Committed sex offenders climb roof with nooses to protest confinement conditions
A three-and-a-half-hour standoff at a psychiatric facility for sex offenders who have already served their prison sentences ended without incident Monday when the two men who had climbed onto a roof with nooses around their necks climbed down and shook hands with police and officials.
The standoff at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation, which began around 11:30 a.m., ended just before 3 p.m. when police brought in ladders and the offenders took off their nooses and climbed down. The men were not immediately arrested but were assessed by medical personnel, Virginia State Police Sgt. Thomas Molnar said.
Offenders at the facility told The Associated Press the men climbed a fence to get to the awning, which is connected to the main building and is about 15 feet off the ground. The men had fashioned nooses from bed sheets and tied them to a building support, demanding to speak to a state official about conditions at the facility. The protest could be seen from a nearby highway….
[S]everal residents of the facility identified them as William Dewey and Victor Johnson. Dewey has complained to the AP about his treatment at the facility on several occasions. “Nobody wants to listen to us anymore,” said offender Timothy East, one of several to report the standoff. “There’s no voice here. Some people are taking drastic measures to make their voice be heard.”
In calls and letters to the AP, Dewey and other offenders have complained about an increase in security. The nearly 300 offenders were sent to the facility after serving their prison sentences. The U.S. Supreme Court has said such civil commitment programs are constitutional as long as the offenders are there for treatment, not further punishment.
The offenders argue their privileges, such as outside recreation and property allowances, continue to be cut back while security increases. “It’s too much of a prison mentality here,” East said. “When they start going back to prison mentality that means we’ll go back to it, too, and they’re not going to like it.”
Gordon Harris, another offender at the center, said he was in art class when everyone started running toward the yard where the standoff was taking place. He said many residents are upset over the restrictions and the lack of treatment. “There is no treatment here,” he said. While two state inspector general reports in 2007 and 2008 were highly critical of the amount of treatment offenders received, that has increased in recent years.