Danger to society: Shouldering the cost of housing sex offenders

2-26-17 New York:

Nushawn Williams had a way with the ladies.

The small-time dealer from Brooklyn, who made his way to Jamestown in the mid-90s, was known for his charm and “big-city” glamour, making friends — and attracting girls — at a host of drug- and booze-infused parties.

Over the course of a year, possibly more, Williams managed to seduce a number of his impressionable clientele, all while hiding an HIV-positive diagnosis.

The revelation, discovered by Chautauqua County health officials, caused a panic in the area, with more than 600 people showing up to the county health department for voluntary HIV testing, according to contemporaneous reports.

At least 13 victims, mostly teenagers, were found to be HIV-positive — the youngest being 13 years old.

Following lawsuit, state says it's ‘getting better' treating sex offenders

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2-23-17 Washington:

MCNEIL ISLAND, Wash. – A lawsuit claiming the state is failing to properly treat mentally ill sex offenders is prompting changes at the state’s Special Commitment Center.

The McNeil Island facility houses 239 convicted sex offenders who, after serving their prison sentences, were deemed too dangerous to be released.

The state allows the continued detainment as long as the residents receive sex offender treatment.

Disability Rights Washington (DRW) sued the state claiming mentally ill residents were not receiving their proper treatment and were being housed in sections of the center that appeared to be more like prisons than treatment centers.

The state settled the lawsuit earlier this month for $246,000, and the Department of Social and Health Services said it is making improvements to how it handles residents with special needs.

“We are working with them to improve our treatment program so those people actually can benefit from the sex offender treatment,” said Special Commitment Center Chief Executive Officer Bill Van Hook.

Sexual Offender Civil Commitment Recidivism "after release"

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July 2015:

Sexual offender civil commitment (SOCC) is predicated on the belief that some offenders will be at continued high risk (in some cases termed “more likely than not”) to commit a new sexual offense if they are not preventively detained and offered treatment designed to lower their risk for recidivism. To be subject to civil commitment, most SOCC statutes require the state to demonstrate that a potential candidate for this measure has (1) a history of engaging in criminal sexual behavior and (2) a “mental abnormality” that, without treatment, would preclude him or her from being able to manage his or her criminal sexual propensities in the community.

At present, very few civil commitment programs have released sufficient numbers of offenders to allow
researchers to study the impact of civil commitment in a meaningful way. Across the 16 SOCC programs
reporting data to the annual survey of the Sexual Offender Civil Commitment Programs Network (Jackson, Travia, & Schneider, 2010), the average number of releases per program was less than 10. One study that provides some insight into the impact of civil commitment on post-release offending examined the reoffense rates of 135 “almost SVPs” (persons who were referred for SOCC, but petitions were not filed with the court) in Washington State (Milloy, 2007). With a uniform followup period of 6 years, 23 percent were convicted of new felony sexual offenses—a rate considerably higher than that found in “routine” samples of sexual offenders. ..Source.. SOMAPI Research Brief (July 2015) page-3

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Law libraries in civil commitment facilities

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1-18-17 Illinois:

Craig Childress, a civil detainee at the Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility, appeals the grant of summary judgment against him in this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 asserting that the facility's program director denied him access to the courts by maintaining a law library that was inadequate and not providing law clerks to help residents file legal claims. We affirm.

Childress, having served his sentence for attempted aggravated sexual assault, is now detained at Rushville as a sexually violent person. See 725 ILCS § 207/40. He filed repeated requests with Rushville staff seeking their help in filing a state habeas corpus petition. The staff told Childress that they could not help him because they were not attorneys and recommended that he contact the courts or an attorney.

Childress then filed a grievance, requesting that Rushville hire law clerks, allow inmates to help each other prepare legal filings, or "make a reasonable alternative available." The grievance examiner met with Childress and stated that Rushville did not have an obligation to hire law clerks to help residents prepare legal documents. Childress contacted the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Circuit Court Clerk of Schuyler County, who both replied that they could not advise or guide him in preparing a habeas corpus petition.

Childress then sued Gregg Scott, the Program Director at Rushville, asserting that the facility had denied him access to the courts. He also sought an injunction compelling the facility to improve the library, hire law clerks, stop "administrative interference" with filings, and provide other "reasonable alternatives."

Scott moved for summary judgment, arguing that Rushville's law library provides adequate resources, that Childress's rights were not violated because any habeas corpus petition he filed would be frivolous, and that he was represented by an attorney for his civil-commitment case. Scott supplemented his motion with an affidavit from Rushville's library technician asserting that the library had resources that Childress could use to file a habeas corpus petition, including on-line access through Westlaw to the Illinois Compiled Statutes, Illinois Administrative Code, and state and federal case law and federal statutes, as well as the Prisoner's Self Help Litigation Manual, Appellate Practice and Procedure (see also PRISONER CIVIL RIGHTS FEDERAL LITIGATION GUIDEBOOK, about ten criminal law and procedure casebooks, and the Illinois Court Rules & Procedure.

