Friday, August 15, 2008
Throwing Taxpayer Money Away!
Throwing Taxpayer Money Away!
Washington’s infrastructure, State ferries, hiways, schools and other public services are under financial stress or are failing in many areas. Yet, the State continues to throw taxpayer money away on a particular facility and program that is mismanaged, heavily litigated against, deeply corrupt and in violation of both federal and state laws as well as the Constitutional protections afforded American citizens. The S.C.C. is a ‘gulag’ about which the general public knows little or where the public, courts and media are spoon-fed disingenuous justifications for its existence.
Henry Richards, Ph.D., is a psychologist but by any objective measure is certainly not qualified to manage the Special Commitment Center, S.C.C., Washington Department of Social and Health Services, DSHS, on McNeil Island. The proof of this statement resides in a number of facts and factors. Keeping qualified clinical professionals, much less any real ‘professional’ at the S.C.C. is a near impossibility, based not only in the fact that the alleged mental health ‘program’ is not viable, but also on a significant lack found in leadership and management. The overall ‘attitude’ which impacts not only S.C.C. residents, but also S.C.C. staff, flows directly from the Superintendent, i.e. Dr. Henry Richards.
The S.C.C. budget is, in part, carefully hidden in the State General Fund, and exceeds, by conservative estimate, some Fifty (50) Million Taxpayer dollars a year. With an admitted budget in the area of Forty to Forty-Five Million dollars each year, the S.C.C. generally exceeds that budget by at least ten percent. This cost in taxpayer funds does not include the costs imposed upon the State and Courts by multiple and continuous lawsuits against the facility and Dr. Richards, and/or his staff, for violations of Constitutional and statute law, nor does it always include the costs of expensive medical procedures necessary on behalf of an aging S.C.C. population.
For some 280 “civil status’ men and one woman at the S.C.C., and based upon known expenditures of at least Fifty Million taxpayer dollars per year, the annual cost, per ‘civil status resident’ runs about $178, 500.00 more or less as compared to some $28,000 per year for a prison ‘inmate’. S.C.C. staff “turn-over” is high, due in part to a monumental lack of skilled management. S.C.C.’s ‘program’ has been repeatedly adjudged, in both State and federal courts, as inadequate and as not providing professional mental health care, which is one of the reasons given for S.C.C.’s existence.
Factually, the S.C.C. is nothing more than a warehouse, a continuation of a completed prison sentence for individuals who have paid their statutory “debt to society.” Out of the approximately 280 individuals held at the S.C.C., most do not meet the statutory criteria of RCW 71.09, the statute under which the S.C.C. operates. However, the State will tell ‘any lie to justify’ the continued existence of the S.C.C..
Superintendent Richards tells the media and politicians in Olympia that 80% or more of the S.C.C. residents are ‘in treatment’—but, the truth is otherwise and the average, since 1995, of those in ‘treatment’, is less than 20% who regularly attend the ‘whine’ sessions. There is no viable instruction and the ‘program’ has undergone a number of revisions over the years, but has released only one (1) person [in 2007] since 1990 based on the alleged ‘treatment’ program.
The S.C.C. is a monumental failure, an expensive waste of taxpayer funds when the State is in dire need of such funds and it is time this “White Elephant” is removed from the necks of state taxpayers.
Washington’s infrastructure, State ferries, hiways, schools and other public services are under financial stress or are failing in many areas. Yet, the State continues to throw taxpayer money away on a particular facility and program that is mismanaged, heavily litigated against, deeply corrupt and in violation of both federal and state laws as well as the Constitutional protections afforded American citizens. The S.C.C. is a ‘gulag’ about which the general public knows little or where the public, courts and media are spoon-fed disingenuous justifications for its existence.
Henry Richards, Ph.D., is a psychologist but by any objective measure is certainly not qualified to manage the Special Commitment Center, S.C.C., Washington Department of Social and Health Services, DSHS, on McNeil Island. The proof of this statement resides in a number of facts and factors. Keeping qualified clinical professionals, much less any real ‘professional’ at the S.C.C. is a near impossibility, based not only in the fact that the alleged mental health ‘program’ is not viable, but also on a significant lack found in leadership and management. The overall ‘attitude’ which impacts not only S.C.C. residents, but also S.C.C. staff, flows directly from the Superintendent, i.e. Dr. Henry Richards.
The S.C.C. budget is, in part, carefully hidden in the State General Fund, and exceeds, by conservative estimate, some Fifty (50) Million Taxpayer dollars a year. With an admitted budget in the area of Forty to Forty-Five Million dollars each year, the S.C.C. generally exceeds that budget by at least ten percent. This cost in taxpayer funds does not include the costs imposed upon the State and Courts by multiple and continuous lawsuits against the facility and Dr. Richards, and/or his staff, for violations of Constitutional and statute law, nor does it always include the costs of expensive medical procedures necessary on behalf of an aging S.C.C. population.
For some 280 “civil status’ men and one woman at the S.C.C., and based upon known expenditures of at least Fifty Million taxpayer dollars per year, the annual cost, per ‘civil status resident’ runs about $178, 500.00 more or less as compared to some $28,000 per year for a prison ‘inmate’. S.C.C. staff “turn-over” is high, due in part to a monumental lack of skilled management. S.C.C.’s ‘program’ has been repeatedly adjudged, in both State and federal courts, as inadequate and as not providing professional mental health care, which is one of the reasons given for S.C.C.’s existence.
Factually, the S.C.C. is nothing more than a warehouse, a continuation of a completed prison sentence for individuals who have paid their statutory “debt to society.” Out of the approximately 280 individuals held at the S.C.C., most do not meet the statutory criteria of RCW 71.09, the statute under which the S.C.C. operates. However, the State will tell ‘any lie to justify’ the continued existence of the S.C.C..
