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U.S Supreme Court may hear sex offender caseSex offender treatment programProgram cost and activity summary FYim • fysooo.....prm.PfWrr testFY19XFYXOOActual expenditures $941018$1,046,300$1,075,742$17106366$1,428,462vCdnMd skits- 1ft■■■■ '208;.. .208.Vv-: 206V\ 272Number participants 368410439446549. Uridupifcated participants'' ;77:; ,;f 6: . 395421: :'v;-m•;Wv.'52S;Undupilcated completions i 1182'119121105Undupllcatad participants : 170 Carried toned fiscal year ■. ■. , u.2187.77216•uvw, **. . . •****✓ •Completion ratio to 59,7% undupticated participants463%573%53.8%946,1%Cost per slot : 7;-/'$534809...j $533039•$5,17134$5317.63'V •; 15351JO-Cost per participant, total 52.557.lt$2,551.95$2,450.4452.478.97$2,801.93Cost per participant, unduplicated §2,94131$2,84838'• = $2,55621$2,608.66$2,72038Cost per undupilcated completion 38,477.54$12,759,76$9,039.86$9,141.04$13,804.40CwniMan lettf Is caBylatet! (a the number o! undupJteateO comptetioni divktaJ by tha number undupflcattd perieHamts minus the iwnbef of undupfcetfid partcipantt canted forward to fh* nai fixd y*ar.tapes of various sexual scenarios.By CAROL CRUPPERHarris News ServiceTOPEKA — Inmates claim the state’s sexual offender treatment program violates their right against self-incrimination, and that a test the program uses to measure their sexual arousal infringes on their right to privacy.Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to consider those constitutional claims.Twice this fall, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver agreed on the first point: that the sexual offender treatment program violates prisoners’ Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.Still, the Department of Corrections stands by its program and wants chief counsel Timothy Madden to carry the fight to Washington.Inmates who agree to participate inthe sexual offender treatment program are required to disclose their sexual histories, and those disclosures can lead to further criminal charges. Although the program is voluntary, those who refuse to join lose significant prison privileges.In September, the appeals court upheld a summary judgment issued by Senior U.S. District Judge Dale Saffels in Topeka that the program violated plaintiff Robert Lile’s right against setf-incrimination.“While we applaud the efforts of states to rehabilitate prisoners, especially where their crimes involve sexual offenses and abuse of children, they may not tie rehabilitation to an inmate’s surrender of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrim-ination, the appellate court wrote.The court vacated Saffels’ ruling on the Fourth Amendment, or privacy, issue. Saffels questioned the usefulness and reliability of the penile plethysmograph, a machine used to measure changes in the circumference of an inmate’s penis as he listens to audioThe judge agreed that it intruded on the inmate’s privacy but found that “governmental interest in rehabilitation outweighs plaintiffs right to be free from such intrusion.”Because the appeals court found the program violated Fifth Amendment rights, it considered Lile’s appeal on the Fourth Amendment claim moot.William Cunningham, a psychologist with Vermont Educational Support Associates, said that although some states maintain confidentiality within the treatment process, most require a waiver of confidentiality.In some, he said, new charges are held in abeyance unless the offender fails to successfully complete treatment.“Use of the waiver of confidentiality provides for greater flexibility and individual treatment,” Cunningham said.The issue has seesawed through the courts.The Denver appeals court made a similar ruling for a second Kansas inmate in November.Earlier decisions favored the state. And last year, the Kansas Supreme Court let stand a Leavenworth County District Court ruling against some 60 inmates who challenged use of the plethysmograph.Corrections officials, in consultation with the Kansas Attorney General’s office, decided to press the issue with the Supreme Court rather than alter their sexual offender treatment program.Tb be effective, prison therapists need full disclosure, Madden said. “We want to know if this is an isolated rape ... or are we dealing with Tted Bundy?”Madden, who must convince four of nine Supreme Court justices to vote to hear the case, intends to file his petition by Jan. 22.If he fails, the program will have to be adjusted.Federal appeals courts in St. Louis and New York City have ruled opposite of the Denver court in similar cases, Madden said. He thinks the conflicting opinions could prompt the SupremeCourt to take his appeal.The Lile case stirs vigorous debate.Robert Lile is serving a life sentence at Lansing on convictions for aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated sodomy of a high school student in Johnson County in 1983.Lile, who was 25 at the time, considered the encounter consensual sex. He launched a lawsuit in 1995 when he felt he was being coerced into a revamped treatment program.Non-participants are moved to a more dangerous part of the prison and can’t have the better prison jobs, he said.Prison officials counter that inmates have no constitutional rights to such things as a television, a job, or to live in a particular part of a prison. They consider privileges part of prison management, not as constitutional rights.“Inmates don’t get a choice of where to live, Corrections Secretary Charles Simmons said in a court deposition.If they agree to participate in treatment, prisoners also don’t get a choice on whether to take the polygraph and penile plethysmograph tests. Those who refuse are booted.Madden said officials don’t want to spend time working with inmates who deny having a sexual abuse problem.“It’s a waste of time and a waste of a slot,” he said.Officials say they use lie detector tests to verify accuracy and completeness of the offender’s sexual history. They say the plethysmograph test is used only for diagnosis and treatment.During the test, inmates listen to audio recordings of sexual scenarios that include graphic and violent scenes of nonconsensual behaviorwhile a machine measures their arousal.Results are discussed in group therapy.Prison officials say offenders must accept responsibility for their actions, and that the program help® them livea better life when they gain freedom by learning what triggers their arousal.Robert McGrath, clinical director of the Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Aggressors, calls the plethysmograph test an important tool.“Sex arousal, as measured by the plethysmograph, is the single most powerful predictor of sexual arousal,” he said.Yet some studies question the reliability of that test, and experts say there’s a difference between arousal and action.The test has been ruled inadmissible in courts of law, and in court filings, Lile’s attorney, David Waxse, called it “an unproven experimental technology that is especially ineffective and meaningless when the participant is being coerced to participate.He contended that the 70 percent of prison programs that don’t use the plethysmograph test could be considered equally effectiveTracking its use in a national survey, the Safer Society Foundation, a non-profit agency specializing in sexual abuse prevention and treatment, found the test used in 28 percent of community programs and in 45 percent of residential sex offender programs for adult males.Barbara Schwartz, Boston, said in a deposition that the test shouldn’t be used for predictions, but could be used for treatment and therapy.That’s how Kansas uses the program, Madden said.“It identifies issues to be explored, he said.— On the Net: Center for Sex Offender Managementwww.csom.org/ The Safety Society Foundation wwiv.safersoctefy.org/ Kansas Department of Corrections: www.ink.org/pubHc/Hdoc/• Treating sex offenders is a new but growing program. 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Newspaper Details
The Hays Daily News
Hays, Kansas, US
Thu, Dec 21, 2000
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Emily S.
NA, 04 Oct 2020
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