Research review II: Sexual predator controversies

Original Article

Excerpt:
Following up on last week’s research review, here are some new articles from the ever-controversial practice niche of sexually violent predator cases:

FACTS? WHO CARES ABOUT THE FACTS?!

Once a jury is empaneled to decide whether someone with a prior sex offense conviction is so dangerous to the public that he should be civilly detained, the verdict is a foregone conclusion. Dangerousness is presumed based on the prior conviction, rather than having to be proven.

Researchers Nicholas Scurich and Daniel Krauss confirmed this by giving jury-eligible citizens varying degrees of information in a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) case and asking them to vote. Some mock jurors were told only that the person had a prior conviction for a sex offense. Others were also given information that the person had a mental abnormality that made him likely to engage in future acts of sexual aggression.

It mattered not a whit. The mock jurors voted to civilly commit at the same rate, whether or not they had heard evidence of current dangerousness.

“The mere fact that a respondent had been referred for an SVP proceeding was sufficient for a majority of participants to authorize commitment,’ the researchers found. “These findings raise concerns about whether the constitutionally required due process occurs in SVP commitment proceedings.”

No surprise, really. In this practice niche more than others, fear and hype often overshadow reason. Sex offenders are not the most appealing human beings, and no one wants to shoulder the responsibility of voting to release someone who could go out and rape or molest again.

Read the rest of the article

WI - Sex offender awaits second chance

Dianne Hendrickson

Original Article

02/04/2014

By NORA G. HERTEL

Dianne Hendrickson misses her son, who at age 39 has been locked up for more than half his life. He finished his criminal sentence and was committed to the state as a sexually violent person in 2002.

_____ has been confined more than twice as long as his original sentence and is now held for the future risk he poses, not for past crimes.

“I think it’s wrong to take away someone’s freedom for something someone has not done,” said Dianne, who adopted _____, her only child, at birth.

_____ is locked up at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, which holds the state’s committed sexually violent people, under Chapter 980. The 1994 state law allows the state to hold sex offenders with mental disorders in a treatment institution indefinitely after serving time in prison.

During the past two decades, the law has been used to confine about 500 people, most at Sand Ridge. About a third have been released, although the number of former patients on intensive supervision has been rising steadily in recent years. Individuals on supervised release receive ongoing treatment and monitoring.

Neither _____ nor his mother wants to challenge the commitment law. But both believe his crime did not warrant such a punishment and that he has been held over time for his use of marijuana and contraband in the institution rather than for his risk as a sex offender.

“I have never been given the opportunity to regain my place in society,” _____ wrote last summer in a letter to the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Deborah McCulloch, director of Sand Ridge, said many patients feel they do not belong there. Many, she added, could have been released “had they gotten down to business” — that is, successfully progressed in treatment. But she recognizes that treatment is difficult for patients at Sand Ridge.

Staff members expressed confidence that their assessment models work well and that they are based on the most current scientific research. A recent update to the state’s recidivism assessment model is allowing and will continue to allow more Sand Ridge patients to be released.

Risk factors

_____ was convicted in 1994, at age 19, of second-degree sexual assault and other charges. The victim of his primary charge was a woman, a stranger, whom Hendrickson attacked in the summer of 1993.

He was on temporary release from the Marathon County Jail to do community service, and he said in an interview that he had gotten high on homemade methadone. He forced the woman down, while masturbating, and grabbed her breasts and between her legs.

_____ was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by three years on probation. In 2001, he was about to be released under the sentencing laws at the time. As his mandatory sentence came to an end, the state petitioned to have _____ indefinitely committed under the state’s sexually violent persons law. He was moved to Sand Ridge in 2002.

“I committed a crime true enough but I am now being held for something I might do in the future,” _____ wrote in his letter.

_____ has petitioned for discharge three times and brought other legal challenges. He thinks he might have been released by now were it not for breaking rules at Sand Ridge, including use of marijuana and tobacco.

“I seen guys with worse records than me go home,” said _____, pointing out that he has a single violent crime on his record.

He thinks his recidivism risk was overestimated because he was young and inexperienced when he committed the crime.

Factors considered in the evaluation, Sand Ridge officials said, include age and life experience. Long-term employment and intimate relationships improve an offender’s rating, but _____ did not have much of a job or relationship history when he was first imprisoned.

The state’s applications of assessment measures “don’t always apply equally to individuals,” said Robert Peterson, a Racine attorney who has successfully represented Sand Ridge patients in their petitions for release, including four current clients on supervised release in Milwaukee. Hendrickson is not one of his clients.

Some individuals, Peterson said, “can be caught up in situations that aren’t truly indicative of their risk.”

A diverse group

Dianne Hendrickson can sympathize with the judges and juries who agree to commit offenders like her son past the end of their prison terms.

“Everybody rules on the side of caution, and if I didn’t know better, I probably would too,” she said.

But _____ and another Sand Ridge patient interviewed for this article allege that their mental disorder diagnoses, a condition for commitment, only arose when they were preparing to finish their criminal sentences.

When asked about _____’s mental health history, Dianne replied, “he doesn’t have one.”

