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.

Washington's center for sexual predators under fire

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11-1-15 Washington:

MCNEIL ISLAND, Wash. The college campus-styled facility tucked inside razor-wire-laced electric fences on a restricted and tightly guarded island in Puget Sound houses some of the most dangerous and feared criminals in Washington state: sexually violent predators.

The 252 Special Commitment Center residents have completed their prison sentences but were sent to the McNeil Island facility after a judge ruled they would likely hurt someone again. To hold them under Washington's sexual-predator civil commitment law, officials must provide sex offender treatment.

The therapy offered most residents, many mental health experts and residents' lawyers say, is inadequate and the "programming" for those with mental illnesses or brain injuries ranges from "negligent" to "malpractice."

An independent inspection team that, under state law produces annual reports on the center, has repeatedly said some units provide "no obvious treatment" and one unit was "more reminiscent of a correctional setting than a treatment facility."

Disability Rights Washington, an advocacy group, has drafted a federal lawsuit claiming the mistreatment of some residents has left them languishing in the center for years, or decades, without a realistic chance of being released, violating their constitutional rights.

Mark Strong, the center's CEO, said they've taken steps to correct some of the problems, but they're constrained by a lack of resources. The Rehabilitation Administration, the agency that oversees the facility, acknowledged the center's shortcomings in its supplemental budget request, which seeks an additional $4.1 million over the next two years. The money would pay for the extra staff needed to change its focus from "safety and security" to individualized treatment and rehabilitation.

Disabled Sex Offender Lawsuit Against Washington State On Hold

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10-2-2015 Washington:

Disability Rights Washington announced Thursday that it will delay the filing of a lawsuit against the state of Washington on behalf of mentally disabled sex offenders on McNeil Island at the request of the state.

The delay will give the two sides time to meet to see if they can find a solution that does not involve litigation.

The pending lawsuit alleges that cognitively impaired residents of Washington’s Special Commitment Center are languishing in “back-wards” of the facility. The Department of Social and Health Services says it has requested money in the next state budget to create new programs to better serve those residents.

The SCC is a treatment facility that houses sexually violent predators who’ve been civilly committed after completing their prison sentences. ..Source.. by Austin Jenkins

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Serial rapist Kevin Coe demands he be freed

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12-30-2013 Washington:

Locked up in McNeil Island sex predator center, ‘South Hill Rapist’ sues state

Notorious Spokane serial rapist Kevin Coe is attempting to sue his way out of a state center for sexual predators.

Acting as his own attorney, Coe, better known as the “South Hill Rapist” filed the lawsuit earlier this month in U.S. District Court. In it, he contends he doesn’t belong at the Special Commitment Center, a McNeil Island facility housing sex criminals who’ve completed their prison terms but are deemed likely to attack again due to mental illness.

Coe, a radio announcer turned serial rapist, was arrested in 1981 and ultimately convicted in three rapes in the Spokane area. He is widely believed to have attacked as many as 32 other women during the late 1970s through the early 1980s, when multiple rapes were committed against women walking alone at night.

Having served a 25-year sentence, Coe was scheduled for release when the state moved to commit him as a sexually violent predator. A jury agreed in 2008 and ordered Coe detained indefinitely. ..Continued..

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