Superintendent Richards tells the media and politicians in Olympia that 80% or more of the S.C.C. residents are ‘in treatment’—but, the truth is otherwise and the average, since 1995, of those in ‘treatment’, is less than 20% who regularly attend the ‘whine’ sessions. There is no viable instruction and the ‘program’ has undergone a number of revisions over the years, but has released only one (1) person [in 2007] since 1990 based on the alleged ‘treatment’ program.
The S.C.C. is a monumental failure, an expensive waste of taxpayer funds when the State is in dire need of such funds and it is time this “White Elephant” is removed from the necks of state taxpayers.
Why a Duck
Why a Duck
Why a page for the Special Commitment Center you may ask and the answer is clear to most how work there. This is the place where staff, past and present can express, and share their thoughts, feelings, fears, and concerns without fear of retaliation.
So write what you want, enjoy the page, and express yourself without fear.
Why a page for the Special Commitment Center you may ask and the answer is clear to most how work there. This is the place where staff, past and present can express, and share their thoughts, feelings, fears, and concerns without fear of retaliation.
So write what you want, enjoy the page, and express yourself without fear.
Worst of the worst sex offenders
McNEIL ISLAND, Wash.-- The guards have no guns at the state's Special Commitment Center for sexually violent predators -- but the people confined here are the stuff of nightmares.
The "residents" are the worst of the worst of the state's sex offenders: The ones who since 1990 judges and juries deemed too dangerous to risk releasing even after they'd served their entire prison terms.
Instead, they're civilly committed and sent here for psychiatric treatment in a hybrid facility that isn't quite a prison but nonetheless sits behind razor wire fences on an island accessible only by a Department of Corrections ferry. Without it, officials would have no choice but to set these sex offenders free.
John Wayne Thomson -- a three-time rapist now suspected in three murders in Longview, Spokane and California this summer -- was recommended for the center. So was Joseph Duncan, now accused of murder, kidnap and child rape in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Seattle and California. But neither man -- despite predictions they'd rape again -- was considered dangerous enough to merit the Special Commitment Center.
Cowlitz County has, though, sent four men to McNeil Island. Each has a string of horrific crimes to his name, many with details too disturbing to be published.
Joel S. Reimer, 37, and Eric St. John, 27, have been formally committed and have lived at the center for several years.
Douglas A. Alsteen, 40, has been on the island since 2005, and 20-year-old James LaBaum became the fourth Cowlitz County resident there earlier this month. Both men are awaiting commitment trials to determine if they'll permanently join the 249 other men and one woman at McNeil.
Officials say most are unlikely ever to be released, because of the degree of their mental defect and their inability to control their depravity. But a handful eventually may qualify for the graduated community release mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court. The center currently has 12 men in various stages of such conditional release.
Cowlitz County's four center residents
Joel S. Reimer, 37
Sexually violated a 7-year-old boy in 1982 at age 13.
Raped and assaulted a 13-year-old boy at age 16 in 1985 -- just two weeks after being released for the previous crime.
Molested a 12-year-old girl in 1990 at age 21 -- less than a month after being released on the rape charge.
The Longview native was civilly committed to the state's Special Commitment Center in 1992 as the 10th man sent there. He was the first from Cowlitz County. He successfully sued the state, claiming he didn't receive adequate mental health treatment in the original Special Commitment Center. The center was located inside two state prisons before the opening of the current facility on McNeil Island in 2005. Won a $10,000 settlement but not his freedom.
Eric St. John, 27
Raped a 2-year-old Longview girl in 1994 when he was 14.
Molested a 10-year-old Kelso girl during the same time period. Also admitted to additional unreported offenses against children.
Amassed numerous parole violations for having children's clothes, toys, pornography and other items in violation of his sex offender treatment.
Arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in 1998 in Asotin County in Southeast Washington. Also tried repeatedly to volunteer with the Boy Scouts and briefly had a job in a McDonald's playland in Asotin County by concealing his convictions.
Civil commitment papers were filed in 1999 due to the 1998 "recent overt acts" in Asotin County. He was subsequently committed and remains on McNeil Island.
Douglas A. Alsteen, 40
Raped a 10-year-old Kelso girl in 1985 at the age of 19.
Pleaded guilty to attempted rape near Castle Rock in 1990 -- at age 23 -- after threatening a woman with a gun, hitting her and telling her he would rape her. Also pleaded guilty to physically assaulting two other women in Kelso with sexual motivation.
Had "numerous infractions of a sexual nature" while incarcerated, according to court records.
Has been at Special Commitment Center since 2005 awaiting a civil commitment trial that had been scheduled to begin Monday but was postponed until June.
James LaBaum, 20
Sexually violated a wheelchair-bound 14-year-old boy in Longview at the age of 12 in 1999.
Attempted to rape a 7-year-old girl in 2001 at the age of 15.
Has had numerous sexual infractions while incarcerated, including touching other inmates, threatening sexual assault and acting out sexually in front of others, according to court records.
Transferred to McNeil Island on Jan. 15 and awaiting a civil commitment hearing, though he's refused a lawyer and told the judge he wants to be committed.
Source: Civil commitment court records
Until then, officials say keeping the residents on the restricted Puget Sound island keeps everyone safer -- including the residents themselves.
"I can't tell you the prevalence of crimes that would occur if they all were released," said center Superintendent Dr. Henry Richards. "But I do know a large number of crimes are not being committed because the people are here."
Not prisoners, not free
The Special Commitment Center has rows of jagged razor wire, 190 surveillance cameras and metal doors that clang shut with an eerie finality. But state officials are quick to point out that it's not legally considered a prison.
The center is run by the state Department of Social and Human Services -- not the state Department of Corrections. Its security personnel are considered rehabilitation counselors and don't carry guns. Residents wear street clothes, decorate their rooms like college dorms and -- for the most part -- amble at will between their rooms, common areas and even an outside courtyard.
And, unlike prison, none of sex offenders at McNiel have a release date. They remain on the island indefinitely until they're deemed cured. And past history shows most will never be cured.
