If you believe it is ok to deny registered sex offenders human rights or U.S. Constitutional rights. If you do not believe registered sex offenders are denied their human and constitutional rights or if you are against free speech.
Please leave this web page now. Thank you.
By remaining on this web page you here by acknowledge that you support human rights and United States constitutional rights for registered sex offenders and that you support freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is understood to be fundamental in a democracy. The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights.
Please leave this web page now. Thank you.
By remaining on this web page you here by acknowledge that you support human rights and United States constitutional rights for registered sex offenders and that you support freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is understood to be fundamental in a democracy. The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights.
This blog is not for people to be critical of what is posted here and if the reader is critical of anything here than that means they did not read the disclaimer on the top of each of the pages here and are not welcome here and should stop reading and leave this blog upon my request and in the name of freedom of speech, and my rights as a American citizen.
No sexual abuse is ever acceptable. Sex offense laws and policies should be based on sound research and common sense, not fear, panic or paranoia. Current laws and policies that paint all sex offenders with one broad brush are counter- productive, wasteful, and cause needless harm. Each offense must be judged on its own merits with a punishment that fits the crime and does not waste taxpayer dollars. The public sex offender registry and residency restriction laws do not protect children but instead ostracize and dehumanize individuals and their families. Money spent on purely punitive measures would be better used for prevention, healing, and rehabilitation.
The author of SO FAQ does not affiliate with any other organization or people on the internet or the world for that matter. I have been saying this since I first logged on to the internet. Just because I like organizations like the ACLU; does not mean I believe in everything they believe in or stand for. Just like in our great country when we vote; we will never believe in everything the candidate we vote for; believes in or stands for. That doe not mean we are should not vote.Hey, this blog looks real nice on a cell phone; as I have recently discovered.
Please ignore the official counter on this blog. Shortly after I put this counter on every page of my blog it became impossible to update with it in the html of this blog. I had to take it off all my blog pages. I just realized today it is still on my untouched SOFAQ homepage still and I believe it is true, counting not only computer hits but phone hits as well. I am pasting a copy of it here:
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| SFAQ real hits as of Sept 17 2021 That's right; the home page of this blog registers 1,571,853 hits. check the bottom of this page to see for yourself: http://sexoffenderfaq.blogspot.com/2014/01/sex-offender-faq.html |
New Blogs Part 13 Updated September 17 2021
Happy Constitution day: Constitution Day Events September 17, 2021 Celebrate the Birthday of Our United States of America Government: https://www.constitutionday.com/# Also: 9:30 a.m. ET
On September 17 we not only celebrate Constitution Day, but also Citizenship Day, a holiday meant to honor and celebrate the privileges and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship for both native-born and naturalized citizens.: https://constitutioncenter.org/calendar/constitution-day-with-free-museum-admission
I had to create a new page today. If I do not do this after a while the page becomes unable to update and starts to break down. Blogger has made improvements that make this not happen as often but it is still a problem for people that post as much as I do to one page. I took the logo off this page and added it to the header. I will try to keep unnecessary images off this page as much as I can too.
I posted the article below on my constitutional rights page yesterday and since then, I have been thinking; I should have posted it here. I have been warning about this for about 20 years on this blog and online and have seen no change at all in the perverted justice system of our state. The police hire psychotherapists and knowingly or unknowingly force them to say what they want them to say. What is the driving force behind my protest is they are not doing the right thing at all concerning their upbringing or for our country. Most of our Texas police come from old fashioned Christian homes afterall; at least they sure act that way. I think if they would read more people like the Psychoheresy Awareness; they might change their self destructive ways. They hire these psychotherapists and make them gods over sex offenders. If the psychotherapist does not go their way they contract a new one. It is a endless cycle that basically amounts to domestic terrorism on the sex offenders and there friends and family's and our country. The psychotherapists must feel trapped in that they must make a decision of whether or not the sex offender is a danger. After a while it breeds psychotherapists that would rather take the easy way out and say they are all dangerous just to keep the money going to them. If the psychotherapists says they are not a danger and the rare occurrence that they reoffend; the psychotherapist has a tarnished record and since psychotherapy has flooded the market; it makes it that much harder for them to get clients. Is it right for the police to trust psychotherapy over their conscience or just plain common sense? God pronounces a curse on them and the United States and Texas of who they represent.: "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man" Jeremiah 17:5 In my opinion once you take away the constitutional rights of American citizens you might as well be anti American; causing the downfall of your country. When you inflict cruel and unusual punishment on people, like the sex offender registry; you are 100% anti-American. Section 13 of the Texas Constitution is also against cruel and unusual punishment; so if you support the sex offender registry you are also anti-Texas.
