[Vision2020] Sexual offense legislation (was News from the Legislature)

Wed Feb 1 14:22:14 PST 2006

Tom, 

Thank you for your good questions.

Unfortunately, I do not have any good answers.  Child sexual abuse is a difficult topic to get most people to discuss rationally, let alone many of those in the conservative Idaho legislature (who seem to have trouble discussing a number of topics rationally).  There is also a paucity of competent research in this area, or at least there was several years ago.

Given the often horrible consequences to the victims and their families, it think it is well worth tracking child sexual abusers by satellite to help prevent further harm, and passing that cost onto the offender whenever possible.

Voluntary castration for male offenders, though controversial, may help.  I simply lack the knowledge of all aspects of this problem to provide insightful, useful answers which have a high probability of working.

There is also the problem of innocent people being convicted.  Two things lead to this:  

1.    False child sexual abuse accusations can arise from conflicts in a relationship, motivations of revenge, a weapon that is used in a child custody dispute, etc.

2.    Over conviction-enthusiastic/poor/non-objective work by some of the so-called sexual specialists who help investigate complaints and prepare them for trial.

>From Boundary County experiences, I believe this to be true.  There is a rather young man now serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for a child sexual abuse crime that I do not believe he committed.  

Before the trial, I thought he was guilty.  But during the trial several things changed my mind:

The complaining witness, a jilted girl friend (and not the mother of the child), was a little too vindictive on the stand despite a lame cross-examination by the defense attorney, the child's mother who denied that any of the alleged acts took place was to me a convincing witness for the defense, the sexual expert was too conviction-pointing-enthusiastic and I thought she perjured herself just by observing her body language and tone of her voice, the sexual expert was only cross-examined perfunctorily, the victim was obviously very carefully coached on what to say and her language did not vary a bit -- it seemed memorized and even then, made without conviction, the defendant was represented by a public defender who obviously didn't prepare for the trial and showed by a number of behaviors that he did not believe in his client.  When a prosecutor can villianize a defendant with impunity, the alleged crime is really repugnant, and the defense attorney disengaged, it is much easier to get a conviction than an acquittal.

I wish there were better answers.  I know that there are intelligent, properly motivated people working in this area, but at this point we don't have a lot to show for it.  Let's hope we soon will.

Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tom Ivie 
To: Art Deco ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sexual offense legislation (was News from the Legislature)

Wayne,
How do you feel about some of the sexual offender measures the legislature is contemplating?  I have heard that there are proposals to require satelite tracking, increasing registration requirements for violent offenders (quarterly for violent, yearly for the others), increasing the registration fee for "regular" offenders to $40 from $10 (keeping violent offenders at the $10 x 4 =$40) and keeping the indigency clause (that is, if offenders can show that they are indigent, the fee is waived), and possibly a bill to limit how close they can live to schools.  There may be others I am not aware of also.

Personally, I think satelite tracking may be very expensive and it is my understanding that the court already can require it as a condition of release for violent offenders.  Whether they do or not is another question. I agree with increasing the registration requirements but I think they should ALL (viol! ent or not) have to register quarterly and pay $25 each time.  That would be enough to pay for the extra manpower to keep track of them, yet it would give more up to date information.  I don't think there should be an indigency clause, period.  Especially at the current rate of $10 a year, they can come up with that without the taxpayer having to foot the bill.  I do think it is a good idea to limit the distance a CHILD sex offender lives to a school or park.  Without the limit, it is like putting me in the middle of a buffet line and telling me I can't eat anything.  It just isn't going to happen!  That may be a bad analogy, but maybe you get my point. -Tom

Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:
  ! Shirley gives us this information from testimony before the legislature:

  "Sexual offenders comprise 19% of the prison population.  There are 33 violent sexual predators in the state.  Mr. Beauclair believes a system should be assessment driven, and there should be a better assessment of those likely to re-offend.  We do not have an effective treatment program for sexual offenders."

  Thank you Shirley for this information (the entire report).  I am not trying to be a smart-ass but how can you identify those likely not to re-offend?