They both refer to _____’s diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder as contrived.

“I never heard that once in prison,” _____ said about his diagnosis.

Medical records were not available to independently verify these patients’ mental health histories.

Lloyd Sinclair, Sand Ridge’s court assessment and community programs director, said just because a patient never had an official mental disorder diagnosis, it “doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t have” a disorder.

Attorney Peterson said patients who are committed after being sentenced face a double whammy. At trial, they are deemed to be sane and therefore fully responsible for their crimes and sentenced accordingly. But when that sentence comes to an end, they are deemed to have a mental disorder, unable to control their behavior.

“That is a tough pill for a lot of people to swallow,” he said.

Each state can define mental illness for its own statutes. The majority of Sand Ridge patients have personality disorders and paraphilias, atypical sexual desires, including exhibitionism, sadomasochism and pedophilia. About 10 percent have serious mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder.

“A reasonable estimate is more than 80 percent of patients came here with a diagnosis of a serious substance abuse or dependence,” said R. Keith Ramsey, Sand Ridge treatment supervisor.

Sand Ridge director McCulloch cautioned that “no one patient can represent our patient population,” which is “really quite diverse.”

McCulloch said that Sand Ridge has never offered alcohol and drug abuse treatment for patients, only assessment and support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Officials say they are working on starting a treatment program.

“That is a real big issue for me,” Dianne Hendrickson said. “That is something that could have helped _____ and a lot of other guys there.”

“They’ve been talking about adding an AODA (Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse) treatment program there for years,” she added.

Time to go?

_____ is now in phase two of his treatment, out of three offered in the facility. He has taken some correspondence courses and hopes to pursue horticulture when he is released. His mother and friends vouch for him and say he will not reoffend.

Of the first 67 offenders released after being committed, through March 2010, more than 70 percent did not commit additional crimes within three years. Five of these, less than 10 percent, were convicted of sex crimes.
- Even without civil commitment the recidivism for ex-offenders is low, about 5% or less.

Sinclair said there is no doubt that the commitment program has made the state safer.

“Chapter 980 identifies the most likely individuals to reoffend sexually over the course of their lifetimes,” Sinclair said. “And if you incapacitate that number of people, you are taking the highest risk individuals off the streets. Ideally, you’re doing a lot more than incapacitating them. You’re rehabilitating them, you’re treating them.”

_____ believes he has grown as a person at Sand Ridge and looks forward to being released. “I’m doing what’s expected of me and following the rules,” he said.

Dianne Hendrickson is also eager to see her son come home. “I have never prayed or wished for anything more than that.”

OR - Bill proposes life sentences for certain sex offenders

Peter Courtney

Original Article

02/02/2014

By Hannah Hoffman

Some sex offenders could be subject to mandatory life sentences without parole — a sentence currently reserved exclusively for murderers — under a bill introduced by Senate President Peter Courtney.

Senate Bill 1517 wasn’t the product of lobbying by law enforcement, parent groups or the Department of Corrections, Courtney said. It was his idea and bubbled up from an experience he had years ago, serving on former Gov. Barbara Roberts’ task force on child sex abuse.

“It messed me up for a while,” he said. “I learned a lot of lessons from that. There are sex offenders, and then there are predatory sex offenders ... I’m not convinced you can cure what’s going on inside them. I think they’re very, very dangerous.”

The bill applies only to three crimes: first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual penetration, and it targets only those predatory offenders that meet four specific criteria. A jury or judge would have to find that a defendant:

• Was at least 18 years old at the time of the crime;
• Scored “high risk” on a sex offender risk assessment;
• Exhibits a tendency to injure others or target children under 12;
• Presents a serious danger to the public.

The district attorney bringing the charges also would have to find that a defendant meets these criteria before recommendnig this sentence to a jury or judge.

The element of risk plays heavily into the bill.

It is designed to send predatory sex offenders to prison for life before they can hurt more children, Courtney said. Oregon law currently carries harsher punishments for people who have committed multiple crimes.

This bill would allow a life sentence for a first-time offender who appears highly likely to abuse children again.

Craig Prins, executive director of the state’s Criminal Justice Commission, said the sex offender risk assessment that would be used to determine that level of risk is called the “STATIC-99R”, which was created in Canada.

It was designed using a statistical analysis of sex offenders. Researchers mathematically evaluated various criteria to determine how strongly they impact a sex offender’s likelihood of committing another sex crime.

For example, sex offenders who had at least one male victim were statistically more likely to sexually abuse another child, so a male victim will yield a higher score than solely female victims.

“It’s not theory, it’s just math,” he said.
- It's Voodoo and/or Minority Report.

Many sex offenders have a low probability of committing their crimes again, Prins said. “Sex offender” includes everything from a 19-year-old who had sex with a 15-year-old to the most heinous crimes. It’s a broad category, he said, and not every offender is the same.

The risk assessment used in Courtney’s bill uses statistics to weed out the “predatory” offenders — the ones most likely to commit the worst crimes again.
- Well that is the intention, but if history is a lesson, they will just start locking up many who are not a threat, to life in prison, but only time will tell.

