexual activity," he says.

"We can look at changing their attitudes towards women or towards children and sex."
Most men who agree to treatment are not doing it because they are dissatisfied with their lives or remorseful. They seek parole or better conditions. Even so, many of them have to wait for a vacancy: the program only has 40 places.

" The program has gained momentum and gained credibility, particularly with the new legislation, which I think that has motivated (in inverted commas) a lot more men to seek the program or at least to agree to it," Bright says.

A study of 104 offenders who completed the program and were released found they reoffended #at less than the rate expected, given their risk factors.

A Government spokesman claims research has shown the program reduces sexual offending by 75 per cent. Some of the 10 men targeted by the legislation had previously refused to enrol in the program. Others had started it, but then dropped out.
[Ed: The English-speaking world continues to lead the pack of sex hysterics worldwide!]

Britain Seeks to Ban Pedophiles From Social Network Sites

LONDON (AP) -- The British government wants to ban convicted pedophiles from using social networking Web sites such as Facebook, the Home Office said Friday.

The plan involves forcing sex offenders to give any e-mail address they use to police, who will then ask the Web sites to block their access, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said.

Smith said the proposal is aimed at sending out the message that the Internet is ''not a no-go area when it comes to law enforcement.''

''We are changing the law ... so that we have got better control over the way in which child sex offenders are able to use the Internet,'' Smith said on GMTV.

The government wants to prevent pedophiles from using social networking Web sites to groom children to be sexual abuse victims, according to the Home Office.

Under the proposed legislation, it would be a crime punishable by up to five years in prison for a convicted child sex offender to use an e-mail address that has not been registered with police, a Home Office spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

However, the government acknowledges it has yet to work out the details of how the plan would work.

The proposal faces many hurdles, including the fact that anyone can instantly create a new e-mail address online and that Facebook, MySpace and most other popular social networking sites are based outside Britain.

In addition to the new proposal, British police already have a range of means to monitor and assess the threat convicted sex offenders pose over the Internet, including obtaining warrants to search convicted pedophiles' home to make a risk assessment, the spokesman said.

The legislation is expected to be put before parliament by the end of the year and will apply to the more than 30,000 sex offenders already on the register as well as any new convictions, the Home Office said. [Ed: Further evidence, as if more is needed, that the United Kingdom is going down the road of hysteria-fueled fascism. See the story below about British vigilantism.]

Sex offender magician disappears

SURREY ADVERTISER (U.K.)

A POPULAR children’s entertainer, who was exposed as a sex offender this week, has fled after his Leatherhead home was trashed by vigilantes.

Kevin Hart, whose stage name is Billy Wand, was arrested by Surrey Police last year after pornographic images of children were found on his computer – for which he was punished with just a caution.

This week, locals took the law into their own hands and vandalised the 49-year-old’s Kingston Road home, smashing his windows with rocks and spray-painting the word “Paedo” in red over his front door and on the side of the house.

Mr Hart, who appeared at the TV programme Blue Peter’s 40th birthday celebration and was signed up to help with the Government’s Sure Start scheme for children under five, was nowhere to be seen this week.

In the past he has worked at events across Surrey as a children’s entertainer and magician and even performed his famous Punch and Judy show in front of dozens of children at Wotton Village fete in August last year – just a month before his arrest.

Police officers raided his home and seized his computer in September after tracking him down though his credit card details.

A Surrey Police spokesman said: “A 49-year-old man from Leatherhead was arrested on September 5, 2007, on suspicion of making indecent images of children.

"On Friday, October 12, 2007, he was cautioned and placed on the sex offenders’ register for two years.

“Taking into account his previous record and the number of pictures found, the CPS found it appropriate to give a caution in this case.”

He would not comment on the number or seriousness of the images found.

The police force would not comment directly about the attack on the magician’s home this week but said its Public Protection Risk Management Unit (PPRMU) was looking into the case as a whole.

A spokesman added: “Surrey Police works with the Probation Service, Prison Service and other agencies under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) to manage the risk posed to the public by sexual and violent offenders who have been rel-eased from prison on licence or are registered sex offenders.

“We cannot discuss the circumstances of individual cases but every person subject to MAPPA receives a full risk assessment, which takes into account the perceived risk to local people and the views of the community."

[Ed: In the midst of a witchhunt even greater in scale than that underway in the U.S., comes this tale from our English neighbors that serves as an additional, chiliing, confirmation of the obvious purposes to which "public shaming" and public registries are being put. It would seem the level of hysteria in the U.K. has overtaken all reason and that the mobs may now give full expression to their most vile instincts. But the U.S. is not far behind...]

Patient's killing shocks state hospital

Already under pressure to make reforms, the Atascadero facility is now dealing with the death of Lawrence Paul Rael. Another patient has been charged with murder.

By Lee Romney
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 4, 2008

ATASCADERO, CALIF. -- — When Lawrence Paul Rael was involuntarily committed to Atascadero State Hospital 10 years ago, his parents considered the placement appropriate.

Born prematurely and with a severe hearing loss, Rael had been in and out of mental health facilities from the time he was a child, with a tentative diagnosis of autism. At 18, he molested two boys and was sent to prison and then to Atascadero.