Officials say the current center -- the latest of several locations -- is designed to augment treatment and to comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings that the center is only legal if it's a legitimate treatment center.
Created by the Legislature in 1989, the center was initially located inside state prisons but had too much of correctional institution feel -- a fact detractors were quick to point out.
Accordingly, it is now housed in a former federal prison renovated in 2005 to resemble a community college campus, complete with units named Cedar, Redwood and Gingko and buildings washed in Northwest hues of salmon, ocher and hunter green.
"We try to provide a lot softer environment than a prison," said Kelly Cunningham, one of the center's operational managers, as men milled around the outside quad, checking their mail, smoking and gossiping. "And we're always struggling with respecting the fact that residents have more rights than inmates but also maintaining safety and security."
The residents' status as patients rather than prisoners grants rights not afforded in prisons.
The two halfway houses -- one on the island and the other in Seattle -- provide even more freedoms, including holding outside jobs and trips to the mall, albeit in the company of around-the-clock escorts and electronic monitoring. Five of the 18 men granted conditional release have been returned to the SCC for program violations -- one is awaiting a hearing -- but none have been known to reoffend.
Residents must establish a history of good conduct in the center, participate in extensive therapy and undergo a battery of tests and evaluations before center officials recommend them for conditional release. They also must go back to court and convince a judge they're safe to be let out.
Still, it's a constant uphill battle to gain public acceptance when any of the center's residents are released, Richards said.
"I think the perception is we should be running it like a prison even though it's not," he said. "So we provide treatment and an opportunity to leave in the face of the reality that society does not want these people to return."
No cooperation, no release
Despite the more open atmosphere officials try to instill at the center, critics such as Vancouver defense attorney James Mayhew maintain treatment behind locked doors is more prison than hospital. And he says keeping the residents here against their will illegally punishes them twice for the same crime.
"The law says civil commitment is indeterminate until they're rehabilitated, treated or whatever word you want to use," said Mayhew, who is defending Alsteen at his Cowlitz County commitment trial. "But it's basically a life sentence."
Some residents agree.
"I'm here for something I might do, not for something I did, and I think that's completely wrong," said Anthony Rushton, a 33-year-old Spokane rapist who has been civilly committed since 1999. "This law was created out of spite."
Rushton raped a child as a juvenile and then, at age 20, raped a 17-year-old girl and attempted to rape an 18-year-old woman in a two week period.
"If this is a treatment center then why has no one ever really graduated (to total freedom)?" asks gray-haired Richard Scott in a well-rehearsed spiel that officials say is delivered to any reporter who tours the facility. The child rapist has been at SCC for three and half years but refuses treatment, calling it a scam. "This is a prison."
Superintendent Richards likens the center -- and it's so-called graduation rate -- to a cardiologist who handles the most life-threatening cases of heart failure.
"If the worst patients aren't talking to their doctor and not taking their medicine, how many do you think would be alive in 10 years?" he asks. "Here we work with the most pathological sex offenders, and many have lawyers telling them not to talk to us. ... We can treat them, but the motivation to participate in treatment is harder won."
He also adds that some residents seem to prefer the safety of the center compared to the risks of reoffending or facing a vengeful public. The targeting and killing of two sex offenders in Bellingham last year rocked many residents, Richards said. (The men killed were not SCC residents).
"After that, a lot of (residents) were saying 'Why should I go back out there?'" Richards said. "So we have to encourage a lot of them that this is not a retirement center."
A land of pedophiles
Many residents scorn treatment altogether -- either to protest the center or because they don't want to confront their own demons.
Center officials say they can't force residents to attend individual or group therapy sessions. Overall, about 50 percent of residents attend treatment. The percentage jumps to 70 percent among those who have been formally committed.
Those awaiting their commitment trials, like Alsteen and LaBaum, often refuse treatment because they fear the total disclosure required in the sessions will hurt their chances in court, said Richards.
Sex offenders "qualify" for civil commitment based on a psychiatrist's finding that they're more than 50 percent likely to reoffend in a violent, predatory manner. They're transferred to McNeil Island at that point, but it's not until a jury rules that they do meet the standard that they're formally committed.
Cowlitz County's four SCC residents were not available for interviews during a tour of the facility. Because of their mental health status and some ongoing legal claims, officials can't require any resident to consent to an interview.
Sex offenders can be treated with behavior-modification therapies, Richards said, but those on McNeil Island have such severe problems that they're far more likely to reoffend. About 62 percent are pedophiles, according to center officials.
Despite the odds against a complete cure, some residents praise the treatment even while chafing at once again being locked away from society.
Rolando Aguilar was the second man sent to the center in 1990 and the first to be officially committed. He admits he'd like to be free and called the center a Nazi concentration camp in a 1993 interview. But Aguilar adds that if he hadn't been made to face his crimes and disorders he would have raped again.
"I could be in here all day feeling pity for myself ... but we also have to look at what we've done and the lives we have destroyed," the 46-year-old said of therapy at the center. He hopes to one day leave the facility, but only when he's sure he'll be safe back in society.
"I don't want to get out just to not be locked up," he said. "And I don't want to create any more victims."
Big-dollar answer
One day the state may no longer need McNeil Island though that day is still decades away.
Public demands to get tough on repeat sex offenders led to the center's creation, and lawmakers also substantially lengthened sentences to keep sex offenders in prison longer. They also created a "two strikes" law for sex crimes in 1996 that carries a mandatory life sentence.
"The two strikes law may eventually reduce our population here," said Steve Williams, the DSHS spokesman for the center.
That would be good news for the state's pocketbook, because the SCC, complete with intensive treatment, 24-hour escorts at its halfway houses and electronic monitoring, doesn't come cheap.
It costs roughly $160,000 annually to house someone at the SCC. At the halfway houses the costs are between $250,000 and $500,000 per man each year. A prison inmate, by comparison, costs the Department of Corrections about $27,000 a year.
The state will be paying those higher costs for years to come because the new sentencing laws aren't retroactive and each year brings a new batch of candidates.
