Sex offender to be released in Eau Claire

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9-29-16 Wisconsin:

The Eau Claire Police Department has been notified that convicted sex offender Christopher J. Seeley will be released from the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center on Friday, and he will be living at a residence in the 3100 block of Delbert Road.

According to information released by Deputy Police Chief Matt Rokus:

Seeley was convicted in Eau Claire County of third-degree sexual assault in 1999 and the same offense in 2005. He was initially sentenced to prison for the 2005 conviction, and in 2008, Seeley was committed to the custody of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and incarcerated at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center.

On Sept. 21, an Eau Claire County judge ordered that Seeley be released from Sand Ridge. Since this release order, members of the Eau Claire Police Department have been working with Wisconsin Department of Corrections staff on the parameters of Seeley's release and notifying community members.

Seeley is required to submit to lifetime GPS monitoring and comply with all requirements of a lifetime registrant of Wisconsin's Sex Offender Registration Program. ..Source.. by Leader Telegram

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MSOP considers Kasota Township four-plex for sex offender reintegration

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9-28-16 Minnesota:

The Minnesota Department of Human Services confirmed Tuesday its interest in developing a housing site in the St. Peter area for future placement of Minnesota Sex Offender Program clients.

State officials would not confirm the exact location of the site under consideration, but through several sources the Herald has learned the property currently being considered by DHS is a four-plex on Hwy. 99 in Kasota Township, just east of the city of St. Peter.

“The Minnesota Sex Offender Program is in the early stages of developing a placement in the St. Peter area for clients who the courts have decided are ready for provisional discharge,” according to an official DHS email regarding the situation, which was briefly addressed at Tuesday’s Le Sueur County Board meeting when adjacent property owners Tom and Jennifer Letts asked for time on the agenda.

“On Sept. 15, MSOP met with local leaders to talk about plans to develop the new site,” according to DHS officials. “We are looking at having four clients live at the site, which would be staffed by MSOP 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because we are currently negotiating for the site, we cannot confirm the location.”

State prosecutors oppose release of Walla Walla sex offender

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9-27-16 Washington:

Prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s Sexually Violent Predator Unit are appearing in Walla Walla County Superior Court opposing the conditional release of convicted sex offender Justin Mackey.

In June 2008, a Walla Walla jury found Mackey, now 36, to be a sexually violent predator and he was civilly committed to the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. His criminal sexual history includes convictions in 1993 for three counts of first-degree rape of a child.

Mackey now wants conditional release as a less restrictive alternative to confinement in the secure commitment center.

In order to grant release to a less restrictive alternative, it must be determined that the release is in the best interest of Mackey and that conditions can be imposed that will adequately protect the community in which he’s placed.

The trial began Thursday and is expected to continue another week or so.

Back to square one in finding home for Fresno child molester

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9-27-16 California:

Child molester Jeffrey Snyder, who is locked up in Coalinga State Hospital, isn’t getting out anytime soon.

Judge Gary Hoff, who ruled in March that Snyder should be released from the hospital, learned Tuesday that owners of 292 properties have rejected renting housing to Snyder.

The hearing in Fresno Superior Court comes in the wake of dozens of residents protesting the placement of Snyder in a five-bedroom, two-story home on La Paz Avenue in northwest Fresno. Residents said the home was not suitable for Snyder because it was near a school and park.

The protest prompted the owner and state Department of Hospitals to pull its application of the La Paz Avenue home, prosecutor Richard Thomas said.

Hoff said he has received 73 letters from residents opposing the placement of the 61-year-old Snyder in the La Paz Avenue home. A vast majority of the letter writers told the judge that many children live in the neighborhood and they feared Snyder would re-offend.

Sex Offenders Sue Over Iowa's Civil Commitment Program

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9-22-16 Iowa:

Nine men who were convicted of sex crimes, served their prison sentences and are now indefinitely confined to an Iowa mental health unit have filed a federal lawsuit against the state, claiming its civil commitment program is unconstitutional because it fails to offer adequate counseling and other services that would rehabilitate them enough for release.

The lawsuit, filed in September 2012 in federal court in Cedar Rapids, again highlights the difficult balance states must strike between keeping dangerous sexual predators off the streets and not violating their constitutional rights by imprisoning them longer than their court-mandated sentences. The men claim Iowa's five-phase program is undue punishment and inhumane treatment.

More than 5,000 people are believed to be civilly committed in such programs in 20 states and by the federal Bureau of Prisons. In the last year, federal judges in Minnesota and Missouri have ordered changes to those states' programs after finding them unconstitutional due to inadequate rehabilitation and proper assessment of risk of reoffending. A similar challenge in North Dakota is likely to go to trial next year.