  Times may have changed, but in the 1980s when I was involved with many others in northern Idaho in trying to prevent child sexual abuse and trying to improve the methods by which such abuse was discovered and prosecuted, the was a 93% recidivism rate.  I have followed this problem with some reading and I am unaware of any progress made in identifying those unlikely to reoffend once caught and/or convicted.

  Perhaps, Mr. Beauclair or someone on this list could bring us up-to-date.

  A few years ago one country, Denmark, did reduce the recidivism rate of male child sexual abusers to about 3% by mandatory castration.  However, with the advent a few years later of the testosterone patch, such a method lost some of its effectiveness.

  Child sexual abuse is a horrible problem in itself, one which experts generally agree is under-reported, and one which many times leaves lifelong debilitating scars on its victims' psyches which affects there behavior and ability to enjoy a healthy sex life among other things.  I encourage you to attempt to deal with thi! s problem in such a way that the actual number of incidents can be greatly reduced.

  Respectfully,

  Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
  deco at moscow.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Shirley Ringo 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 4:41 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] News from the Legislature

  Visionaries:

  Today, the Department of Corrections reported to the Joint Appropriations and Finance Committee.  It was an interesting report.  You may be interested in some of the details.  (I apologize for the length.)

   Mr. Beauclair joined other agency heads in expressing concern about his employees.  Low pay is a serious issue.  That, combined with stress of the work contributes to the department's losing 30% of employees each year.  The cost of training a new officer is $10,000.

  Accrued overtime for correction officers in 2005 required comp time of 63,323 hours.  The cost of that comp time is $1,196,000.  At $10,000 per officer for retraining, the cost of losing 275 correctional officers is $2,750,000.

  Sexual offenders comprise 19% of the prison population.  There are 33 violent sexual predators in the state.  Mr. Beauclair believes! a system should be assessment driven, and there should be a better assessment of those likely to re-offend.  We do not have an effective treatment program for sexual offenders.

  The offender population forecast anticipates an average increase of 5.6% a year over the next four years.  That means the incarcerated offender population will increase almost 400 a year over the next four years.

  The Department has attempted creative solutions to growth.  They have triple bunked, used tents, remodeled facilities, added cots, streamlined and shortened sanctions.  We cannot stretch the system further without risking intervention.  By a Federal Court Decision, we have been required to send inmates out of state.  In part, the decision reads, "After reviewing the record in this case, the Court is convinced the IDOC officials would prefer to incarcerate inmates within the parameters of the Eights Amendment standards, but it has continually been denied funding for the tremendous growth in inmate population.  The cost of attorney fees related to this decision was $156,000.

  The cost of sending inmates out of state is $53 per inmate, but there are related costs, such as that of transporting the inmates.  In addition, out of state cont! ractors take model inmates, who suffer from the loss of community connection.

  52% of Idaho inmates say methamphetamine was the primary reason for their incarceration. 

  At least 2000 Idaho inmates are mentally ill. 

  Director Beauclair recommends initiation of the Correctional Alternative Placement Program (CAPP) He requests $1,504,500 to meet financial needs associated with contracting with a private provider who will build, own, and operate a community treatment facility in Idaho.  This would be a 400 bed facility.

  Emerging issues for the Department deal with sex offenders (treatment can impact this group), medical costs (600 inmates have hepatitis C, and there are issues associated with an aging population), and mental health. In California, the federal government has assumed a role in health care.  This could be a costly remedy.

  The Governor's recommendation for the appropriation is $161,926,100.

  There is general agreement that Tom Beauclair is a great manager working under very difficult conditions.  Idaho received a national award for reduced recidivism based on science.  In addition, the number of inmates who complete the GED is up 8%.

  Let me know if you would like more information.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _____________________________________________________
   List services made available by First Step Internet, 
   serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
                 http://www.fsr.net                       
            mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
  /////////////////////////////////////////////////////

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Shirley gives us this information from testimony before the legislature:

  "Sexual offenders comprise 19% of the prison population.  There are 33 violent sexual predators in the state.  Mr. ! Beauclair believes a system should be assessment driven, and there should be a better assessment of those likely to re-offend.  We do not have an effective treatment program for sexual offenders."