On average, prison officials recommend 26 soon-to-be released inmates annually for civil commitment. Roughly 15 of the recommended prisoners proceed to commitment trials while the remaining 11 are set free because they don't qualify. Of the cases that go to trial, almost all result in a permanent stay on McNeil Island.
"We rarely lose," Todd Bowers, assistant attorney general in the state's Sexually Violent Predators Unit, said this summer. "In 16 years we've lost five cases."
That means statistically that Alsteen and LaBaum are likely to be committed and remain on McNeil Island. Likewise, it's likely Reimer and St. John also won't ever walk free.
"It will be hard for most (residents) to successfully work the programs," Richards said. "These are people with severe disorders."
Rushton, though, would leave tomorrow if he could.
He can't guarantee he'll never rape again, but he said therapy has helped him to control his anger problems and recognize his risk factors. Beyond that, he said a transition back into society should be the next step -- not an indefinite stay on the island.
"I can understand the fear," he said. "But we're also human."
The "residents" are the worst of the worst of the state's sex offenders: The ones who since 1990 judges and juries deemed too dangerous to risk releasing even after they'd served their entire prison terms.
Instead, they're civilly committed and sent here for psychiatric treatment in a hybrid facility that isn't quite a prison but nonetheless sits behind razor wire fences on an island accessible only by a Department of Corrections ferry. Without it, officials would have no choice but to set these sex offenders free.
John Wayne Thomson -- a three-time rapist now suspected in three murders in Longview, Spokane and California this summer -- was recommended for the center. So was Joseph Duncan, now accused of murder, kidnap and child rape in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Seattle and California. But neither man -- despite predictions they'd rape again -- was considered dangerous enough to merit the Special Commitment Center.
Cowlitz County has, though, sent four men to McNeil Island. Each has a string of horrific crimes to his name, many with details too disturbing to be published.
Joel S. Reimer, 37, and Eric St. John, 27, have been formally committed and have lived at the center for several years.
Douglas A. Alsteen, 40, has been on the island since 2005, and 20-year-old James LaBaum became the fourth Cowlitz County resident there earlier this month. Both men are awaiting commitment trials to determine if they'll permanently join the 249 other men and one woman at McNeil.
Officials say most are unlikely ever to be released, because of the degree of their mental defect and their inability to control their depravity. But a handful eventually may qualify for the graduated community release mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court. The center currently has 12 men in various stages of such conditional release.
Cowlitz County's four center residents
Joel S. Reimer, 37
Sexually violated a 7-year-old boy in 1982 at age 13.
Raped and assaulted a 13-year-old boy at age 16 in 1985 -- just two weeks after being released for the previous crime.
Molested a 12-year-old girl in 1990 at age 21 -- less than a month after being released on the rape charge.
The Longview native was civilly committed to the state's Special Commitment Center in 1992 as the 10th man sent there. He was the first from Cowlitz County. He successfully sued the state, claiming he didn't receive adequate mental health treatment in the original Special Commitment Center. The center was located inside two state prisons before the opening of the current facility on McNeil Island in 2005. Won a $10,000 settlement but not his freedom.
Eric St. John, 27
Raped a 2-year-old Longview girl in 1994 when he was 14.
Molested a 10-year-old Kelso girl during the same time period. Also admitted to additional unreported offenses against children.
Amassed numerous parole violations for having children's clothes, toys, pornography and other items in violation of his sex offender treatment.
Arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in 1998 in Asotin County in Southeast Washington. Also tried repeatedly to volunteer with the Boy Scouts and briefly had a job in a McDonald's playland in Asotin County by concealing his convictions.
Civil commitment papers were filed in 1999 due to the 1998 "recent overt acts" in Asotin County. He was subsequently committed and remains on McNeil Island.
Douglas A. Alsteen, 40
Raped a 10-year-old Kelso girl in 1985 at the age of 19.
Pleaded guilty to attempted rape near Castle Rock in 1990 -- at age 23 -- after threatening a woman with a gun, hitting her and telling her he would rape her. Also pleaded guilty to physically assaulting two other women in Kelso with sexual motivation.
Had "numerous infractions of a sexual nature" while incarcerated, according to court records.
Has been at Special Commitment Center since 2005 awaiting a civil commitment trial that had been scheduled to begin Monday but was postponed until June.
James LaBaum, 20
Sexually violated a wheelchair-bound 14-year-old boy in Longview at the age of 12 in 1999.
Attempted to rape a 7-year-old girl in 2001 at the age of 15.
Has had numerous sexual infractions while incarcerated, including touching other inmates, threatening sexual assault and acting out sexually in front of others, according to court records.
Transferred to McNeil Island on Jan. 15 and awaiting a civil commitment hearing, though he's refused a lawyer and told the judge he wants to be committed.
Source: Civil commitment court records
Until then, officials say keeping the residents on the restricted Puget Sound island keeps everyone safer -- including the residents themselves.
"I can't tell you the prevalence of crimes that would occur if they all were released," said center Superintendent Dr. Henry Richards. "But I do know a large number of crimes are not being committed because the people are here."
Not prisoners, not free
The Special Commitment Center has rows of jagged razor wire, 190 surveillance cameras and metal doors that clang shut with an eerie finality. But state officials are quick to point out that it's not legally considered a prison.
The center is run by the state Department of Social and Human Services -- not the state Department of Corrections. Its security personnel are considered rehabilitation counselors and don't carry guns. Residents wear street clothes, decorate their rooms like college dorms and -- for the most part -- amble at will between their rooms, common areas and even an outside courtyard.
And, unlike prison, none of sex offenders at McNiel have a release date. They remain on the island indefinitely until they're deemed cured. And past history shows most will never be cured.
Officials say the current center -- the latest of several locations -- is designed to augment treatment and to comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings that the center is only legal if it's a legitimate treatment center.