"We were comfortable with the fact that he was somewhere where he was watched," said Rael's father, Lorenzo, of Rancho Cucamonga. "He was supposedly in a hospital. We thought at least that he wouldn't get hurt."

But early Sunday morning, the slight 37-year-old man was found dead in his bed with a towel around his neck -- the victim of the first homicide in the Central Coast facility's 54-year history.

On Thursday, fellow patient Richard Earl McKee, 44, was arraigned in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court on one count of murder in Rael's death and one count of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with an attack on another patient.

The death of Rael, who was well-liked by patients and staff, has deeply shaken the hospital. For the last two years, Atascadero has struggled to transform its approach to patient care under a federal consent judgment that mandated sweeping changes.

The judgment applies to four of the five state mental hospitals and requires them to address issues of patient safety, over-medication and excessive use of restraints. It also calls for changes aimed at more thoroughly involving patients in their own recovery.

In the midst of the transition, Atascadero -- like the state's other mental hospitals -- has had to contend with an exodus of experienced staff members to higher-paying prison jobs. An emergency move to raise salaries has eased recruiting woes in recent months but has brought an influx of staff members inexperienced with the criminal mentally ill who populate Atascadero.

The hospital treats a volatile mix of patients, with hardened predators often housed with more vulnerable residents.

Staff members have repeatedly complained that pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce the use of restraints and antipsychotic medications has contributed to an increase in assaults by patients.

"We can't even protect our patients and that's our job," one psychiatric technician said, adding that one resident greases his face to deflect punches and pads his body by dressing in several shirts and pairs of pants. "They can't exactly get well when they're constantly in fear."

Meanwhile, staff members contend that increased paperwork requirements have detracted from time spent building the kind of relationships with patients that can defuse violence.

The hospital's executive director, Jon DeMorales, called the death "devastating" and said the hospital is planning a "top to bottom analysis" to find ways to enhance patient safety.

He said the hospital is considering patient-operated bedroom door locks that could protect them from predators while they sleep, surveillance video cameras, enhanced training and supervision for novice staff, and night-vision goggles to aid in rounds.

"Our mission is evaluation, treatment and protection," DeMorales said, "and in that last regard we failed."

DeMorales acknowledged an increase in patient violence on the evening shift in recent months and said administrators were studying the causes. Though the transition to a system of more rigorous documentation has been hard on the staff, DeMorales said, he called it the best path to improved patient care and denied that it had detracted from relationship building.

Convicted of molesting two girls, McKee arrived from prison at Atascadero in 2005, categorized as a "mentally disordered offender," meaning he had a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia that contributed directly to his criminal behavior. Court records show that when he stopped his medication in prison he had become hostile.

Last year, a hospital spokesman said, his status was changed to "sexually violent predator." Patients said McKee developed a reputation for abusively threatening patients who he believed to be child molesters or homosexuals.

He was bounced from unit to unit -- housed mostly with other sex offenders, who generally do not suffer from the types of severe mental illness that require intensive psychiatric care.

Last month, McKee lost a legal appeal challenging his confinement, records show. He became increasingly distraught, abusive and paranoid, patients said.

"A lot of guys had expressed concern about him," said Bill Langhorne, 51, a fellow patient with McKee and Rael on Atascadero's Unit 22. "He was talking to himself, making threats, pacing up and down, making lists."

On Saturday, Rael stayed up past midnight watching a vampire movie in the unit's "dayroom" and quietly playing his Game Boy, Langhorne said. About 3 a.m., a staff member heard screams and found McKee assaulting another patient in his bed. McKee was placed in seclusion. But it was not until shortly before 8 a.m. that Rael's battered body was discovered in his room.

DeMorales said logs show that staff members conducted mandatory patient checks every 20 minutes. However, Rael's attorney, San Bernardino deputy public defender Jeff Lowry, questioned how they could have failed to notice Rael's body. More thorough patient checks were in order given McKee's assault on the other patient, he said.

"Staff totally dropped the ball," said a distraught Lowry, who described Rael as "a really nice kid" who had been nicknamed "Shaky" because of a neurological tremor.

Patients and staff described Rael as "kind," "mild-mannered" and "benign." He loved science-fiction and Stephen King novels, his father said, and hospital records show that he tithed a portion of his meager monthly earnings from his canteen job to a North Carolina televangelist.

"He was everybody's kid brother. He was everybody's nephew," said Ron Barrett, 53, a convicted sex offender who was at Atascadero with Rael until February. "I miss that boy so much already. My heart is broken."

ACLU challenges new sex offender law

By Jon Murray
jon.murray@indystar.com

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit today challenging a new provision of the state sex offender law that will require those who register to agree to searches of their computers.

Passed earlier this year by the Indiana General Assembly, Senate Bill 258, which takes effect July 1, addresses several issues related to sex offenders. One is that when a sex offender begins probation, parole or enrolls in the state's sex offender registry, they must sign a consent form agreeing to searches of computers or Internet-enabled devices at any time. Also, they must agree to install software that monitors Internet usage at their own expense.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, says placing the restriction on sex offenders who aren't in probation or still on parole violates the U.S. Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Sex offenders generally must register for 10 years after their release from prison, though some must register for life.

