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Court to review Kansas sexBy CAROL CRUPPERHarris.Newsservice _TOPEKA — 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 in the 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 self-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-incrimination,” the appellate court wrote.The court vacated Saffels’ ruling on the Fourth Amendment, orpredator lawprivacy, 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 audio tapes of various sexual scenarios.The judge agreed that it intruded on the inmate’s privacy but found that ‘‘governmental interest in rehabilitation outweighs plaintiff’s 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 aSee PREDATOR page 3
Newspaper Details
Ottawa Herald
Ottawa, Kansas, US
Thu, Dec 21, 2000
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Emily S.
NA, 04 Oct 2020
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