Created by the Legislature in 1989, the center was initially located inside state prisons but had too much of correctional institution feel -- a fact detractors were quick to point out.
Accordingly, it is now housed in a former federal prison renovated in 2005 to resemble a community college campus, complete with units named Cedar, Redwood and Gingko and buildings washed in Northwest hues of salmon, ocher and hunter green.
"We try to provide a lot softer environment than a prison," said Kelly Cunningham, one of the center's operational managers, as men milled around the outside quad, checking their mail, smoking and gossiping. "And we're always struggling with respecting the fact that residents have more rights than inmates but also maintaining safety and security."
The residents' status as patients rather than prisoners grants rights not afforded in prisons.
The two halfway houses -- one on the island and the other in Seattle -- provide even more freedoms, including holding outside jobs and trips to the mall, albeit in the company of around-the-clock escorts and electronic monitoring. Five of the 18 men granted conditional release have been returned to the SCC for program violations -- one is awaiting a hearing -- but none have been known to reoffend.
Residents must establish a history of good conduct in the center, participate in extensive therapy and undergo a battery of tests and evaluations before center officials recommend them for conditional release. They also must go back to court and convince a judge they're safe to be let out.
Still, it's a constant uphill battle to gain public acceptance when any of the center's residents are released, Richards said.
"I think the perception is we should be running it like a prison even though it's not," he said. "So we provide treatment and an opportunity to leave in the face of the reality that society does not want these people to return."
No cooperation, no release
Despite the more open atmosphere officials try to instill at the center, critics such as Vancouver defense attorney James Mayhew maintain treatment behind locked doors is more prison than hospital. And he says keeping the residents here against their will illegally punishes them twice for the same crime.
"The law says civil commitment is indeterminate until they're rehabilitated, treated or whatever word you want to use," said Mayhew, who is defending Alsteen at his Cowlitz County commitment trial. "But it's basically a life sentence."
Some residents agree.
"I'm here for something I might do, not for something I did, and I think that's completely wrong," said Anthony Rushton, a 33-year-old Spokane rapist who has been civilly committed since 1999. "This law was created out of spite."
Rushton raped a child as a juvenile and then, at age 20, raped a 17-year-old girl and attempted to rape an 18-year-old woman in a two week period.
"If this is a treatment center then why has no one ever really graduated (to total freedom)?" asks gray-haired Richard Scott in a well-rehearsed spiel that officials say is delivered to any reporter who tours the facility. The child rapist has been at SCC for three and half years but refuses treatment, calling it a scam. "This is a prison."
Superintendent Richards likens the center -- and it's so-called graduation rate -- to a cardiologist who handles the most life-threatening cases of heart failure.
"If the worst patients aren't talking to their doctor and not taking their medicine, how many do you think would be alive in 10 years?" he asks. "Here we work with the most pathological sex offenders, and many have lawyers telling them not to talk to us. ... We can treat them, but the motivation to participate in treatment is harder won."
He also adds that some residents seem to prefer the safety of the center compared to the risks of reoffending or facing a vengeful public. The targeting and killing of two sex offenders in Bellingham last year rocked many residents, Richards said. (The men killed were not SCC residents).
"After that, a lot of (residents) were saying 'Why should I go back out there?'" Richards said. "So we have to encourage a lot of them that this is not a retirement center."
A land of pedophiles
Many residents scorn treatment altogether -- either to protest the center or because they don't want to confront their own demons.
Center officials say they can't force residents to attend individual or group therapy sessions. Overall, about 50 percent of residents attend treatment. The percentage jumps to 70 percent among those who have been formally committed.
Those awaiting their commitment trials, like Alsteen and LaBaum, often refuse treatment because they fear the total disclosure required in the sessions will hurt their chances in court, said Richards.
Sex offenders "qualify" for civil commitment based on a psychiatrist's finding that they're more than 50 percent likely to reoffend in a violent, predatory manner. They're transferred to McNeil Island at that point, but it's not until a jury rules that they do meet the standard that they're formally committed.
Cowlitz County's four SCC residents were not available for interviews during a tour of the facility. Because of their mental health status and some ongoing legal claims, officials can't require any resident to consent to an interview.
Sex offenders can be treated with behavior-modification therapies, Richards said, but those on McNeil Island have such severe problems that they're far more likely to reoffend. About 62 percent are pedophiles, according to center officials.
Despite the odds against a complete cure, some residents praise the treatment even while chafing at once again being locked away from society.
Rolando Aguilar was the second man sent to the center in 1990 and the first to be officially committed. He admits he'd like to be free and called the center a Nazi concentration camp in a 1993 interview. But Aguilar adds that if he hadn't been made to face his crimes and disorders he would have raped again.
"I could be in here all day feeling pity for myself ... but we also have to look at what we've done and the lives we have destroyed," the 46-year-old said of therapy at the center. He hopes to one day leave the facility, but only when he's sure he'll be safe back in society.
"I don't want to get out just to not be locked up," he said. "And I don't want to create any more victims."
Big-dollar answer
One day the state may no longer need McNeil Island though that day is still decades away.
Public demands to get tough on repeat sex offenders led to the center's creation, and lawmakers also substantially lengthened sentences to keep sex offenders in prison longer. They also created a "two strikes" law for sex crimes in 1996 that carries a mandatory life sentence.
"The two strikes law may eventually reduce our population here," said Steve Williams, the DSHS spokesman for the center.
That would be good news for the state's pocketbook, because the SCC, complete with intensive treatment, 24-hour escorts at its halfway houses and electronic monitoring, doesn't come cheap.
It costs roughly $160,000 annually to house someone at the SCC. At the halfway houses the costs are between $250,000 and $500,000 per man each year. A prison inmate, by comparison, costs the Department of Corrections about $27,000 a year.
The state will be paying those higher costs for years to come because the new sentencing laws aren't retroactive and each year brings a new batch of candidates.
