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| N.Y. shelves sex-offender program after judge's "outrageous" ruling |
| By New York Law Journal |
| Published: 05/10/2004 |
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New York state is suspending a highly effective sex offender counseling program in the wake of an "outrageous" federal court ruling that the prison program violates the constitutional right against self-incrimination, Corrections Commissioner Glenn S. Goord said last week. In a statement harshly critical of a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd, Mr. Goord said the order "effectively guts the program" and essentially gives sex offenders inappropriate veto power over their rehabilitative treatment. He said an alternative program will be used while the ruling is challenged. Last month, Northern District Judge Hurd found that the Sex Offender Counseling Program, which requires prisoners to acknowledge the conduct that landed them in prison and to divulge information on uncharged sex offenses, violates the Fifth Amendment to the extent that inmates are denied good-time credit for refusing to self-incriminate. In light of Judge Hurd's ruling in Donhauser v. Goord, 01-CV-1535, officials last week decided to suspend the program statewide. Mr. Goord suggested the court placed "a perceived Fifth Amendment right above the public's safety." He said the Department of Correctional Services will seek a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Donhauser, 36, was convicted of rape and burglary after entering a plea under North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970). Under Alford, a defendant is allowed to maintain factual innocence by acknowledging that the prosecution could likely prove the pending charge. Mr. Donhauser is serving a 3-to-6 year prison term for crimes committed in western New York. As a sex offender inmate at the Oneida Correctional Facility, he was referred by a counselor to the facility's Sex Offender Counseling Program (SOCP). The program mandates that participants accept responsibility for the conduct that led to their incarceration and also requires the inmate to reveal his or her history of sexual offenses, whether those acts led to criminal charges or not. Counselors are required to report evidence of uncharged acts of sexual or physical abuse involving children. Mr. Donhauser complained that the SOCP requirements are inconsistent with his Alford plea and would force him to admit in a counseling program to acts he never admitted to in court. He also invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to disclose information about uncharged crimes. |
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