Like I said in my email to the Governor of Texas on September 06, 2021:
Off the record I think the best way to think would be is what would Jesus do? I am still a strong believer in Separation of Church and State; as always. The more we lose sight of how we got here the more we sink. I think you might be able to trace the beginning of the down fall of our Country to the enforcement of the sex offender registry and laws like that. I also think that the dawn of social media like Facebook, may be significant also within the same time frame as the sex offender registry. It could be a theory of mine or it could be true.
Posted on my Constitutional Rights page yesterday:
This may be hard for some people to believe. You have to be glad that; at least there are people out there, that are critics of psychotherapy. You have to ask what if this is all true? Where does it leave us; as we have put them in charge of our police and given them great power over all our prisons and jails. Is God still on our side anymore? Could this type of philosophy be the straw that brakes the camels back? Is it safe to put all your trust in man? Jeremiah 17:5 Got this email this morning. It's a good one. :
Beneath all the biblical reasons why Christians should not pursue psychotherapy and its underlying psychologies is this one fact: The use of psychotherapy and its underlying psychologies denies the sufficiency of Scripture for the issues of life normally therapized by a psychotherapist.
“Sola Scriptura” for the issues of life needs no assistance from the broken cisterns of psychology. (Isaiah 55:1-3.)
The Bible has truth about mankind, whereas psychotherapy has only the very wisdom of men about which God warns His people. (1 Cor. 1:19-21; 2:4-6.)
One of the flagrant failures of the 20th century church and now the 21st century church is the promotion of counseling psychology and its underlying personality and therapeutic theories and techniques.[2]
The words Christian and psychology (as it is used today) do not go together. They are different religions. Therefore, there is no legitimate practice of “Christian psychology.”[3]
People who attempt to integrate psychology with Christianity are like the Israelites adding idols to their worship of God. (Jer. 2:11:13; Eze. 6:6; 14:6-8; 20:31, 39.) Read more here: https://pamweb.org/christian-ministry/psychoheresy-briefs/
New Blogs Part 13 Updated September 17 2021
The reason I posted the above post is because of the post I posted on: New Blogs Part 12 Updated September 15 2021 The story origonates here: https://reason.com/2021/08/12/texas-civil-commitment-sex-offenders-littlefield/ Here is the rest of that article:
The therapeutic techniques sound hodge-podge. The inmates "have to admit to all of their offenses and share it with the group," said one of the founders of Texans Against Civil Commitment (TACC), a former Littlefield therapist who writes under the name 'Murphy' and who claims to have been fired for not seeing "eye to eye" with management. "And they have to keep a masturbation log so the therapist knows how often they're masturbating and what they're masturbating about. So she knows whether it's healthy or whether it's deviant." The men must also record whether or not they climaxed. These logs are read aloud in group therapy.
The prison also employs polygraphs and penile plethysmography, measuring changes to the circumference or volume of the penis as the men watch and listen to different stimuli.
When an inmate moves up a tier, which can take a year, he can find himself demoted for many reasons, including very small infractions. One man who had been at Littlefield for years and made it through all four tiers was finally about to get his release hearing. But he did something wrong—rumor had it he swore at a guard—and was knocked back down to tier 1, where he would have to start anew, according to Murphy.
He went to his cell and hanged himself.
A former Littlefield guard I'll call Frank—who says he quit but wants to stay in corrections and fears retaliation—said this wasn't the only tragedy he had witnessed there. Another man, he said, castrated himself.