On average, prison officials recommend 26 soon-to-be released inmates annually for civil commitment. Roughly 15 of the recommended prisoners proceed to commitment trials while the remaining 11 are set free because they don't qualify. Of the cases that go to trial, almost all result in a permanent stay on McNeil Island.
"We rarely lose," Todd Bowers, assistant attorney general in the state's Sexually Violent Predators Unit, said this summer. "In 16 years we've lost five cases."
That means statistically that Alsteen and LaBaum are likely to be committed and remain on McNeil Island. Likewise, it's likely Reimer and St. John also won't ever walk free.
"It will be hard for most (residents) to successfully work the programs," Richards said. "These are people with severe disorders."
Rushton, though, would leave tomorrow if he could.
He can't guarantee he'll never rape again, but he said therapy has helped him to control his anger problems and recognize his risk factors. Beyond that, he said a transition back into society should be the next step -- not an indefinite stay on the island.
"I can understand the fear," he said. "But we're also human."
Washington State Sex-Offender Policy Criticized
Washington State Sex-Offender Policy Criticized
Listen Now [4 min 49 sec] add to playlist :http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9966118
All Things Considered, May 2, 2007 · Washington state's Supreme Court has ruled that it's permissible to confine sex offenders even after they've served their sentences, as long as they receive mental health treatment that could lead to their release.
A federal court had been monitoring the state's sex-crime confinement program since the 1990s, when allegations arose that the program was used to keep sex offenders off the streets indefinitely.
Listen Now [4 min 49 sec] add to playlist :http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9966118
All Things Considered, May 2, 2007 · Washington state's Supreme Court has ruled that it's permissible to confine sex offenders even after they've served their sentences, as long as they receive mental health treatment that could lead to their release.
A federal court had been monitoring the state's sex-crime confinement program since the 1990s, when allegations arose that the program was used to keep sex offenders off the streets indefinitely.
SCC counselor investigated
Nora Cutshaw had a job for nearly three years watching some of the state’s most violent sex predators during community visits in the Puget Sound area.
She recently resigned as a residential rehabilitation counselor for the state’s Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island.
Now state officials say they would have fired her if she hadn’t resigned first.
They say Cutshaw, 38, didn’t follow established driving routes while supervising a child rapist, brought a revealing photo of herself into a secure male sex offender facility, and violated other policies.
Henry Richards, SCC superintendent, described Cutshaw’s actions in a notification letter he wrote to her a few days after she resigned.
“They were not only completely contrary to your obligation to maintain a therapeutic environment,” Richards wrote, “but also placed yourself and the community at risk.”
Hundreds of pages of investigative records obtained by The News Tribune reveal details from the Cutshaw case and show the potential for rehab staff to cross professional boundaries.
They also shed light on the little-known role McNeil Island’s 25 unarmed counselors play in protecting the public from sex offenders who are preparing to return to society. Five offenders are currently in the escort program.
Cutshaw sometimes took sex offender Casper Ross on his approved visits off the island to see family and to work at concrete and masonry job sites, among other places.
Ross was convicted in 1987 of raping a 12-year-old girl while armed with a knife. He was sent to the Special Commitment Center in 1998. He was in a transitional facility early this year, making plans for release, and was considered by some a low risk to reoffend.
But suspicions were raised April 1 when Cutshaw took Ross to visit his relatives in Lakewood. A city police officer reported that things appeared amiss between Cutshaw and Ross during a routine check of the house.
Lakewood Police Chief Larry Saunders later said there was an “appearance of sexual activity” involving “a very dangerous person.” The state investigation was launched.
Spokesman Steve Williams of the Department of Social and Health Services called this the first serious incident involving escort staff and a resident sex offender from the transition facility, which opened in 2001.
Cutshaw was placed on paid administrative leave and resigned Oct. 22.
Cutshaw’s attorney, Douglas Wyckoff of Olympia, said the accusations of sexual impropriety are unfounded. And in fact, the state investigation didn’t substantiate them.
“It’s been real traumatic for her,” Wyckoff said last week.
ESCORTING SEX OFFENDERS
The Special Commitment Center holds 268 of the state’s most dangerous sex offenders.
Williams said no felony crimes have occurred at the center since it opened 17 years ago; problems have been limited to minor infractions, personality conflicts and small skirmishes. And none of the handful of sex offenders who are allowed to visit the community have reoffended, he said.
There are 25 residential rehabilitation counselors who work at the center to cover all shifts, 24 hours a day. They are trained in escorting resident sex offenders, in their behavior patterns, in self-defense, hostage survival, crisis intervention, record keeping and other job requirements.
All receive FBI background checks. All are unarmed. They can earn up to $40,692 a year.
Some of them help escort sex offenders who have progressed enough to earn permission go off the island daily to jobs, to visit relatives, for treatment or for other reasons.
The trips are spread throughout the region, including Pierce, King, Snohomish, Mason, Thurston, Kitsap and Lewis counties.
Ross was in this transition program and was authorized to visit relatives in Lakewood on April 1.
Cutshaw, his escort that day, didn’t immediately answer the door when a city police officer knocked repeatedly that afternoon. The officer said she and Ross appeared disheveled when he entered the house.
Cutshaw said later that her hair was mussed because she habitually plays with it and that she was fixing her shirt because she was sitting on the couch watching TV while Ross was repairing his cousin’s computer in another room. She said Ross came out of the bathroom after the officer entered the home.
Based on the police report, Chief Saunders asked state authorities to investigate possible violations of state protocol for overseeing sex offenders on community visits.
Cutshaw’s attorney says the accusations were never substantiated, and he points out that she wasn’t charged with anything.
Lakewood police say they stand by the officer’s report.
BREAKING PROTOCOL
Investigators never determined exactly what happened during the Lakewood visit last spring.
What they did find, said Williams of the DSHS, would have been enough to justify Cutshaw’s dismissal.
• Records show that Cutshaw deviated 22 times from planned routes while driving Ross on 10 of his approved community visits in March and April.
