We Can And Must Make This Sex Offender Program Work

In 1990, the Washington Legislature resolved to make our communities safer by creating a special supervision and rehabilitation treatment program for certain sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences.

The Community Protection Act authorized our state’s Superior Courts to use a civil commitment process to place these offenders in a Special Commitment Center that is now located at McNeil Island.

After a decade of experience with this program we are at a crossroads. As a state and as a society, we will either follow through on the promise of the civil commitment process for sex offenders or we will risk losing the opportunity to continue supervising and treating these and future offenders after they are released from prison.

U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer has made it clear through an injunction that the Special Commitment Center cannot be used as a way of keeping offenders locked up indefinitely.

Special Commitment Center residents who take part in therapy programs and progress successfully through several levels of treatment can ask a Superior Court to move them to community-based treatment in secure housing that the court calls a “less restrictive alternative.”

I am concerned about the fears that have developed in our communities about this program. Since last July, one community after another - from Thurston County to Spokane County to Yakima County to Walla Walla County - has reacted with outrage at the prospect of housing, supervising and treating one or more of these residents in their areas.

On the one hand, this is very understandable. Few of us welcome criminals, let alone sex offenders, living among us. On the other hand, thousands of sex offenders are already living in our neighborhoods throughout the state without close supervision. They are the sex offenders who complete their prison sentences and are released into the community with few conditions other than that they register with the local sheriff’s department.

At least through the SCC process neighborhoods are safer because the sex offenders have received treatment and are under strict, personal supervision.

Our dilemma is that the Department of Social and Health Services has no choice but to proceed. If we fail to provide secure community housing the federal courts may well make it impossible for us to continue the Special Commitment Center civil commitment program.

I believe we should continue it and I believe we can continue it.

In Washington, we know how to operate a secure, successful program for civilly committed predators. It may come as a surprise to many that under Superior Court orders, DSHS directly oversees community housing for six sex offenders the courts have released from the Special Commitment Center. Since the first resident was released five years ago into secure community housing, no violations, no escapes, no reoffenses and no criminal arrests have occurred.

The motivation to follow the rules is clear. If a released resident violates any condition, he or she is to be immediately arrested and returned to the Special Commitment Center. After that, there is a court hearing on the case.

Building on our experience, we are using carefully crafted safety criteria developed by a citizens advisory committee to guide the placement of next secure housing units.

Community safety is the paramount goal of the rules that emphasize intense supervision.

* Each secure housing unit will have a maximum of three residents.

* Each resident must continue treatment with a therapist.

* One staff member will be on duty for each resident during all daytime and evening activities.

* Two staff members will be on duty during the nighttime sleep period.

* Residents will wear security bracelets or anklets when ordered by the courts.

* A staff member must accompany residents on all offsite trips to jobs, treatment and other activities.

* Each house will have a complete security system.

* Housing units must be within a five-minute response time by appropriate law enforcement or state security personnel.

Our commitment to protect neighborhoods is reflected in the fact that we are prepared to expend the resources necessary to provide a secure facility.

We at DSHS are doing everything possible to address your concerns.

All we ask is your understanding that, together, we can satisfy the courts and keep our communities safe.