Frank estimates about 15 percent of the men are intellectually challenged, so they will never be able to successfully complete the therapy, because they don't understand it.
The average age of inmates is 58, says Murphy. "But there are several 80-year-old men. There are several blind men, several that use walkers and wheelchairs." That's because almost no one ever manages to complete the therapy, according to a 2015 study.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the men were locked two to a cell for 23 hours a day for several months, nine men out of about 300 died.
"We were to go with them to the hospital—two officers per resident—and you would just stare at them while on ventilators and get paid for it," says Harner. "And when they knew they were dying, they weren't even allowed to call their mom or dad because TCCO said you can't."
Until recently, inmates also had to pay a 33 percent tax on any packages they got, further isolating them from any support system they might have on the outside. For instance, if family members sent a pair of jeans and three boxes of Chips Ahoy, they would have to document what it cost and pay another 33 percent to the prison.
"One of our members during COVID-19 sent her son a package of masks and they were valued at $20," says Molnar. "She had to pay 33 percent on top of that to send him those masks."
That rule was just changed, most likely as a result of pressure from TACC. Now prisoners have to pay a 25 percent fee on any money sent to them from someone other than their spouse, according to Molnar.
Civil commitment rests on the mistaken belief that people who committed sex offenses are incorrigible—despite very low recidivism rates. What's more, no one who serves time for a sex crime enters the community unsupervised after their prison term. They remain under strict supervision for years, sometimes for life, on probation, parole, and often the Sex Offense Registry.
Civil commitment is by no means confined to Texas, and Littlefield's status as a privately operated facility is hardly the main issue. The problem is bad laws, as well as court decisions that have upheld them: More than 6,000 people are confined under civil commitment in 21 states. While the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution prohibit double jeopardy, *the Supreme Court has ruled that it is acceptable to effectively imprison sex offenders a second time—not for the crimes they committed, but for future crimes they might commit.
*Extended Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders Is Upheld
May 17, 2010
The federal law at issue in the case allows the government to continue to detain prisoners who had engaged in sexually violent conduct, suffered from mental illness and would have difficulty controlling themselves. If the government is able to prove all of this to a judge by “clear and convincing” evidence — a heightened standard, but short of “beyond a reasonable doubt” — it may hold such prisoners until they are no longer dangerous or a state assumes responsibility for them.
The challenge to the civil commitment law was brought by five prisoners. The case of Graydon Comstock was typical. In November 2006, six days before Mr. Comstock was to have completed a 37-month sentence for receiving child pornography, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales certified that Mr. Comstock was a sexually dangerous person.
*Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, dissented in the case, United States v. Comstock, No. 08-1224.
“The fact that the federal government has the authority to imprison a person for the purpose of punishing him for a federal crime — sex-related or otherwise — does not provide the government with the additional power to exercise indefinite civil control over that person,” Justice Thomas wrote.
Read more on that here: nytimes.com/2010/05/18/us/politics/18offenders.html
Recently, about 40 men at a civil commitment facility in Minnesota went on a hunger strike to protest "an indefinite detention program" they consider "an unconstitutional death sentence." Since Minnesota first began civil commitment in 1994, processing hundreds of men, it has granted only 14 full discharges and 45 provisional discharges.
Meanwhile, back in Texas, Littlefield has become a human "storage facility," says Frank.
Read here with links: https://reason.com/2021/08/12/texas-civil-commitment-sex-offenders-littlefield/
After reading the above article and being degusted; I decided this was a article that needed to be posted, even though I try to focus on the positive. The post from yesterday (above this one) was the result of that. This is a good link too: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Left-to-die-Therapists-say-Texas-sex-offender-15942936.php :
'Left to die': Therapists say Texas sex offender treatment program too often fails on purpose
Texas’s civil commitment program for sexually violent offenders has earned a reputation as an unforgiving place. Much of that is by design.
Each of the 378 men in it has already served his full prison term, some 20 years or longer. After their sentences were up, Texas evaluated them as too likely to re-offend, however, so they were ordered kept locked up indefinitely until ready to rejoin the free world. Their average age is nearing 60.