  Thank you Shirley for this information (the entire report).  I am not trying to be a smart-ass but how can you identufy those likely not to re-offend?

  Times may have changed, but! in the 1980s when I was involved with many others in trying to prevent child sexual abuse and trying to improve the methods by which such abuse was discovered and prosecuted, the was a 93% recidivism rate.  I have followed this problem with some reading and I am unaware of any progress made in identifying those unlikely to reoffend.

  Perhaps, Mr. Beauclaire or someone on this list could bring us up-to-date.

  A few years ago one country, Denmark, did reduce the recidivism rate of male offenders to about 3% by mandatory castration.  Howver, with the advent a few years later of the testosterone patch, such a method lost some of! its effectiveness.

  Child sexual abuse is a horrible problem in itself, one which experts generally agree is under-reported, and one which many times leaves lifelong debilitating scars on its victims' psyches.  I encourage you to attempt to deal with this problem in such a way that the actual number of incidents can be greatly reduced.

  Respectfully,

  Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
  deco at moscow.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Shirley Ringo 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 4:41 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] News from the Legislature

  Visionaries:

  Today, the Department of Corrections reported to the Joint Appropriations and Finance Committee.  It was an interesting report.  You may be interested in some of the details.  (I apologize for the length.)

   Mr. Beauclair joined other agency heads in expressing concern about his employees.  Low pay is a serious issue.  That, combined with stress of the work contributes to the department's losing 30% of employees each year.  The cost of training a new officer is $10,000.

  Accrued overtime for correction officers in 2005 required comp time of 63,323 hours.  The cost of that comp time is $1,196,000.  At $10,000 per officer for retraining, the cost of losing 275 correctional officers is $2,750,000.

  Sexual offenders comprise 19% of the prison population.  There are 33 violent sexual predators in the state.  Mr. Beauclair believes a system should be assessment driven, and there should be a better assessment of those likely to re-offend.  We do not have an effective treatment program for sexual offenders.

  The offender population forecast anticipates an average increase of 5.6% a year over the next four years.  That means the incarcerated offender population will increase almost 400 a year over the next four years.

  The Department has attempted creative solutions to growth.  They have triple bunked, used tents, remodeled facilities, added cots, streamlined and shortened sanctions.  We cannot stretch the system further without risking intervention.  By a Federal Court Decision, we have been required to send inmates out of state.  In part, the decision reads, "After reviewing the record in this case, the Court is convinced the IDOC officials would prefer to incarcerate inmates within the parameters of the Eights Amendment standards, but it has continually been denied funding for the tremendous growth in inmate population.  The cost of attorney fees related to this decision was $156,000.
  ! 

  The cost of sending inmates out of state is $53 per inmate, but there are related costs, such as that of transporting the inmates.  In addition, out of state contractors take model inmates, who suffer from the loss of community connection.

  52% of Idaho inmates say methamphetamine was the primary reason for their incarceration. 

  At least 2000 Idaho inmates are mentally ill. 
  ! 

  Director Beauclair recommends initiation of the Correctional Alternative Placement Program (CAPP) He requests $1,504,500 to meet financial needs associated with contracting with a private provider who will build, own, and operate a community treatment facility in Idaho.  This would be a 400 bed facility.

  Emerging issues for the Department deal with sex offenders (treatment can impact this group), medical costs (600 inmates have hepatitis C, and there are issues associated with an aging population), and mental health. In California, the federal government has assumed a role in health care.  This could be a costly remedy.

  The Governor's recommendation for the appropriation is $161,926,100.

  There is general agreement that Tom Beauclair is a great manager working under very difficult conditions.  Idaho received a national award for reduced recidivism based on science.  In addition, the number of inmates who complete the GED is up 8%.

  Let me know if you would like more information.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _____________________________________________________
   List services made available by First Step Internet, 
   serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
                 http://www.fsr.net                       
            mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
  /////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  _____________________________________________________
  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. 
  http://www.fsr.net 
  mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
  ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

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