"It seems to be, in our estimation, a pretty clear violation of the fourth amendment when you're not on parole or probation," said Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana's legal director.

The ACLU is not challenging the requirement to consent to computer searches as a condition of parole or probation. The lawsuit names the prosecutors and sheriffs of every Indiana county and the Indianapolis mayor, since they are responsible for maintaining the registry and prosecuting violations.

It filed the suit on behalf of a Marion County man using the name "John Doe" and a Scott County man, Steven Morris, 41, who has convictions for child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor. Both are required to register for life as sex offenders and have concerns about the privacy of financial and business information on their computers, the suit says.

Sex offender arrested after being seen by parent at Edwardsville school carnival

BY BRIAN BRUEGGEMANN
News-Democrat

A parent suspected that a man attending an Edwardsville school carnival might be a registered sex offender. So the parent left the event, found the man's picture on an Internet registry, and called police, officials said Tuesday.

The parent's actions resulted in Madison County prosecutors on Tuesday charging Michael E. Cox, 40, of East Alton, with unlawful presence in a school zone by a sex offender.

Cox was arrested at 8:50 p.m. Tuesday at his residence, and remains jailed on $20,000 bail. The charge is a felony and carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

School and law-enforcement authorities said Cox attended the Woodland Elementary School carnival Friday with a girlfriend, who has children there. The parent who recognized Cox as possibly being a registered sex offender approached Cox's girlfriend about the matter, Superintendent Ed Hightower said.

By the time the parent had called police, Cox and his girlfriend had left the carnival.

State law prohibits registered sex offenders from being on or near school grounds. But Hightower said school personnel have no way of knowing whether someone attending a school event is a sex offender.

"This individual understands the rules. He shouldn't have been there," Hightower said.

In February 2006, Cox was sentenced to two years in prison for fondling himself in the presence of a minor at an Alton pool.

[Ed: The "Felony" with which this man is being charged dramatically illustrates the sea change which has turned American jurisprudence on its head in recent years, to wit: Acts committed by those thrown into one group of society are now considered, and prosecuted, as "criminal" while others within society are allowed to freely exercise that act as a right".

We have turned a corner: Beware! ]

Murdered ASH patient worried about alleged killer who just lost major court appeal

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

The man suspected of strangling a fellow Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) patient to death with a towel over the weekend was on the losing end of an important, recent California Fourth District Court of Appeal decision upholding the constitutionality of Proposition 83, the so-called Jessica’s Law.

Also, hospital officials reportedly ignored at least a week of repeated warnings from patients about violent and threatening behavior by the man, Richard Earl McKee, now held on suspicion in the slaying of Lawrence Paul “Shaky” Rael late Saturday or early Sunday. And the victim’s father told several patients he was initially informed by hospital officials that his son “had hanged himself.”

Rael, found in his bed Sunday morning by hospital employees, was killed sometime after 10:30 p.m. Saturday, after he talked on the telephone to another patient and was said to have expressed his increasing fear of McKee.

A second victim, Raymond Chester, was injured in the attack and was discovered unconscious in his own bed after suffering damage to his limbs and ribs, according to witnesses. No further report on his condition was immediately available.

The murder and assault occurred as a federal judge in another case was demanding ASH officials show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court in the aftermath of a finding that two employees violated the civil rights of a patient.

According to a woman who answered the phone at ASH, no spokesperson would be available to talk to media on Monday regarding any issue because it is a state holiday, Caesar Chavez Day. She additionally declined to identify, or to put UncoveredSLO.com in touch with, the hospital’s on-call medical director for comment.

Suspect McKee until recently was considered by the California Department of Mental Health to be a mentally disordered offender (MDO). As such, he would by law be separated from other patients in the facility not similarly designated. But in mid-March, McKee was reclassified for inclusion in the sexually violent predator (SVP) program and became, in hospital lexicon, a dual-confinement patient.

McKee, 35, originally imprisoned for lewd acts on children, had sought to be released from state custody by claiming he was not dangerous to the public. McKee argued that provisions of Proposition 83, the so-called Jessica’s Law, were inadequate to insure that only those persons with a diagnosed, current mental illness -- one making them dangerous to the public -- could continue to be confined.

The Court of Appeal decision confirmed McKee’s involuntary commitment at ASH March 21.

Immediately after that court decision, McKee was placed in Unit 22 at ASH, and others in the SVP program said they began to inform staff that McKee was bullying and threatening people in the unit, and becoming increasingly aggressive and violent. Their claims went unheeded, according to one patient, Peter Tolls.

Rael talked on the telephone to his friend, fellow patient Ron “Bear” Barrett, according to Tolls, at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, sounding upbeat on the one hand but also expressing fear of McKee.

In a prior case involving a similar failure to protect a patient, a federal judge ruled that two ASH employees violated one patient’s civil rights and ordered the pair to pay $1,000 to that SVP patient. The judge now wants to know why the ASH employees have not yet done so.

U.S. Central District Judge S. James Sotero ruled in December that employees Melissa A. Roper and Michael C. Groom were found to have made “a substantial departure from professional judgment, practice and standards” and thus were responsible for injuries suffered by patient Theodric Van Smith in assaults on him by other two patients.