The program’s sole facility, a collection of low buildings and temporary trailers, sits amid fields on the outskirts of the rural Panhandle community of Littlefield surrounded by two razor-wire-topped fences. Buildings are locked and outfitted with security cameras. Even so, many residents must also wear GPS ankle monitors.
The Texas Civil Commitment Office is tasked with striking a difficult balance, protecting the public while providing the men a clear path to rejoin society. But five years after lawmakers overhauled the program, a chorus of critics contends the state still hasn’t gotten it right.
Post-prison commitment, which applies only to sex offenders, is constitutional because it is considered treatment, not additional punishment. Yet former staff therapists say Littlefield’s version of therapy too often fails on purpose.
Even men who have completed their treatment continue to be held, they say. Counselors say their recommendations for advancement were regularly disregarded.
“Every time we as therapists felt someone was ready to go, to move into the community, the administrative side came back with more requirements, to hold them longer,” said one. (The therapist asked not to be named because of ongoing work for the state.)
Of the 552 men who’ve entered the program, 10 have been sprung — the same number who have died in secured nursing homes before they were released. Two of the 10 were let out only after winning court battles on their own.
‘TIME TO GET IT DONE’: Texas Commission on Law Enforcement needs overhaul, officials say
Over the past year, the cost of commitment has been especially acute. Seven Littlefield residents have died of COVID-related complications — a rate 10 times higher than Texas prisoners.
Two months ago, an Austin attorney filed a class-action lawsuit contending residents were being kept locked up with no clear way out. The program is little more than “a ‘therapeutic hamster wheel,’ where patients are forced to retread the same ground and therapeutic modalities for years without hope of actual progress,” it stated.
Residents, their families and attorneys say they have puzzled over why the commitment program seems to work so hard to keep the men locked up. For some administrators, say advocates, the reason may be too personal.
‘Nobody progresses?’
In 2014, the Houston Chronicle published a series of articles exposing how dysfunctional the Texas sexually violent predator program had become. Although it was billed as treatment, no offender had successfully exited it. Many had mental illnesses leading them to violate rules they couldn’t grasp, sending almost half back to prison.
Legislators overhauled it the following year, renaming it and adding more treatment and legal protections. Today, among the 20 states with sexually violent predator civil commitment programs Texas has relatively few participants compared to its population, according to the Sex Offender Civil Commitment Program Network.
Officials say that’s because the selection process identifies only truly dangerous offenders. Prior to his scheduled release from prison, an offender convicted of repeat violent sex offenses is evaluated by a seven-member panel for a “behavioral abnormality” that makes him likely to re-offend. Prosecutors must then convince a jury. About 30 men are committed every year.
Civil commitment costs about twice as much as prison. Because far more men are admitted than released, the program’s budget has tripled since 2014, to about $20 million.
While at Littlefield, the men work to advance through a five-tier treatment program. Tier 5s are considered safe enough to live in the community.
During the surge of coronavirus cases in the fall and early winter, however, “Everything stopped,” said Jennifer Williams, whose son was committed in 2018. “They can’t use the phone or microwave, no therapy.”
It was the latest blow to a program seemingly designed to hinder advancement, four former therapists said in interviews. All described instances in which their clinical judgments were discarded by administrators seemingly intent on keeping residents locked up as long as possible.
Shane Bowyer, who quit in frustration in 2019, estimated his recommendation a resident advance or move to community living had been overridden 20 times. “The majority of our therapy was how to cope with how irrationally they were being treated,” he said.
“It seems that some of these people are completing the therapy and they’re still not getting out,” said Bruce Anton, a Dallas attorney. In 2017, he said he was contacted by the family of a Tier 4 resident who had earned an evaluation concluding he no longer posed a risk.
But the agency “still found reason to reject his release,” Anton said. The man was freed in 2019 after the family hired another doctor who agreed with the no-risk assessment.
