Fascinating article on realities of sex offender civil commitment
Today’s Virginian-Pilot has this long article discussing the realities of sex offender civil commitment in Virginia. The piece is a must-read for anyone interested in this field. Here are snippets:
They are considered the worst of Virginia’s sexual predators, a community of 61 men deemed so dangerous that even after completing their prison sentences, they remain locked up. A towering, razor-lined fence keeps them in a complex called the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation. Although the facility is classified as a mental institution, it has the look of an isolated prison. In theory, the state hopes to rehabilitate these career child abusers and rapists so that they can be trusted back on the streets. But to date, no one has been freed.
The men are confined indefinitely under Virginia’s four-year-old civil commitment program, which allows chronic sexual predators to be institutionalized after serving their prison sentences. Eighteen other states have similar regiments and the U.S. Supreme Court has declared them constitutional — if it can be proved that the molesters are likely to repeat their crimes, and if they are receiving psychological counseling to learn how to control their deviancies. There is no convincing evidence that therapy changes chronic molesters, particularly pedophiles. Across the nation, only about 5 percent of the 2,700 sex offenders civilly committed since 1990 have been released.
By June, Virginia officials are expecting the population at the Petersburg institution to almost double to 113 sex offenders. The high cost of their therapy will require taxpayers to shell out at least $123,000 a year for each sexual predator — about six times the cost of keeping an inmate in prison. The program is outgrowing its Petersburg home, once a training center for the mentally retarded. The state plans to close the facility early next year and move operations to a $63 million institution being built in Nottoway County near Burkeville solely to house sexual predators. It will hold as many as 300 molesters. Legislators say it could be filled in three years.
Some mental health experts and civil libertarians say the facility is little more than a new form of prison to keep sex offenders locked up for life…. “I’d have to assume the chances are slim and none that anyone will leave the program in Virginia,” said state Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, vice chairman of the state crime commission. Since the Virginia program’s inception, about 2 percent of sex offenders have been sent to civil commitment after serving their prison time. “These are the worst of the worst,” Stolle said. “From that perspective, I think the risk of releasing them outweighs the concerns about their civil liberties. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them.”
Mario Dennis, the facility’s chief psychologist …. who specializes in treating sexual deviancies, said offenders have “a much better lifestyle” in civil commitment than in prison. When not in therapy, residents are allowed to roam the yards and common areas. They are not required to wear uniforms, and they have a library with books and appropriate videos. They are allowed to stay up later at night than they could in prison and rise later in the morning. “There’s more freedom here, and more responsibility,” Dennis said….
Although Dennis acknowledged that many of the men may never be released, he said others have made “substantial progress” and one or two may be nearing a point where he might recommend release if their movement was monitored by GPS. “The goal is, have they learned to manage their risk so they can be safely maintained and employed,” Dennis said.