ASH officials in that case also had been repeatedly warned, by patients, staff and state and federal law enforcement agencies that Smith might become a target of attack for his testimony against two Pelican Bay State Prison guards. Peggy Phaklides, a litigation manager for ASH, said in January the hospital is considering appealing Smith’s civil judgment.

To catch a sex offender in schools; Over-Priced Government Program Launched to Forestall the Abduction of THOUSANDS of Kids From Schools Each Year

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Rock Hill schools have a new system in place to keep unwanted visitors away from students. All 25 schools in district three of York County can check a person’s name against a national sex offender database.

“For a number of years we wanted to have a system in place where we would know who’s in our school and for what purpose,” said Elaine Baker, school district spokesperson.

As technology advances, signing in on a piece of paper wasn’t enough. Now, school visitors have to type their name on a computer.

"If their name shows up and they're not at the school for a good reason, than they have no reason to be there and we quietly say bye, bye,” Baker said.

South Carolina lists 265 registered sex offenders in Rock Hill.

WCNC put the new school security system to the test by using the name of a local sex offender to sign in at Sullivan Middle School.

Instead of printing out a visitor’s badge, a school employee asked to see a picture ID. She wanted to compare the ID with photos of sex offenders that appeared on her computer screen.
"Your last name popped up on our system,” said the school worker.

The district knows the system is not perfect. They're supposed to ask for a picture ID anyway if they don't recognize you.

A parent at Sullivan Middle School was identified as a sex offender. That parent only has access to his child while being escorted.
[Ed: Again, ask yourselves this question: when was the last time that you heard of a sex offender abducting a child from a school? This is a "solution" in search of a problem!]

Indiana law requires sex offenders to register e-mail, screen names

Bill expands current requirements

A law signed one week ago today by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels aims to make the Internet safer for children.

The law, Senate Bill 258, bans sex offenders from using social-networking sites, instant-messaging programs or chat rooms that the offender knows includes children. The law also requires offenders to register their e-mail and user names with the state each year and makes it a Class D felony if they don’t.

“These e-mail addresses are what’s going to be important when law enforcement authorities are doing investigations related to social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace,” Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said March 24 during an appearance in Indianapolis to discuss recently-enacted legislation. Carter also visited Fort Wayne, South Bend, Evansville and West Lafayette to tout the new law.

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, approximately one in seven young people between the ages of 10 and 17 experience a sexual solicitation or approach while online.

“We know kids reside on those social networking sites, so we’re going to stop that,” Carter said. “It will create a safer environment.”

The new law expands current registration requirements for the state of Indiana. Presently, sex offenders residing, working or studying in the state must register with the local Sheriff’s office within 72 hours after arriving in that jurisdiction. Offenders must re-register any time they experience a change of address, employment or location of study. Detailed information about all sex offenders registered in the state of Indiana is available online at www.insor.org.

The registry has been available since January 1, 2003, and was enacted as part of Zachary’s Law, named for Zachary Snider of Cloverdale. Snider was murdered by a convicted sex offender in 1993 when he was 10 years old. According to the Indiana Sheriffs’ Sex and Violent Offender Registry Web site, the purpose of the registry is “to inform the general public about the identity, location, and appearance of sex and violent offenders who live, work, or study in Indiana.”

Carter said the explosive growth in Internet usage in recent years made the increased registration requirements necessary.

“Our laws need to change with our technical advances,” he said.

Rep. Shelli VanDenburgh, D-Crown Point, co-sponsored the legislation with Carter. She said expanding current laws to monitor offenders’ Internet usage is an important step towards preventing future crimes.

“Children are extremely vulnerable in these situations,” VanDenburgh said. “It is our responsibility to protect them from those looking to cause harm. Web sites like MySpace are prime breeding grounds for sexual predators to contact children.”

Carter said MySpace is cooperating with the new law, which will take effect July 1.
[Ed: When addressing the question of A.G. Steve Carter's, Shelli VanDenburgh's, and Governor Daniels' intelligence/character, we can arrive at either of several conclusions:
A) They are deeply ignorant, both of the reality of sex offenses, their recurrence, their prevention, their "threat level" relative to other crimes as well as with the simplicity and ease of technological workarounds to laws which mandate the reporting of email addresses and the proscription against social networking (and having much in common with policies implemented in countries like China, North Korea, and Burma).
B) They are cynical and manipulative politicians who pander to the most ignorant of their constituents without regard to either the truth or to essential civil liberties, knowing that the main effect of their law will be to truly victimize society as a whole. They are, quite possibly, evil.
C) They are both of these things and in roughly the same proportion. ]

Sex Offender Murdered At Atascadero State Hospital This Morning

Court takes sex predator's home

U.S. District Court approved forfeiture of Brian R. Gillingham's house to federal government.

By Doug Page

Staff Writer

Thursday, March 20, 2008

ENGLEWOOD — Chances are sexual predator Brian R. Gillingham won't be returning to Englewood after serving his 11-year sentence for gross sexual imposition of a 6-year-old boy.

Last month, the U.S. District Court approved the forfeiture of Gillingham's house to the federal government.