During a 2018 trial in which a resident claimed he was being unlawfully held, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks pressed a Littlefield official about the program’s low release rate. “So are y'all just doing a terrible job, or nobody progresses?”
The program manager explained that, with the stakes of a re-offense so high, treatment was considered long-term. Recommendations for residents to move into the community were made by a team of therapists and case managers, she said, with the final decision belonging to Executive Director Marsha McLane.
“Marsha is where the buck stops,” added William Marshall, a Houston attorney who has represented several residents. “If she doesn't want a resident released, it doesn't matter what the treatment provider recommends.”
Her desire to keep the men at Littlefield, Bowyer added, “seems to be largely personal bias.”
‘Seems like a conflict of interest’
Bias is difficult to prove, but at least two people in positions of authority in the civil commitment program have personal backgrounds that advocates said raise questions about their ability to make objective judgments.
McLane was married to a sex offender. According to Williamson County court records, her husband was charged with indecency with a child in 1996. He was sentenced to 10 years of deferred adjudication and ordered to attend treatment. But after allegedly exposing himself to two children in 2004, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
McLane stopped living with him in 1996, records show. Their divorce was finalized in 2004 after 20 years of marriage and two children.
“I think it’s very relevant,” said Mary Sue Molnar, director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice, which supports people on the sex offender registry. “It seems odd that she had a bad relationship with someone on the registry and now is in charge of whether a person remains in civil commitment.” McLane at least should have disclosed her history before taking the position, she said.
Marshall agreed. “I would have liked to have had the chance to ask her about it” in depositions for his lawsuits against the agency, he said.
McLane said her ex-husband’s behavior had no influence on her work. “His actions, having occurred almost 25 years ago, have no bearing on my duties or decision making today,” she wrote in an email.
TCCO’s deputy director, Jessica Marsh, added that while McLane has the final say of who is released from Littlefield, she relies on recommendations from a team that performs a comprehensive evaluation. McLane has not rejected any final recommendation that had gone through the full review process, Marsh said.
It’s unclear who knew of McLane’s personal history when she was hired to lead the agency. But Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who led the effort to overhaul the program, said he considered it irrelevant.
“He believes Marsha does a good job and does not believe that something that happened 30 years ago impacts her ability to do her job,” spokeswoman Lara Wendler said in a email. Whitmire was confident the program is operating as intended, balancing “public safety with treating the client to prepare for successful reintroduction into the community,” she added.
McLane also has the support of her bosses. The Texas Civil Commitment Office board recently voted to raise her salary to $207,000.
Yet advocates, attorneys and former treatment providers noted the panel has its own apparent leanings. Even though Littlefield is considered a therapeutic facility, none of the five governor-appointed positions is occupied by a treatment expert. Three are current or former prosecutors; one is a police chief.
The sole civilian is victim’s advocate Rona Stratton Gouyton, whose sister was murdered in 1981. After serving his sentence, the killer, Wesley Miller, was committed as a sexually violent predator when Gouyton lobbied lawmakers to expand the law to include offenders whose crimes may not have been prosecuted as sexual offenses but had sexual intent.
Lisa Gabbert, left, and Rona Stratton Smith outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Conroe on October 27, 2006. They were at the trial of Wesley Miller, who is in prison for sexually assaulting and killing Rona's sister, Rheta Statton, 18, more than 20 years ago. He is scheduled to be released next September. Rona has traveled from Fort Worth to attend the trial and hopes Miller is committed to treatment. She has been a major supporter of the sexual offender program in Texas where the most violent sex offenders are put into mandatory treatment called civil commitment upon release from prison.
Now 58, Miller remains in Littlefield, the facility overseen by his victim’s sister. “It just seems the cards are stacked,” Molnar said.
Gouyton said her family’s tragedy, as well as her work advocating for victims of sexual assault, brought important and necessary perspective to the civil commitment agency. “I take my role as a board member very seriously and would not allow my personal history to impact my decision-making,” she said in a written statement.
Confining rather than curing
The civil commitment program has been sued often, with the vast majority of challenges being turned away. But a series of connected lawsuits already has had unusual early successes.
