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Missouri: Many prison inmates don’t finish sex offender treatment

Missouri 4-9-2008:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Many convicted sex offenders ordered to get treatment while in prison aren’t completing the program. Some refuse or are too sick, but for some there isn’t enough space.

Prison officials said Wednesday that there are 176 people waiting to enroll in the treatment program because there isn’t enough money and space to cover everyone. The treatment is required when someone is convicted of certain sexual offenses such as rape, forcible sodomy and child molestation.

According to the most recent data available, 460 people who were ordered to get treatment for sex offenders left prison between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007. More than 80 percent participated in the program, but only 241 finished it.

The treatment program is offered at two prisons for men and a separate one for women.

Under state law, those who don’t complete the program aren’t eligible for even conditional release and have to serve their entire sentences. But when those inmates leave prison, they don’t have to follow probation and parole rules.

“We don’t like that,” said Brian Hauswirth, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections. “The whole idea is to release them in the community at some point, and we want them to get treatment and then be under supervision.”
Of the nearly 7,000 registered sex offenders in Missouri, Hauswirth said 1,600 to 1,800 are placed under supervision after they leave prison. But most aren’t convicted of another sex crime.

Over a 23-year period that ended in June, about 5 percent of sex offenders were sent back to prison after committing another sexual offense. More than 10 percent returned to prison after committing a nonsexual offense.

The recidivism rate for those who complete the treatment program is even lower. Hauswirth said that from 1994 to 2002, only about 2 percent of those inmates who completed treatment program were convicted of another sex crime.
Discussion about the treatment program was prompted by a legislative committee reviewing how the Department of Corrections handled the parole of a man who is accused of raping and killing a former St. Louis newspaper editor.

According to media accounts, Brian Walters, who was charged with the killing, admitted that he had fantasized about committing a sexual assault. The Joint Committee on Corrections is examining why Walters wasn’t enrolled in the Missouri Sex Offender Program.

“There are people who are released, and some are released without getting the (treatment) and these are the known sex offenders,” Corrections Department Director Larry Crawford said. “Here’s a person who was not convicted of any sex offense, and if he says he has these tendencies, what should he get?”

Crawford said it’s possible that if Walters had started the treatment program, which is intense and takes more than a year to finish, he would have later denied having the fantasies.

Lawmakers on the committee asked prison officials about the parole process and how probation decisions are made. Several lawmakers also questioned why there was so much focus on a single case.

“You’ve got to question really what we’re doing here,” said committee chairman Mark Bruns, R-Jefferson City. “If the victim would have been a homeless drug addict, would there have been this much attention?” ..more.. by AP

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