By Felicia Howard
A push by Va. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to allow sexually violent predators awaiting civil commitment reviews to be temporarily housed with the general prison population has bitten the dust.
His original proposal under House Bill 1689 was amended and approved by the House, and is now awaiting Senate committee action. The watered-down version eliminates the option of transporting and housing sex offenders with other inmates, giving them the option to have a mental health review performed via video conference instead of in person.
“If our state wants to implement civil commitment, it must remain as treatment, not as incarceration, an extension of their sentence,” said said Mary Devoy, executive director of the Reform Sex Offender Laws of Virginia. “Housing them in local jails, mixing them in with other inmates is 100-percent punishment.”
A spokesman for Cuccinelli said the state law is simple.
“Virginia currently bans the practice of holding sex offenders who have completed their treatment with the rest of the general prison population,” said Brian Gottstein, director of communications for the attorney general. “Virginia code 37.2-909 stipulates that the Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services (DBHDS) must at all times for treatment keep sexually violent predators (SVP) separate from sight and sound of prisoners.”
Delegate David Albo, R-Fairfax, said the offenders are not to be treated like prisoners.
“They are not criminals anymore, they are mental health patients,” Albo said. “The AG wants to do this because it’s convenient and cost effective, but if we put them in jail it becomes a punishment, not treatment.”
Gottstein said practicality has to be taken into consideration.
“No sheriff has the ability to house SVPs totally from sight and sound of other inmates,” he said. “For budgetary and staffing reasons, sheriffs must frequently transport multiple persons at one time.”
According to Assistant Attorney General Pamela Sargent, housing sex offenders with the general population has been done in the state for some time.
She told a House subcommittee, “This is approving the practice that has been going on since the first person was committed in October of 2003.”
Devoy said that just because it’s been usual practice doesn’t make it right.
“The terms sex offender and sexually violent predator in a correctional facility are a green light for inmates to physically attack those who bear the label,” Devoy said. “It’s a known fact stated by television reporters and legislators when a person convicted of a sex crime is sent to jail or prison they may not live through the sentence”.
The Associated Press received several letters from sex offenders expressing their fear of the other inmates, with some claiming they have been attacked. They are handcuffed, booked, and sent to a cell in shackles just like all other inmates, the offenders wrote.
But the Attorney General’s office insists that sexually violent predators are not being kept with the general prison population for a long period of time, usually only one to seven days.
“The Commonwealth is not ‘housing’ SVPs with inmates,” said Gottstein. “This is a temporary arrangement for the purpose of efficient transportation to and from court. Once they come back from court, they are once again housed at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation, where they continue to receive treatment and care.”
The housing and rehabilitation of sex offenders has become a problem for the state since the existing treatment facility in Nottoway is near capacity. Gov. Bob McDonnell had included $43.5 million in his budget for the renovation of the closed Brunswick correctional facility for the treatment of sex offenders, but neither the House nor Senate included it in their budgets.
From Old Dominion Watchdog.