DHS: Security Hospital proposals are 'significant need' for state

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2-14-17 Minnesota:

ST. PETER — State officials and Minnesota Security Hospital staff say bonding and staffing proposals before the Legislature need to pass this year to ensure the facility improves staff and patient safety.

"We have really significant unmet needs going forward that are unfinished business left from the Legislature last year that we're hopeful will be funded this year," said Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper.

Piper was in St. Peter Monday to tour the Security Hospital and the nearby Community Competency Restoration Program, a new initiative targeting mental health and substance abuse treatment at the Security Hospital. The hospital treats patients deemed mentally ill or extremely dangerous by the court system.

DHS is once again asking for $70.3 million to complete a renovation and expansion project that would separate the Security Hospital from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. The department also requested $9.3 million to hire 146 additional staff by 2020.

That's less than the DHS request from last year, when state officials asked for $22 million to hire about 360 staff to keep the Security Hospital at comparable staffing levels to other facilities around the U.S.

Judge sides with Placer County, rejects placement of sex predator near Lincoln

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2-9-17 California:

SAN JOSE A Santa Clara Superior Court judge on Tuesday rejected the state’s plan to locate a sexually violent predator near Lincoln after Placer County officials and residents argued the placement would pose a danger to children in the area.

After hearing testimony for several hours Tuesday, Judge Michele McKay McCoy decided that Dariel Shazier cannot live in a home on Kilaga Springs Road. Nearly two dozen Placer residents, as well as a host of county and city officials, appeared at the hearing about 150 miles from where Shazier would have been placed.

Shazier, 50, has no apparent ties to Placer County, and the state has faced difficulty in finding suitable locations for sexually violent predators because of community concerns and laws restricting where sex offenders can live. The case was being heard in Santa Clara County because that’s where he last resided.

McKay McCoy said the Placer County placement was inappropriate. She was concerned about potential problems with GPS and cellphone service in the rural area northeast of Lincoln. She also said she wasn’t persuaded that the state contractor supervising Shazier, Liberty Healthcare, would guarantee the community’s safety based on its track record.

Fire at home planned for sexually violent predator termed suspicious

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1-13-17 California:

Investigators are continuing to seek the cause of a fire in Squaw Valley that destroyed the home proposed for a convicted child molester who has served his sentence.

Cal Fire Capt. Jeremiah Wittwer said the fire that destroyed the home intended for Jeffrey Snyder, 61, is considered “suspicious, but they can’t rule out (an electrical cause) since there was power to the residence.”

Snyder was supposed to be housed in the mobile home at 36188 Sage Lane, near the corner of Sage Lane and Hawthorne avenues.

The mobile home was the second residence proposed in Fresno County for Snyder, a sexually violent predator who remains under the supervision of the Department of State Hospitals. Officials had proposed a home in northwest Fresno, but that idea was scrapped after neighbors complained.

Sex offenders appeal federal ruling on constitutionality of state treatment program

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2-1-17 Minnesota:

Court finding that state treatment is constitutional is flawed, attorney says.

A group of Minnesota sex offenders are appealing a federal court ruling in early January that upheld the constitutionality of the state's sex offender program.

In a petition filed Tuesday, attorneys representing the offenders argue that a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis erred when it overturned a 2015 court ruling out of Minnesota. The Minnesota judge had found that the state's sex offender program violated civil liberties by locking people up indefinitely without regular review.

The attorneys are seeking a rehearing before the full Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

After a six-week trial in 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul declared the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, or MSOP, unconstitutional, citing its low rate of release and the state's failure to conduct regular risk assessments of the roughly 720 offenders confined indefinitely at secure treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter.

Jury sets convicted rapist Terrance Laramie free after civil commitment trial

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2-1-17 Washington:

A jury handed convicted rapist Terrance Laramie another chance at freedom.

The jury unanimously ruled Wednesday that Laramie no longer meets the definition of a sexually violent predator, a label that Laramie willingly accepted years ago as part of a plea deal that put him under state supervision for the rest of his life.

Laramie, 54, cried and hugged his attorneys after the jury set him free for the first time since 2005. It was also the first-ever case in Spokane County where a convicted rapist was released following a civil commitment trial.

“He’s worked very hard to turn his life around,” attorney Marla Polin said. “I think he’ll do really well. For the first time in his life, he has people who love him and support him. That’s a big motivation.”