Jonathan Hitt’s crimes were shocking. In 1999, Hitt, then known as Father Jeremiah, was sentenced to ten years in prison for molesting a child at a Central Texas monastery. A decade later, he was placed in the Sexually Violent Predator program.
At the time, Texas’s version included intensively supervised outpatient programs. Hitt thrived, according to legal filings. He moved to a halfway house near Austin and worked at a downtown restaurant. By 2014, he had enough money to buy property and a trailer.
When the SVP program was overhauled, Hitt was told that he could remain an outpatient, according to court filings. But in late 2015 he had started a relationship with a woman.
It wasn’t forbidden — she was a consenting adult — but Hitt’s supervisors accused him of not keeping them informed. After failing a polygraph, he was surrounded by police and taken to jail. Days later, he was moved 400 miles away to Littlefield.
Still, Hitt remained confident he’d be out soon. He was labeled Tier 4, the final stage before community living. A therapist recommended he return to Austin, according to court documents.
Yet with no sign administrators would release him, in 2017 he sued, claiming that by summarily re-locking him up, TCCO had effectively revoked his years of treatment gains. Despite the long odds — Hitt filed his federal lawsuit without an attorney — in April 2019 a judge agreed he had been wrongly denied a hearing. The case is pending.
Hitt has since filed a second lawsuit. Despite being a Tier 4 on the verge of re-entering the community, it alleges McLane later personally ordered him demoted to a Tier 2 in retaliation for his first lawsuit, guaranteeing additional years at Littlefield. In court filings, McLane has denied it. But Hitt remains there today, five years after arriving.
Now represented by Austin attorney David Gonzalez, Hitt recently asked the lawsuit be converted to a class action, to include other Littlefield residents languishing in the program for no therapeutic reason. “TCCO is treating to confine, rather than treating to cure,” it said.
“If Hitt has not — and cannot — make it out [of the program] no one will. Rather, Hitt and the other Plaintiff Patients have been left to die.”
New Blogs Part 13 Updated September 19 2021
Again my constitutional rights blog story; seems like it should be posted here. This time a comparison comes to mind of my last blog entry here. When I read the law mentioned above, used to imprison our Texas men forever, yesterday; it reminded me of Gitmo. I thought to myself yesterday; I wonder if that law was not passed because of Gitmo. Either way it is not right and directly contrary to the foundation of our country. I have been fighting to close Gitmo since Obama first took office. I miss those Obama days. :
Join us in demanding Biden Close Gitmo and cease these human rights violations
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the global ‘War on Terror’, ending indefinite detention and closing the Guantánamo Bay prison is a necessary step towards justice, accountability, and reconciliation. It was also a campaign promise Biden made to us. Join us on Monday, September 20 and demand he keep that promise.
Guantánamo is just one the U.S. government’s more contemporary pursuits in egregious human rights violations and is part of the decades-long legacy of mass incarceration and U.S. militarism. Join us in demanding its closure by clicking here to sign up for the digital rally.
Since 2001, Muslims have been unjustly criminalized, monitored, detained, and tortured by U.S. government agencies. Guantánamo Bay prison has always been an emblematic example of deeply entrenched Islamophobia in the War on Terror.
39 Muslim men still remain detained without access to a fair trial. There is no excuse not to Close Gitmo — Biden has the legal authority to swiftly transfer these men and permanently close Guantánamo. This chapter of the War on Terror must end!
Join us on Monday, September 20, to demand President Biden take action and close Guantánamo Bay prison once and for all!
Click here to sign up for the Close Gitmo digital rally: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYsf-mgqTMpGNxT1hcnQHT5wt1G_RE09P5h
I would consider this but I avoid Facebook like the plague and consider myself much better off for that.
New Blogs Part 13 Updated April 17 2022
Since part of the theme of this blog is against sexual assaults; I am going to post these stories I have found on Google News. Since they are just plain too disgusting to post (they still need to be read by people in authority of such things especially) in detail I am going to present them just how you you find them in Google News. Click here.