“This is a very specific kind of offender, and they’re trying to have a very informed approach to that sentencing,” Prins said.

Courtney said he has yet to find another state with a law that deals so harshly with these crimes, and Prins didn’t know of one either. Oregon does allow a life sentence for some repeat sex offenders, but it isn’t mandatory, and it doesn’t apply to first-time offenders.

Courtney said he doesn’t know if the bill will get a hearing, let alone pass. However, he said it’s an important conversation to have and he believes in his idea.

“I’m not saying other crimes aren’t horrible,” he said. But “it’s very important that we don’t take the chance that they do it again.”

FL - Broward prosecutor to head state sex predator program

Kristin Kanner

Original Article

It's FloriDuh, what do you expect?

10/25/2013

By Sally Kestin

The troubled state program charged with identifying rapists and child molesters too dangerous for society is getting a new boss: a Broward prosecutor who has devoted much of her career to locking up sex offenders.

The appointment Friday of Kristin Kanner to head Florida's Sexually Violent Predator Program (Video) signals a renewed focus on public safety and is the latest in the fallout from a Sun Sentinel investigative series in August.

The newspaper found Florida had failed to stop hundreds of sex offenders from harming again, despite a 1999 law that allows the state to keep predators confined even after their prison sentences end. Lawmakers are now working on a series of reforms to strengthen sex offender laws.
- Sex offender recidivism is low, but that doesn't stop the media from fear-mongering.  Of course some will reoffend, you cannot prevent everything!

Kanner said in an interview that her top priority will be preventing dangerous sex offenders from slipping through and getting out.
- And how will she do this?  No matter how many laws are passed, if a person is intent on committing a new crime, they will, so she will either lock all who wear the sex offender label up for life, just to protect her reputation, or someone at some time, will get out and commit another sexual related crime and basically she will have changed nothing but she will be blamed for it, and we're sure she will "get tougher!"

"I think you have to look at more of them to be able to catch the ones that are flying under the radar,'' she said. "I'm afraid ... there are some people that perhaps should have been picked up that were not.''
- That is obvious!  But when you have so many on the registry, it's also obvious some will slip through the "cracks!"

Esther Jacobo, interim secretary of the Department of Children & Families, tapped Kanner for the job after seeing her testify at two legislative hearings on sex predators in September.

"It was very clear to me she had an understanding of the whole system,'' Jacobo told the Sun Sentinel on Friday. "She can bring that public safety perspective that I think was missing.''

Kanner, 47, joined the Broward State Attorney's Office in 1993 and has spent the past decade in the sex crimes division.

She is the first prosecutor to lead the 14-year-old sex predator program, which has traditionally been run by a psychologist involved in sex offender evaluations. The previous director, Dan Montaldi, resigned in September after the Sun Sentinel questioned his record and his views defending sex offenders' rights.

Under Montaldi, the state recommended confinement for fewer and fewer predators, giving Florida the lowest referral rate of 17 states with similar laws, the newspaper reported.
- So what they are basically saying is they want to lock up more and keep more in civil commitment just so they can have a higher referral rate and "look tough?"  And so, their ultimate goal is finally coming out!

"It's important to return the program back to the intent of the statute ... to keep the most seriously predatory and violent sexual offenders confined,'' Kanner said. "It does seem that it lost its focus.''

Kanner will oversee a team of state psychologists who evaluate about 3,000 sex offender inmates each year to identify predators who warrant continued confinement in a treatment facility. Those cases are referred to prosecutors, who must convince judges or juries in civil trials that the offenders are likely to attack again if released.

As a prosecutor, Kanner handled more than 30 sex predator trials.

"I've had to learn the pitfalls and what the pros and cons of the program are,'' she said. "I'm thrilled to be able to fix some of the things that we've all complained about for years.''

Jacobo said she's directed Kanner to examine the program top to bottom. "I asked her to take a fresh look at how we do everything,'' she said.

Kanner said she wants to widen the state's net of potential predators, an idea her boss supports. "I'd like to see more referrals,'' Jacobo said.

Kanner said one of her first tasks will be to review the criteria the program uses to single out predators. The Sun Sentinel found that screeners limited their searches to only the most egregious offenders such as child molesters with multiple offenses and a pattern of "extensive physical violation.''

"I've prosecuted tons of pedophiles who touched kids only over their clothes. How is that any less predatory?'' Kanner said. "I think if you change your definition, you're going to pick up a lot of people.''
- Does she know the true definition of a pedophile, or is she just assuming all who harm a child sexually is a pedophile?  Sounds like the usual thought mentality to us.

Kanner said she would take a close look at sex offenders still in custody who the program found were not predators to see if any of those decisions should be reversed. The department already began an internal review, reclassifying 16 cases on one day in June.

Another area of concern is what happens to predators once the program flags them. Of more than 1,500 the state has recommended for confinement, nearly half were freed by the courts.

"I would like to see if there is something we can do to shore that number up,'' Kanner said.

Married to a criminal defense lawyer, Kanner will remain in Broward. She starts her new job Nov. 4 at a salary of $98,000 a year.

"It is daunting,'' Kanner said. "There's so much at stake.''