"I believe this was the proper outcome," assistant U.S. Attorney

Pamela Stanek said. In arguing for the forfeiture, Stanek said, Gillingham needed the privacy of his house to commit crimes, including child pornography.

"We frequently use the federal forfeiture laws in child pornography cases to take the instruments of the crime — computers, printers, video cameras," she said. "But this is the first time we've taken a house."

Gillingham, 41, was convicted in 2004 of the sex charge, plus seven counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor and one of possession of criminal tools — the computer.

He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and labeled a sexual predator. It was not his first prison term. In 1995, Gillingham was sentenced to three years in prison on federal child porn charges.

The forfeiture brought some relief to Englewood officers.

"He can't come back to our neighborhood," said Mark Brownfield, the city's police chief.

Sgt. Mike Lang, who was the lead investigator in the case, called Gillingham a "monster given the forethought and planning that went into satisfying his depraved sexual fetish."

"He has other houses in other

jurisdictions," Brownfield said. "Hopefully, he won't be back to Englewood."

Gillingham's house on Park Vista has no liens and is assessed at $140,830, according to the Montgomery County auditor.

The city hopes to get the majority of the proceeds from the sale of the house.

According to the auditor's Web site, Gillingham owns another house on Meadow Side Lane in Sugarcreek Twp.

Police break net pedophile ring

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/web/police-break-net-pedophile-ring/2008/03/22/1206206971557.html#

Police break net pedophile ring
Frank Walker | March 23, 2008

AUSTRALIAN police have played a leading role in smashing an international pedophile internet network.

More than 22 pedophiles who thought their super encryption code was unbreakable have been arrested in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Police around the world are using a new high-tech program - Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) - that links millions of files on child abusers. It was developed on the orders of billionaire Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and given to Australian police this month.

Australian Federal Police High Tech Crime Centre director James McCormack said police were getting on top of the internet criminals.

"It is a war being fought on many fronts. They do have very sophisticated means to hide their crimes but we are also using more and more sophisticated techniques and we are now having great success in this area," he said.

"I am very confident we are going from strength to strength in beating these people in the high-tech war."

In recent weeks:

? NSW police made their first arrest using a new law that makes it a crime to "groom" children for sex over the internet.

? NSW and Queensland police swooped on 24 people after a tip-off from the FBI they had been paying for access to internet child porn.

? Queensland police were key in breaking an international cabal of pedophiles known as "The Group", who were so secretive they were regarded as untouchable in the murky world of internet crime.

The breakthrough came after a tip from New Zealand police, who spotted heavily encrypted images being flashed to Australia. Queensland police then set up Operation Achilles. (See graphic).

With Australian police now adding CETS to their high-tech arsenal they will be more able to track peoples who click on to child-sex sites.

"The internet is no longer an anonymous place. The trade in these images is estimated to be up to $20billion. We are finding more and more of it but that may be because we are getting better at tracking it," Mr McCormack said.

AFP agent Melissa Northam is one of those trackers. "We have seen all facets of abuse, stuff we didn't even realise was possible. It is extremely traumatising in what we see but we know these children are relying on us to rescue them and we are their only hope.

"We get a lot of psychological help and it is tough. But seeing those images makes us more determined to catch these people and free the children from their abusers."

fwalker@sunherald.com.au
Operation Achilles

1 New Zealand police discover secret internet trade in heavily encrypted child pornography.

2 New Zealand investigators find a link to Australia.

3 Queensland detectives penetrate pedophile network "The Group".

4 They intercept European-made child-porn videos and notify Interpol, France.

5 Interpol sets up operation with police in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

6 Australian police identify two abused girls, later rescued. Belgian police arrest their father.

7 Police arrest an Italian filmmaker, who shot films to order.

8 Police trace 2500 customers in 19 countries. Nine people in Australia arrested; 48 targeted.

9 US joins forces with Australian undercover officer who penetrated The Group.

10 Arrest of 22 core members in the US, Canada, Germany and Britain. Arrest of 100 people who paid for images.

11 Two people arrested in Australia - in Queensland and Victoria.

Conversing with children causes arrest of Folsom man

By Roger Phelps The Telegraph

After an El Dorado Hills mom reported observing a strange man speaking with her two children at each of three children's-story events, deputies arrested the man at his Folsom home.

Victor Emmer, 49, was arrested March 13 on suspicion of loitering where children gather.

"It's an odd charge," said sheriff's Sgt. Jim Byers, noting the statute intends chiefly to protect school-grounds neighborhoods. "The family was at the Folsom Borders Books story-telling time, where he (spoke to one of the children), and for lack of a better term, he creeped the mom out. Then, a few days later at the

El Dorado Hills Library story time, she saw him again striking up conversation with her children. And then, he does it again. We felt it justified a criminal complaint, she signed it and he was arrested."

The case appears unrelated to recent report of unwelcome advances to children in the area by a middle-aged man driving a dark-colored van or SUV, Byers said.

When investigators heard a low bail amount set for Emmer, they explained to a judge that they believed it was too low. Now bail in the case is set at $100,000, and Emmer has bailed out of custody, Byers said.

Investigators want to hear about any similar incidents, he said.