Authorities said she didn’t get official approval to make trip changes. They used global positioning technology based on Ross’s ankle bracelet to determine that he made unapproved visits to Federal Way shopping areas, a park, gas stations and fast-food restaurants.
Cutshaw’s union representative told authorities at an October meeting that Cutshaw believed other counselors also deviated from approved trip plans when escorting Ross. Williams said investigators didn’t find evidence of that.
Cutshaw didn’t attend the pre-disciplinary meeting.
• Officials found that Cutshaw brought a color photo of herself wearing a two-piece bathing suit or lingerie into the secure transition facility, records show. Staff members found the photo hidden in Ross’ room.
Cutshaw said later that she didn’t know how Ross got the photo.
“I was shocked,” she said in a deposition. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Cutshaw said she had brought a photo album of wedding cakes to work to show a fellow employee who was planning a wedding. She said the personal photo of her must have been stuck in the back of the album.
Ross told a corrections officer that he took it without Cutshaw’s knowledge after an unnamed staff member let him look at the photo album.
• Authorities said Cutshaw lied on her 2004 state employment application when she stated she had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Western Carolina University. Officials learned that she had attended the university but had no degree.
Cutshaw said she had to drop out of an online program due to the press of work.
Wyckoff, her attorney, said Cutshaw suffers from a disability and couldn’t comment on the investigation at this time. He wouldn’t say if the disability is related to the investigation.
Richards, the commitment center superintendent, said Cutshaw had received instruction in the center’s policies, in maintaining proper boundaries in escorting sex offender residents, and in understanding the risks of overseeing violent sex offenders. He said she “displayed a severe lack of judgment.”
Williams said authorities will use the Cutshaw-Ross findings as a negative example when training counselors to maintain proper boundaries.
THE POLYGRAPH TEST
Meanwhile, Ross has been restricted to McNeil Island, pending a Jan. 17 court hearing.
Ross, now 44, was convicted in Pierce County two decades ago and spent 11 years in prison. He then was ordered to undergo treatment at the Special Commitment Center, where he admitted “having a total of six victims of rape behavior,” records show.
Ross had been in the less-restrictive transitional facility on McNeil Island for four years and had submitted plans to move to Tacoma. He held a steady job for six months.
Cutshaw said in a deposition that Ross never acted inappropriately when she was with him. She said she escorted him more than 10 but fewer than 100 times.
A state community corrections officer said Ross underwent a polygraph test about the April 1 Lakewood visit and gave deceptive responses when asked if he and Cutshaw had sexual contact.
But Ross maintained that he “did not touch that woman,” said the officer, Tela Wilson.
Ross’ attorney, Ann Stenberg, said polygraph technology is suspect, so the findings aren’t definitive.
As for the trip deviations, Stenberg said Ross isn’t responsible for his escort’s driving patterns. But, the attorney said, trip changes to go to the bathroom, have lunch or get gas for the car shouldn’t require reporting.
As for the revealing photograph, Stenberg said such issues are normally dealt with in therapy and aren’t a valid reason to take Ross out of the transitional facility.
But Wilson, the community corrections officer, reported to Pierce County Superior Court that Ross failed to comply with his treatment plan and rules because he had an unapproved photo of Cutshaw found hidden in his room behind a framed photograph of his daughter.
Ross also failed to disclose that he had a second photo of Cutshaw standing outside an amusement park.
Stenberg said the state’s investigation originally focused on the Lakewood visit, but because nothing improper occurred there, officials looked elsewhere and ultimately changed the theory of the case.
“It’s a very shaky state theory,” she said.
Rob Tucker: 253-597-8374
rob.tucker@thenewstribune.com
A residential rehabilitation counselor escort:
• Should have a high school diploma or general education degree.
• Should have two years of experience in caring for mental patients, or equivalent experience and education.
• Helps carry out planned programs for sex offender residents.
• Performs searches and inspections of residents and visitors.
• Assists residents and visitors in understanding regulations.
• Assists in controlling, directing and monitoring residents.
She recently resigned as a residential rehabilitation counselor for the state’s Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island.
Now state officials say they would have fired her if she hadn’t resigned first.
They say Cutshaw, 38, didn’t follow established driving routes while supervising a child rapist, brought a revealing photo of herself into a secure male sex offender facility, and violated other policies.
Henry Richards, SCC superintendent, described Cutshaw’s actions in a notification letter he wrote to her a few days after she resigned.
“They were not only completely contrary to your obligation to maintain a therapeutic environment,” Richards wrote, “but also placed yourself and the community at risk.”
Hundreds of pages of investigative records obtained by The News Tribune reveal details from the Cutshaw case and show the potential for rehab staff to cross professional boundaries.
They also shed light on the little-known role McNeil Island’s 25 unarmed counselors play in protecting the public from sex offenders who are preparing to return to society. Five offenders are currently in the escort program.
Cutshaw sometimes took sex offender Casper Ross on his approved visits off the island to see family and to work at concrete and masonry job sites, among other places.
Ross was convicted in 1987 of raping a 12-year-old girl while armed with a knife. He was sent to the Special Commitment Center in 1998. He was in a transitional facility early this year, making plans for release, and was considered by some a low risk to reoffend.
But suspicions were raised April 1 when Cutshaw took Ross to visit his relatives in Lakewood. A city police officer reported that things appeared amiss between Cutshaw and Ross during a routine check of the house.
Lakewood Police Chief Larry Saunders later said there was an “appearance of sexual activity” involving “a very dangerous person.” The state investigation was launched.
Spokesman Steve Williams of the Department of Social and Health Services called this the first serious incident involving escort staff and a resident sex offender from the transition facility, which opened in 2001.
Cutshaw was placed on paid administrative leave and resigned Oct. 22.
Cutshaw’s attorney, Douglas Wyckoff of Olympia, said the accusations of sexual impropriety are unfounded. And in fact, the state investigation didn’t substantiate them.
“It’s been real traumatic for her,” Wyckoff said last week.
