No Place to Go, Forever, Texas Offender Says

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9-11-15 Texas:

HOUSTON (CN) - A Pasadena, Texas law that bans sex offenders from living "within 1,000 feet ... of any neighborhood" is unconstitutional, a man who completed serving his sentence 8 years ago claims in court.

Israel Escobar sued the city of Pasadena on Wednesday in Federal Court.

Pasadena, pop. 133,000, part of greater Houston, is a Hispanic-majority city known for its refineries and strawberry festival. It was named after the California city.

Escobar spent six years in prison after he was convicted of three felonies: attempted sexual assault, sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child.

Texas "civilly committed" him before he finished serving his sentence in October 2007. Texas requires sex offenders in the program to live in halfway houses that are supposed to help them make the transition from prison to becoming productive, job-holding citizens.

"The civil commitment process is designed to provide a safety net for high-risk repeat sex offenders who have a legislatively created diagnosis of a brain amorality that could lead to future sex assaults," according to a Texas Legislature memo.

Texas Law To Update Sex Offender-Civil Commitment Program

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6-18-15 Texas:

Governor Greg Abbott has signed into law a bill to update the Texas sex offender civil-commitment program and clarify when offenders face return to prison.

According to a Texas newspaper, Abbott signed the measure Wednesday.

A federal judge hours earlier declared Minnesota’s sex offender treatment program unconstitutional, amid concerns about the rights of people locked up indefinitely.

The Texas program, started in 1999, also faces challenges to the continued confinement of repeat sex offenders, such as in halfway houses, after they complete prison terms.

Supporters say the new Texas law could help resolve legal and administrative issues.

Offenders will no longer would be criminally punished for minor violations, such as being late for treatment meetings, which landed some back in prison. The offenders would instead face sanctions such as increased confinement.

There are currently some 375 sex offenders in the Texas program, with more than half being kept in county jails and halfway houses in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso and Houston. ..Source.. by CBS DFW.com

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Texas eyes ruling after judge calls Minn. sex offender program unconstitutional

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6-17-15 Texas:

USTIN – A federal court decision declaring Minnesota's civil commitment program for sex offenders unconsitutional could affect the future look of Texas' troubled program, even as reforms await Gov. Greg Abbott's signature.

Texas officials on Wednesday were reviewing the decision saying Minnesota cannot keep civilly committed sex offenders locked up indefinitely, much the way Texas has since 1999. Only one person in Texas' program has been allowed to leave secure lockups in 16 years, and that was not until earlier this year.

In his ruling, closely watched by officials in Texas and other states because of the effect it could have on their civil-commitment programs, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank gave Minnesota officials until Aug. 10 to begin negotiations "to fashion suitable remedies."

Reform of Texas' sex offender program comes up short

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6-15-15 Texas:

Constitutionality, housing questions still not resolved

AUSTIN - A little more than a year after Texas' civil-commitment program for violent sex offenders exploded in scandal over inept administration, questionable treatment and a host of legal issues, sweeping reforms designed to keep the troubled program from being declared unconstitutional by federal courts could take effect as soon as Monday.

While the changes are expected to correct many chronic problems, other critical issues - including how the law affects the men court-ordered into the previous "outpatient" treatment - remain unresolved. The program is designed to keep the state's most dangerous sex predators under close supervision even after they finish their prison sentences.

Officials concede the reforms expected to be signed into law on Monday by Gov. Greg Abbott will not solve a shortage of housing for the 193 men now in the program, plus a dozen more who are slated to arrive by the end of August.

Nor, in approving the new law, did the Legislature provide funding for health care for those in the program, meaning that Harris County and other jurisdictions where the offenders are kept will continue to have to pick up the multimillion-dollar tab.

Additionally, how mentally challenged offenders who stand almost no chance of successfully completing the program can be diverted to hospitals or properly accommodated remains unresolved, as does the question of how courts across Texas will handle the cases that previously had been heard by a single judge in Montgomery County.

Adding to the issues are two convicted sex offenders freed without supervision in recent weeks because courts have been unable to schedule trials to put them into the program, one in Houston and the other in the San Antonio area.

'In-patient' model

With the law slated to take effect immediately upon the governor's signature, officials on Friday said they still were working out the details of the treatment-oriented program, which was originally designed to operate as outpatient. However, over the years those offenders in civil commitment were quietly ordered to live in halfway houses and other jail-like facilities throughout the state, with no one ever being released. In an effort to make the program more constitutionally sound, the state is officially moving to an "in-patient" model in which offenders will be placed in one facility and eventually work their way to freedom.

Is the State’s Sex Offender Program Working?

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3-9-15 Texas:

The state agency responsible for supervising, monitoring and providing treatment for the most violent sex offenders in the state is undergoing some sweeping changes. Among the problems faced by the recently revamped Office of Violent Sex Offender Management: a shortage of housing for sex offenders released from prison and a perception that the state’s civil commitment program is nothing more than a thinly veiled prison sentence (since 2001, of the more than 360 convicted sex offenders ordered into the program after serving their sentences none has completed treatment and been set free). That’s due in part to a restrictive rules violation policy, which has sent more than half of those in the program back to prison despite not committing any actual crimes.

Today, we discuss the restructuring of the state agency, and what may be done to address these policies.

We talk with Jessica Marsh, General Counsel for the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, and Houston-area attorney Nancy Bunin with Habern, O’Neil and Associates. She’s represented several men in the program and questions its constitutionality. ..Podcast.. by Michael Hagerty

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Embattled agency's director hires sex offenders' lawyer

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4-28-2014 Texas:

AUSTIN - The lawyer hired to help the embattled director of the state's Office of Violent Sex Offender Management keep her job has criticized the operation as unconstitutional and, until last week, had been assisting some offenders with the lawsuits against the office and his new client.

Austin attorney Doug Becker told some of those offenders last week that he no longer could help with their "pro se" lawsuits against the agency and its executive director, Allison Taylor, because he had been hired by her to help save her $84,000-a-year job.

Taylor is under fire from lawmakers for her decision to quietly move nearly three dozen high-risk sex offenders into Houston and Austin neighborhoods last month without notifying area residents. She later ordered the Houston men moved back to a Beaumont Highway halfway house that primarily houses parolees.