“He is not a registered sex offender in Folsom or California and we have not found any information to indicate he has any prior offenses,” said Lt. Sheldon Sterling of the Folsom Police Department.

[Ed: Okay so... this guy talks to children in a public setting and, because of that and because a mother thought him to be "creepy", he is arrested and given a $100,000 bail? Did I hear this correctly? When did "loitering where children gather" become a crime? Apparently, it's a felony, and a rather serious one that warrants a high bail. Did you know about this?]

Molestation case against music teacher dropped

San Francisco Chronicle

(03-24) 18:03 PDT LAFAYETTE -- Contra Costa County prosecutors dropped child-molestation charges Monday against a Lafayette music teacher who had been accused of assaulting three teenage boys, after a judge ruled that an investigator in the case had shown a "reckless disregard for the truth."

Prosecutors dropped the case against James Toland, 63, after Superior Court Judge John Sugiyama granted a defense motion to throw out evidence obtained under a warrant to search Toland's computers.

Sugiyama agreed with the defense that the Contra Costa sheriff's investigator had made misstatements and omissions in asking a judge to approve the search warrant.

The investigator reported that one of the alleged victims, a 15-year-old boy who took singing lessons from Toland, said the teacher had "grabbed his penis and buttocks and moved it around," said Ellen Leonida, an attorney for Toland.

But Toland had simply touched the boy's lower back and abdomen to adjust his posture, a standard technique in voice lessons, Leonida said. The boy was offended by Toland's actions, but the sheriff's investigator warped his statement with a false assertion that the teacher had touched the boy's genitals, the defense attorney said.

Prosecutors contend that the boy did report being molested, saying the incident was separate from being touched on the back or stomach.

Authorities said two other teenage boys had alleged that Toland molested them. Toland has taught choir and other music programs at Campolindo High School in Moraga, Acalanes High School in Lafayette and Miramonte High School in Orinda.

"We are, of course, gratified that the case has been dismissed, although the damage already done to Jim's reputation may be irreparable," Leonida said. "From the beginning, I have been confident of Jim Toland's innocence, and I sincerely hope that he can now put this painful chapter of his life behind him." [Ed: The public's respect for the veracity of law enforcement or, for that matter, the press is ill-deserved. This is one case where a judge had the integrity to reject police and D.A.'s attempts to railroad a defendant but there are many, many more defendants who have been wrongly accused and imprisoned for decades and for whom there was no justice.]

John Stossel: Politicians and Sex: Grandstanding Hyprocrisy

Are Politicians Really Protecting Us?
Opinion by JOHN STOSSEL

Mar. 20, 2008 —

When New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was caught using a prostitution service, the irony was that he was a tough-on-prostitution politician. He took pride in locking up the same kind of people he is said to have done $80,000 worth of business with. He supported "tougher laws" to imprison customers like him.

In his statement to the news media, Spitzer called the scandal a "private matter." Good point. Adults' paying for sex ought to be a private matter, but when Spitzer was attorney general, he didn't consider paid sex private. He's one of many politicians who were eager to punish others for doing what he did.

What's going on here? Maybe these men want to punish others for acting on the same forbidden impulses they know they can't control themselves?

Former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida was a big advocate of punishing any adult who had sex with minors. "They're sick people; they need mental health counseling," he shouted.

But then ABC News caught Foley sending sexual instant messages to minors.

Politicians should cut back on their grandstanding, says Arizona public defender Chris Phillis, because while it's bad enough to call what consenting adults do "sex crimes," it's even worse to criminalize kids who do what kids have always done.

Phillis, who defends teens accused of sex crimes, says common sexual experimentation is now prosecuted. "If a 15-year-old touches a 13-year-old, touches their breasts, they are now guilty of a felony crime. And I would love to tell you that 13-year-olds aren't engaging in this conduct. I have a 13-year-old. But telling you that isn't going to change the fact."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 25 percent of America's 15-year-olds say they've have had sex. Nearly 40 percent of 16-year-olds and almost half the 17-year-olds say they have. All are under Arizona's age of consent, which prompted Senate committee chairwoman Karen Johnson to try to change Arizona's sex-offender laws. She wanted to give kids a break.

But the political winds are not on her side. Few politicians want to spend political capital weakening sex-crime laws -- even when such laws have horrendous unintended consequences.

Arizona's Speaker of the House Jim Weiers defends Arizona's tough laws, saying that if you are a sex offender, "Arizona is becoming very quickly known as a state you don't want to stay in." But Weiers acknowledges that Arizona's sex-offender registry has 15,000 names on it.

I asked him how putting young people who engaged in noncoercive sex play on Arizona's registry protects the public. "I don't know if it does. ... You can't take each and every individual & "

But it is individuals whose lives are wrecked by these laws. When Garrett Daley was 14, his 9-year-old adopted sister, Devon, said he molested her. Their mom called the police.

It turned out Devon had lied. It was she who initiated sex with Garrett. She later told the police, but they didn't believe her. Today, seven years later, prosecutors still won't let her change her testimony.