ESCORTING SEX OFFENDERS
The Special Commitment Center holds 268 of the state’s most dangerous sex offenders.
Williams said no felony crimes have occurred at the center since it opened 17 years ago; problems have been limited to minor infractions, personality conflicts and small skirmishes. And none of the handful of sex offenders who are allowed to visit the community have reoffended, he said.
There are 25 residential rehabilitation counselors who work at the center to cover all shifts, 24 hours a day. They are trained in escorting resident sex offenders, in their behavior patterns, in self-defense, hostage survival, crisis intervention, record keeping and other job requirements.
All receive FBI background checks. All are unarmed. They can earn up to $40,692 a year.
Some of them help escort sex offenders who have progressed enough to earn permission go off the island daily to jobs, to visit relatives, for treatment or for other reasons.
The trips are spread throughout the region, including Pierce, King, Snohomish, Mason, Thurston, Kitsap and Lewis counties.
Ross was in this transition program and was authorized to visit relatives in Lakewood on April 1.
Cutshaw, his escort that day, didn’t immediately answer the door when a city police officer knocked repeatedly that afternoon. The officer said she and Ross appeared disheveled when he entered the house.
Cutshaw said later that her hair was mussed because she habitually plays with it and that she was fixing her shirt because she was sitting on the couch watching TV while Ross was repairing his cousin’s computer in another room. She said Ross came out of the bathroom after the officer entered the home.
Based on the police report, Chief Saunders asked state authorities to investigate possible violations of state protocol for overseeing sex offenders on community visits.
Cutshaw’s attorney says the accusations were never substantiated, and he points out that she wasn’t charged with anything.
Lakewood police say they stand by the officer’s report.
BREAKING PROTOCOL
Investigators never determined exactly what happened during the Lakewood visit last spring.
What they did find, said Williams of the DSHS, would have been enough to justify Cutshaw’s dismissal.
• Records show that Cutshaw deviated 22 times from planned routes while driving Ross on 10 of his approved community visits in March and April.
Authorities said she didn’t get official approval to make trip changes. They used global positioning technology based on Ross’s ankle bracelet to determine that he made unapproved visits to Federal Way shopping areas, a park, gas stations and fast-food restaurants.
Cutshaw’s union representative told authorities at an October meeting that Cutshaw believed other counselors also deviated from approved trip plans when escorting Ross. Williams said investigators didn’t find evidence of that.
Cutshaw didn’t attend the pre-disciplinary meeting.
• Officials found that Cutshaw brought a color photo of herself wearing a two-piece bathing suit or lingerie into the secure transition facility, records show. Staff members found the photo hidden in Ross’ room.
Cutshaw said later that she didn’t know how Ross got the photo.
“I was shocked,” she said in a deposition. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Cutshaw said she had brought a photo album of wedding cakes to work to show a fellow employee who was planning a wedding. She said the personal photo of her must have been stuck in the back of the album.
Ross told a corrections officer that he took it without Cutshaw’s knowledge after an unnamed staff member let him look at the photo album.
• Authorities said Cutshaw lied on her 2004 state employment application when she stated she had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Western Carolina University. Officials learned that she had attended the university but had no degree.
Cutshaw said she had to drop out of an online program due to the press of work.
Wyckoff, her attorney, said Cutshaw suffers from a disability and couldn’t comment on the investigation at this time. He wouldn’t say if the disability is related to the investigation.
Richards, the commitment center superintendent, said Cutshaw had received instruction in the center’s policies, in maintaining proper boundaries in escorting sex offender residents, and in understanding the risks of overseeing violent sex offenders. He said she “displayed a severe lack of judgment.”
Williams said authorities will use the Cutshaw-Ross findings as a negative example when training counselors to maintain proper boundaries.
THE POLYGRAPH TEST
Meanwhile, Ross has been restricted to McNeil Island, pending a Jan. 17 court hearing.
Ross, now 44, was convicted in Pierce County two decades ago and spent 11 years in prison. He then was ordered to undergo treatment at the Special Commitment Center, where he admitted “having a total of six victims of rape behavior,” records show.
Ross had been in the less-restrictive transitional facility on McNeil Island for four years and had submitted plans to move to Tacoma. He held a steady job for six months.
Cutshaw said in a deposition that Ross never acted inappropriately when she was with him. She said she escorted him more than 10 but fewer than 100 times.
A state community corrections officer said Ross underwent a polygraph test about the April 1 Lakewood visit and gave deceptive responses when asked if he and Cutshaw had sexual contact.
But Ross maintained that he “did not touch that woman,” said the officer, Tela Wilson.
Ross’ attorney, Ann Stenberg, said polygraph technology is suspect, so the findings aren’t definitive.
As for the trip deviations, Stenberg said Ross isn’t responsible for his escort’s driving patterns. But, the attorney said, trip changes to go to the bathroom, have lunch or get gas for the car shouldn’t require reporting.
As for the revealing photograph, Stenberg said such issues are normally dealt with in therapy and aren’t a valid reason to take Ross out of the transitional facility.
But Wilson, the community corrections officer, reported to Pierce County Superior Court that Ross failed to comply with his treatment plan and rules because he had an unapproved photo of Cutshaw found hidden in his room behind a framed photograph of his daughter.
Ross also failed to disclose that he had a second photo of Cutshaw standing outside an amusement park.
Stenberg said the state’s investigation originally focused on the Lakewood visit, but because nothing improper occurred there, officials looked elsewhere and ultimately changed the theory of the case.
“It’s a very shaky state theory,” she said.
Rob Tucker: 253-597-8374
rob.tucker@thenewstribune.com
A residential rehabilitation counselor escort:
• Should have a high school diploma or general education degree.
• Should have two years of experience in caring for mental patients, or equivalent experience and education.
• Helps carry out planned programs for sex offender residents.
• Performs searches and inspections of residents and visitors.
• Assists residents and visitors in understanding regulations.
• Assists in controlling, directing and monitoring residents.
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