This is a example of how we are destroying our country by mainly ignoring the Constitution of the United Sates. It is also a example of how the very same thing that is happening in the Ukraine may someday happen here.
TX: PROTESTORS MAKE ALARMING ALLEGATIONS ABOUT STATEWIDE SEX OFFENDER TREATMENT PROGRAM IN LITTLEFIELD
April 11, 2022
Source: everythinglubbock.com 4/11/22
LITTLEFIELD, Texas – Protestors gathered in front of the Civil Commitment Facility in Littlefield on Saturday morning to shine a light on the injustices they said are happening within the barbed-wire fences of the former prison.
Texas created the Civil Commitment Program in 1999; like 20 other states, this kind of program allows state agencies to mandate sex offenders, who have already served their time in prison, to partake in treatment programs intended to mitigate possible reoffending in the future.
In 2015, Governor Abbott reformed the program and worked with private contractors to set up a treatment facility in Littlefield, but the advocates said the program isn’t doing what it was created to do.
Protestors told KLBK News that they believe residents’ civil rights have been violated.
“We don’t support anyone committing crimes- I want to make that clear. This is supporting people being released [from treatment] after they’ve served their time,” said Kevin Word with Texans Against Civil Commitment.
According to its website, “The Texas Civil Commitment Office is a small state agency tasked with providing intensive supervision and treatment to sexually violent predators.”
The agency said it focuses on public safety, supervision and treatment, but protestors argued that the program is a for-profit scheme by private groups.
“Murderers are being let out. They’re not being post-convicted and held because they might do something. That’s why these men are here- because they might do something,” Word said.
Read the full article: https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/protestors-make-alarming-allegations-about-statewide-sex-offender-treatment-program-in-littlefield/ :
NEWS
Protestors make alarming allegations about statewide sex offender treatment program in Littlefield
Posted: Apr 11, 2022 / 08:03 PM CDT
Updated: Apr 11, 2022 / 08:04 PM CDT
LITTLEFIELD, Texas – Protestors gathered in front of the Civil Commitment Facility in Littlefield on Saturday morning to shine a light on the injustices they said are happening within the barbed-wire fences of the former prison.
Texas created the Civil Commitment Program in 1999; like 20 other states, this kind of program allows state agencies to mandate sex offenders, who have already served their time in prison, to partake in treatment programs intended to mitigate possible reoffending in the future.
In 2015, Governor Abbott reformed the program and worked with private contractors to set up a treatment facility in Littlefield, but the advocates said the program isn’t doing what it was created to do.
Protestors told KLBK News that they believe residents’ civil rights have been violated.
“We don’t support anyone committing crimes- I want to make that clear. This is supporting people being released [from treatment] after they’ve served their time,” said Kevin Word with Texans Against Civil Commitment.
According to its website, “The Texas Civil Commitment Office is a small state agency tasked with providing intensive supervision and treatment to sexually violent predators.”
The agency said it focuses on public safety, supervision and treatment, but protestors argued that the program is a for-profit scheme by private groups.
“Murderers are being let out. They’re not being post-convicted and held because they might do something. That’s why these men are here- because they might do something,” Word said.
The treatment program is not clearly defined by legislators and it leaves room for interpretation. Because of this, family members with loved ones in the facility said there’s no telling when these individuals will be released.
“My son has been in Civil Commitment longer than he was in prison. And he’s still at tier one. This is his seventh year in Texas Civil Commitment,” said Linnell Hanks, mother of a Civil Commitment resident.
The treatment program consists of five tiers which residents must complete before being released.
However, protestors said that’s an insurmountable task when punishments for breaking arbitrary rules can and have caused residents to move back a tier in their treatment.
“The program has released less than six [residents] since 2015 and there have been 29 that have died in the facility. Medical care is non-existent,” Word explained, adding these individuals were originally in a successful, outpatient program before the facility opened.
TCCO said in a statement to KLBK News today that these allegations are not true and said 13 people have been released from the program since 2016 and only three “sexually violent predators have passed away.”