In Iowa, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett rejected the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March, using "Hotel California" lyrics in his 50-page ruling to describe Iowa's Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders program: "You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!"

Exclusive look inside the home of the state's most sexually violent offenders: Part 2

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CLICK to Play Video

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Full article: Exclusive look inside the home of the state's most sexually violent offenders 6-5-16

By the numbers

87,575 registered sex offenders in Texas

215 sexually violent predators living at the Littlefield facility, located about a mile from the high school

157 sexually violent predators living in prison

5 sexually violent predators living in their community; 2 in Fort Worth, 2 in Houston and 1 in Austin

65 percent of those civilly committed have convictions against just minors

16 percent of those civilly committed have convictions against adults only

19 percent of those civilly committed have convictions against both adults and minors

0.002 percent of registered sex offenders are civilly committed

20 states have civil commitment programs for sex offenders

Source: Texas Civil Commitment Office, Texas Department of Public Safety

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Exclusive look inside the home of the state's most sexually violent offenders

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6-4-16 Texas:

LITTLEFIELD — The walls of a long, white hallway are mostly bare, except for a few motivational posters and artwork.

A small fixture with the words “prayer box” written on it is attached to one of the concrete walls — the state’s most sexually violent predators asked for it.

Inside the facility — a once abandoned Bill Clayton Detention Center (see multiple pics top of article HERE) that stood vacant for six years — the men sign in and sign out as they move from one room to another so staff can verify their location during the nine head counts that take place through the day. They’re not allowed to get jobs within the community and any contact with people outside the facility’s walls must be approved.

There are 215 men housed in Texas’ Civil Commitment Center for Sexually Violent Predators, which the state opened in Littlefield last September after overhauling its previously unsuccessful program. In 2014, the program was subject to several lawsuits claiming inadequate treatment and punitive conditions. A state audit also determined the director and senior staff worked out of their homes with a severely mismanaged budget.

“There was nothing we were doing right in managing money. There was no checks and balances on anything,” said Marsha McLane, executive director of the state program. “That part of it is behind us. There’s always going to be mistakes and people are going to mess things up, but we have a budget director now.”

In the program’s nearly 17-year history, no one has successfully completed the civil commitment program, despite having already served their prison sentences. Texas’ civil commitment program was instituted in 1999 as an outpatient program, but was reformed last year into a tiered program. If they ever hope to get released, they must successfully complete four tiers of inpatient therapy before they’re promoted to the fifth phase of outpatient therapy.

Sex offender who won new trial to go back to controversial Missouri facility

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9-20-16 Missouri:

ST. LOUIS • A child molester, whose sexually violent predator case caught the attention of a state appeals court, is headed back to a controversial Missouri facility he fought to leave.

Last week, a second Jackson County jury decided that Lester Bradley, 59, is indeed a sexually violent predator and should be left in the care and treatment of the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

That means he’ll be indefinitely committed again as a patient at Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS, which has secure facilities in Fulton and Farmington.

Until recently, amid an ongoing federal class-action lawsuit levied against SORTS and state officials, only a few patients have been conditionally released under strict rules. SORTS patients have already served prison sentences for heinous crimes; they are held in anticipation of what they might do.

Bradley was the subject of an extensive report in the Post-Dispatch about Missouri’s civil commitment process when he first landed at SORTS in 2013. He refused to participate in treatment and claimed he didn’t belong there.

A state appeals court agreed in 2014 that an assessment by a panel of experts should have been allowed as evidence in his first trial. The multidisciplinary panel of mental health and criminal justice professionals had unanimously agreed that Bradley did not meet Missouri’s definition of a sexually violent predator.

MSOP Influence on Sentencing

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9-20-16 Minnesota:

The state of Minnesota is currently in a legal battle over the state sex offender treatment program.

The state is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that the program is unconstitutional. Just last week in an unprecedented move the program announced the release of a 26-year-old from the program without any conditions.

Court documents say Eric Terhaar sexually abused his sisters when he was ten years old.

“I was amazed that they ordered an unconditional discharge because we haven’t seen that at all,” said Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem.

In 2012, Ostrem served on the MSOP Task Force. He says the unconditional release means a lot more work for his office.

“It really causes us to go back and look at some of the cases and people that have been committed and reevaluate under our current standards, should they still be in MSOP,” added Ostrem.

“If the program is unable to do anything for these young people, the future is a life sentence,” added Joe Wieners.

SC project to house sexual predators approved

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9-14-16 South Carolina:

COLUMBIA - A multi-million project that will help South Carolina house up to 500 sexually violent predators received approval Tuesday.