To avoid a jail sentence, Garrett plea-bargained to "attempted molestation of a child." What choice do these kids have? "They're told they'll go to jail for 90 years or 50 years or something, unless they accept this plea, and the plea almost always requires lifetime sex-offender registry," Johnson says.

Garrett didn't realize his plea bargain would put him in a different kind of jail. Once you're on the sex offender registry or on probation, your life is wrecked, public defender Phillis told "20/20."

"They can't go anywhere children frequent. So that's McDonald's, that's Jack in the Box. ... They've actually been told if you go to a movie and another child walks in, even if it's a R-rated movie, then you're to get up and leave."

I told Weiers about the public defender's comments. "The public defenders say all laws go too far," Weirs replied.

Give me a break. State sex-offender registries could separate consensual teen sex from pedophiles who prey on 5-year-olds. Minnesota does that.

Too often, American criminal law is a blunt instrument designed to make it look as if politicians are protecting us. I think the politicians usually protect themselves, at our expense.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
[Ed: John Stossel is virtually alone amongst t.v. journalists willing to report honestly (and bravely) on the sex hysteria sweeping our country today]

DPS to post Texas sex offenders' job data

[Ed: Yes, you read that correctly. Now the sex offender registry website in Texas will include the place of employment of registered sex offenders. Imagine the implications...]

By TRACI SHURLEYStar-Telegram staff writerThis year, visitors to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Web site can find out where the state's registered sex offenders are working and can sign up for a notification system for their home ZIP code.The changes, which resulted from a $1.2 million software upgrade, will be welcomed by some North Texans.
In Mansfield, members of one neighborhood group that recently organized around concerns about where sex offenders live say they're glad to get any information they can. Sex offender employment information will help residents keep tabs on those they consider dangerous, said Steve Kyle, a Mansfield father of two who helped organize a recent meeting about a registered sex offender in his neighborhood.
"The guy comes and goes at very odd hours," Kyle said. "In our community, we'd at least be able to know if he's working, and if we knew where he was working, it might give you some indication of when he would be coming and going."
The changes
About 47,000 registered sex offenders live in Texas. Their names, birth dates, addresses, physical descriptions including shoe size and limited information about the conviction for which they are required to register is available on the DPS Web site, said Tela Mange, an agency spokeswoman.
The upgrade came about in part because of federal regulations related to the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, Mange said. That act requires states to comply with a number of disclosure rules by 2010 or risk losing some federal funds. The new features also reflect Attorney General Greg Abbott's opinions about what information should be available to the public.
Twice in February 2007, Abbott issued opinions that law enforcement agencies should release sex offenders' employment information.
Besides work information and e-mail notifications, the new system will also allow people to search for a full listing of sex offenders in their ZIP code. The software doesn't now allow generation of a ZIP code list of more than 100 names, Mange said.
Restrictions in place
Registered sex offenders can be restricted in where they live and work as long as they are on parole or probation.
But those restrictions don't continue after an offender successfully completes supervision.
As a result, many Tarrant County communities, including Arlington, Southlake, Watauga and Richland Hills, have adopted ordinances in the past few years to limit where sex offenders can live, typically more than 1,000 feet from schools or other places where children gather.
In Mansfield, the subject of sex offender residency restrictions has been discussed among city leaders for several months and played a large role in the resignation of the mayor this year. Now, in part because of concerns from Kyle's community, the issue is once again on the City Council's agenda.
Mansfield's Web site has its own listing of sex offenders with a link to the state database. Residents can also sign up for computerized RSS alerts that notify them of any new or changed registration in the city.
Kyle said he didn't know about the city's notification system until after a man convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl moved into his Walnut Creek Valley neighborhood.
Now, he said, parents in the neighborhood are cautioning their children more than ever and keeping an eye on their new neighbor. Giving the public more information about offenders would make that easier, he said.
Caution offered
Shari Julian, who teaches in Texas Wesleyan University's criminal justice and sociology department, said she worries that the workplace information could result in "collateral damage" by creating dangerous situations for businesses that have chosen to give a registered sex offender a second chance.
Julian said she's not justifying sex offenders' crimes. But, she said, the state needs to do a better job of separating classes of offenders if authorities are going to continue making more information available about their lives and adding more restrictions.
"We have to figure out who got on there because somebody's dad was ticked off because their 16-year-old daughter was seeing a guy who just turned 20 and they ended up getting married and having kids," Julian said.
Sgt. Cheryl Johnson, who oversees the Fort Worth Police Department's sex crimes, registration, apprehension and monitoring unit, said the addition of work addresses to the registry will be helpful to the public. But she cautions that people need to remember that not every sexual predator can be found by looking on the registry Web site.
"I'm just as concerned about the sex offenders we don't know about as I am the ones that are registered with us," Johnson said.
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
PROPOSED MANSFIELD ORDINANCE
The Mansfield City Council is scheduled tonight to consider regulations that would apply to registered sex offenders who were convicted of crimes against children younger than 16. Offenders who have completed their probation or parole are not now limited in where they can live. The first of three required votes and the first of two public hearings are set for the 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 1200 E. Broad St.
The proposal would:
Prohibit offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, playground, youth center, public swimming pool or video arcade.
Forbid renting a house or trailer to an offender not allowed to live within a 1,000-foot safety zone.
Require police to mail alerts to neighborhoods when an offender moves nearby. Police would also notify the school district.
Fine an offender up to $500 for each day of a violation.
In the know
Texas Department of Public Safety Web site: www.txdps.state.tx.us

Kansas Lawmakers clash over sex offender policy

Costly program keeps inmates for treatment

By Scott Rothschild

March 23, 2008

Program’s escalating price tag

The costs for the Sexual Predator Treatment Program:

Fiscal year 2003 — $2.4 million

Fiscal year 2004 — $4.5 million

Fiscal year 2005 — $7.8 million

Fiscal year 2006 — $9.5 million

Fiscal year 2007 — $11.5 million

Fiscal year 2008 (present) — $13.4 million

Source: Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services and Governor’s Budget Report.

