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| Task force takes off |
| By Sarah Etter, News Reporter |
| Published: 11/27/2006 |
The difference between a sex offender and a sexually dangerous predator is all the talk in West Virginia this week after a new Child Protection Act was passed by the state Legislature. 
Now, 15 West Virginia officials from numerous agencies have come together to create the Sexually Violent Predator Management Task Force. The committee will identify and treat the sexually violent until they can be returned to society. The difference between a sex offender and a sexual predator hinges on the level of violence involved in the crime, and whether it was repeated. The legislation that created the group also changed procedure for the release of sexual predators. These offenders will now undergo an extensive evaluation before release to determine if they pose a danger to their communities. According to Shelia Kelly, task force member and Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Behavioral Health, public safety is the foremost concern for the committee during these evaluations. “This is an earnest desire by the legislature to keep these offenders from recidivating. As long as we have sentencing limitations, someone is going to outlive that sentence and be out on the street. With this population the risk of re-offending is very high,” Kelly says. “The way I read this legislation, it potentially doubles the sentences for sexual predators, depending on how their evaluations go.” The evaluations will ensure that treatment is effective before these offenders return to their communities. The panel will also discuss how to identify sexual predators and monitor their behavior post-release. According Loita Butcher, executive assistant to WVDOC Commissioner and SVPMTF chairman Jim Rubenstein, the distinction between sex offenders and predators is important. “When we talk about a sexually violent predator, we're not talking about every sex offender out there,” Butcher explains. “We're talking about one percent of the [overall] sex offender population who have committed crimes considered sexually dangerous and who repeat their crimes. This is the worst of the worst and we have to figure out a better way to handle them to improve our communities.” SVPMTF, which is composed of the Bureau of Behavioral Health, the Division of Criminal Justice, the Sex Offender Registry Board, the WV State Police and prosecutors and defendants who have worked on sex offender lawsuits, will rely on sex offender statistics and programs created by other states before establishing their own policies. One hot topic is the issue of civil commitment. Typically, a sexual predator is civilly committed into a facility for the mentally ill and drug dependent. “We're looking into alternatives to civil commitments. We need to keep these people supervised, but housing them with the mentally ill is something many of us are opposed to,” says Kelly. “We're in a very early stage with this task force, and we're still learning lessons from other states. But we will most likely see more work on the DOC side of things, in terms of longer sentences and more treatment.” The group will rely on many statistics from the WV Division of Criminal Justice Services. “Our agency generally looks at statistics and compares them against what other states are doing,” explains WVDCJS Director Norbert Federspiel. “But it does become harder to crunch these numbers with such a specific population of sex offenders. The legislation passed really extended the amount of punishment available for violent sexual acts.” Federspiel is concerned that the statistics might be difficult to analyze because the Child Protection Act extended the sentences of many West Virginia predators. “We know there are predators out there, but it is a difficult population to deal with,” he explains. “The likelihood of some of these offenders ever getting out is somewhat remote now.” Although the group has many difficult issues to discuss during meetings and public hearings scheduled to begin in early 2007, Federspiel says that a sense of teamwork is at the heart of the project. “The main thing is that this includes a broad representation of professions. This task force is criminal justice, corrections, and legal scholars coming together with the mental health department. You need all of these people at the table if you're going to create an effective solution to such a wide ranging problem.” Bottom Line: West Virginia's comprehensive task force will change their way sexual predators are sentenced, treated and released. Corrections.com will follow up with the new organization in 2007 to see where it is headed. Related resources: Large number of elderly are sex offenders, 10/27 Shelter plans for sex offenders, 7/12 |
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