Members of the state’s Joint Bond Review Committee approved the Department of Mental Health’s request to borrow up to $45 million in bonds to cover the cost of constructing two new buildings and renovating three existing ones to house predators who have been committed to the state’s custody.

The predators – child abusers, rapists, serial predators, etc. – have served their time for criminal offenses, but are deemed too “mentally abnormal” and “extremely dangerous” to be released. Instead, they are committed by a judge or a jury civilly to these facilities run by the Department of Mental Health for sex offender treatment. Each resident costs about $85,000 a year to house.

The agency has been outgrowing its two buildings at the Department of Corrections’ Broad River prison complex for years. In 2007, it installed bunk beds to make up for the lack of space. But the agency is on pace to reach its maximum capacity by early 2017.

An infirmary also will be part of the project, so the difficult-to-transport residents no longer have to be taken off the prison complex when they’re sick.

State seeks to commit Waterloo man under sexual predator laws

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9-14-16 Iowa:

WATERLOO – The Iowa Attorney General’s Office is asking the court to commit a Waterloo man to treatment under the state’s sexually violent predator laws.

Michael Allen Gray, 25, served prison time for abusing a 3-year-old boy in 2008. More recently, Gray was sentenced for not telling authorities he was living at a Commercial Street home with a 9-year-old girl, an allegation that came to light when officials received an anonymous call and found footage of Gray holding hands with the girl on a surveillance video, according to court records.

On Monday, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office filed a petition alleging that Gray suffers from a mental abnormality that places him at risk to commit future sex crimes unless he is given treatment. Dr. Jeffrey Davis, a forensic psychologist who reviewed Gray’s documents, noted prior diagnoses that included pedophilia, bipolar disorder, adjustment disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, court records state.

A probable cause hearing is slated for next week in Black Hawk County District Court, and then the matter could be scheduled for trial. If the state is ultimately successful, Gray would be sent to an Iowa Department of Human Services facility for treatment until he is deemed no longer be a risk.

State needs more housing for worst sexual predators, officials say

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9-12-16 South Carolina:

COLUMBIA, SC A $41 million project that will help South Carolina house up to 500 sexually violent predators received approval Tuesday.

Members of the state’s Joint Bond Review Committee approved the Department of Mental Health’s request to borrow up to $45 million in bonds to cover the cost of constructing two new buildings and renovating three existing ones to house predators who have been committed to the state’s custody.

The predators – including child abusers, rapists, serial predators – have served their time for criminal offenses but are deemed too “mentally abnormal” and “extremely dangerous” to be released. Instead, they are committed by a judge or a jury civilly to these facilities run by the Department of Mental Health for sex offender treatment. Each resident costs about $85,000 a year to house.

The agency has been outgrowing its two buildings at the Department of Corrections’ Broad River prison complex for years. In 2007, it installed bunk beds to make up for the lack of space. But the agency is on pace to reach its maximum capacity by early 2017.

Kansas justices consider case of man held years without trial in sex predator treatment case

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9-13-16 Kansas:

In this March 24, 2015 file photo, the Kansas Supreme Court heard arguments. An attorney told the Kansas Supreme Court on Monday the years a man spent behind bars awaiting trial on whether he should be committed to a treatment program for sexually violent predators amounted to "warehousing."

An attorney told the Kansas Supreme Court on Monday the years a man spent behind bars awaiting trial on whether he should be committed to a treatment program for sexually violent predators amounted to “warehousing.”

The court held oral arguments in the case of a Wichita man who a district court found was denied due process after authorities held him in jail for four and a half years without a trial. The man’s incarceration has led to a clash over the state’s commitment law for predators, which sets few firm limits on pre-trial detention.

Individuals committed to the program at Larned State Hospital have little chance of ever leaving. Patients are more likely to die than be released.

Iowa's Cherokee Mental Health Institute weathers system upheaval

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9-12-16 Iowa:

CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP) — More than a year after two of Iowa’s four mental health facilities were closed, the institute in Cherokee is operating similarly to how it had in recent years.

Apprehension had run through Cherokee in 2009, when state officials explored closing one or more of the state’s four mental health institutes. The loss of the northwest Iowa campus would have delivered a $24 million hit to the local economy.

But the facility, which has treated patients for 114 years, survived possible cuts a second time in seven years, the Sioux City Journal reported.

The state in July 2015 closed the mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda. The closings, however, have not resulted in more patients being treated in Cherokee or the other remaining institute, in Independence.

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When the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant facilities were shut down, three patients were transferred to Cherokee.

Cherokee stayed off the state chopping block by having national accreditation, meeting rigorous standards in providing modern care and operating the state’s only civil commitment unit for sex offenders.

McCoy and Turner said there are no plans for the state to close the Cherokee institute. ..Source.. by Omaha World-Herald