Sexual predator treatment program

• Judge: State hospital retaliated against complaining patients (06-11-07)
• New trial ordered in sexual predator case (04-01-06)
• Sexual predator program may be shelved (02-06-06)
• Senate nears approval of bill imposing harsher penalties on sex offenders (01-27-06)

Topeka — Kansas’ controversial program that indefinitely holds sexual offenders past their prison sentence continues to produce friction among lawmakers.

Last week, a move to require an audit of the program was defeated by legislators who said the request was a threat to public safety and jobs.

“The program works,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg. “It protects the public, and it provides economic development for Larned.”

State Rep. Eber Phelps, D-Hays, said many of the employees of the Kansas Sexual Predator Treatment Program are from the Greensburg area and were set back from last year’s tornado that devastated the town.

“I don’t think we need to put them through this type of anguish and have them worry about whether they are going to have their job,” he said.

[Ed: Did these guys just say that? They admit to it? Incredible! Obviously, the economy of "Larned" and Greensburg and government jobs for the marginally employable is more important than the Constitutional rights of the men locked up in an ersatz treatment program!]

But some lawmakers believe the program, which is on the grounds of Larned State Hospital, has shortfalls.

Program history

The program provides treatment for convicted sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences and have been civilly committed under the law because they have been deemed a continuing threat to the community. The law was prompted by the 1993 rape and murder of a Pittsburg State University student by a sex offender who had been released from prison seven months earlier.

The law was challenged up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on a 5-4 vote ruled that the program was constitutional.

But the costs of the program continue to increase while some legislators are doubtful that the treatment received by the offenders is doing much good.

In recent weeks, lawmakers have approved $1.3 million in supplemental funding for staffing and operations at both the program at Larned State Hospital and transitional housing for patients at Osawatomie.

The proposed budget for the sexual predator treatment program for the present fiscal year is $13.4 million to treat 171 patients. That is five times more than the program cost in 2003.

State Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, who chairs a budget subcommittee that oversees the program, said since the program’s start in 1994, two have graduated through the various phases of treatment and been released.

That’s not very effective, he said.

“Let’s look at the program and see how we can actually affect the treatment of these folks,” he said.

Mark Brull, who has been committed to the sexual predator program since 1999, said the program is a waste of taxpayer’s money.

Brull said he would rather serve time in prison, which is about one-third the expense of the program.

He said the treatment program fails to advance patients toward re-entering the community, such as allowing patients to go to work under supervision. He said he is prohibited from talking about his current problems, but must constantly re-hash his past.

“All we do is sit here all day and talk about deviancy,” he said.

‘Backed-up system’

Tim Burch, another patient in the program, said the treatment has good things to offer but that there needs to be a better way to assess who should enter the program and who should graduate from it.

“You could put ankle bracelets on a lot of them and let them out so they could work, and everyone benefits,” he said, referring to devices sometimes used to keep track of suspects and offenders.

“You have such a backed-up system,” he said of the program. “The people who could benefit from the program can’t get into it, and the people who shouldn’t be in the program can’t get out.”

But Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, defends the program.

SRS, Jordan said, “has implemented a rigorous treatment and evaluation system to assure each person committed in this program remain in treatment until a court determines he is able to safely return home without posing a risk to his family, neighbors or community at large.”

Kan. lawmakers reject audit of sex offender treatment program

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Some legislators say the state program that indefinitely holds sexual offenders doesn't seem to be effective, while others say the treatment is working.

Lawmakers last week rejected an effort to require an audit of the program at Larned State Hospital.

Opponents said the move would threaten public safety and the jobs of the program's employees.

But Representative Bob Bethell, a Republican from Alden, says that since the program started in 1994 only two people have finish the various phases of treatment and been released. [Ed: Oh, but don't you see, Bob? That's the SUCCESS part! These laws were enacted as a "work-around" to the Constitution, enabling government to imprison these guys (and they are almost always "guys") for the rest of their lives or, at least, until they are so old and infirm that they become too expensive for the State to keep. The whole IDEA is to EMPHASIZE TREATMENT as a way of justifying "civil" incarceration while laughing at those so gullible as to believe that treatment is their real aim!]

Under Kansas law, sex offenders who have finished their prison sentences can be kept in the program at Larned State Hospital if they are determined to be a continuing threat to the community.

But costs of the program have increased. The proposed budget for the sexual predator treatment program for this year is $13.4 million to treat 171 patients.