After the story aired on Monday, several people reached out to KLBK’s newsroom claiming TCCO’s statement is false. They said they can prove 29 people have died, along with several other allegations, but these claims have not yet been substantiated.
Nicole Robinson has a son living in the Littlefield facility, which is why she attended the protest. She said, “They’re supposed to be residents and they’re not being treated like that. They are being treated like animals. They’re being taken advantage of and they’re being used as a check.”
She’s not the only person who told KLBK News that profit is standing in the way of justice.
“That’s the reason why they don’t want them to graduate… because when they graduate, they have to have enough guys to cycle them out in order for them to keep getting they check,” Robinson explained.
Some protestors and organizations, like Families Against Committing Texans Standup (F.A.C.T.S.) and Texans Against Civil Commitment, said they are calling for reform.
Others are “advocating to shut down this program,” said Jennifer Williams, whose son remains in the facility.
“I’m asking Senator [John] Whitmire to come and shut it down like he promised to do in 2015 when he walked through these walls and said, ‘if it doesn’t work, I’m going to shut it down…'” Williams tearfully expressed. “These are free men. They’ve done their time.”
However, protestors said they feel this program is a continuation of these offenders’ time in prison.
TCCO sent KLBK News a statement “in reference to a public awareness event conducted outside of the Texas Civil Commitment Center (TCCC) located in Littlefield, TX.”
The statement regarding TCCC and its “clients” who reside at the facility reads:
“The individuals who reside at TCCC are civilly committed sexually violent predators. A sexually violent predator, by definition, is a repeat sexually violent offender who suffers from a behavioral abnormality that makes the sexually violent predator likely to engage in repeated, predatory acts of sexual violence. Sexually violent predator civil commitment is governed by Chapter 841 of the Texas Health and Safety Code.
Pursuant to Section 841.001 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, the Legislature found in part:
That a small but extremely dangerous group of sexually violent predators exists and that those predators have a behavioral abnormality that is not amenable to traditional mental illness treatment modalities and that makes the predators likely to engage in repeated predatory acts of sexual violence.
That treatment modalities for sexually violent predators are different from the traditional treatment modalities for persons appropriate for involuntary commitment under Subtitle C, Title 7.
That a civil commitment procedure for the long-term supervision and treatment of sexually violent predators is necessary and in the interest of the state.”
TCCO added that it is “responsible for providing appropriate and necessary treatment and supervision for committed persons through the case management system and developing and implementing a sex offender treatment program for sexually violent predators committed under Chapter 841 of the Texas Health and Safety Code. Chapter 841 further requires TCCO to implement a tiered treatment program.”
You can find a summary of TCCO and the tiered treatment program online, “which include general information regarding the commitment process as well as statistical information concerning the sexually violent predators supervised by TCCO.”
The statement continued, “One issue raised by Attorney Ryan Brown consists of questions regarding sex offender treatment during COVID-19 related quarantines. The COVID protocols utilized at the TCCC can be found in the COVID-19 resources section on TCCO’s website: https://tcco.texas.gov/resources.”
Regarding the 29 possible deaths and five completions of the program, TCCO said, “While any loss of life is a tragedy, this assertion is not correct. Rather, three sexually violent predators have passed away at the TCCC … Since 2016, thirteen people have been released from the Texas Civil Commitment Center – nine of whom have been released off of civil commitment by their court of commitment. In sum, thirteen people have been fully released from civil commitment from 2016 to present.”
TCCO’s reported statistics as of April 11, 2022:
• 552 total civilly committed sex offenders from 112 counties: 111 in prison and 437 in the community.
100% are male.
• 13 SVPs that no longer had the behavioral abnormality that qualified them for commitment have been
released by the court. Four SVPs are in Tier 5 independent living in the community. Two additional
SVPs were in Tier 5 but were moved back to the confined facility for more intensive supervision and
treatment due to regressions in their treatment and/or behavior.
• Age range is 24 to 91 years old with an average age of 56.78 years.
• Population is 54.74% Caucasian, 25.00% African-American, 19.89% Hispanic, 0.18% Native
American and 0.18% other.
• 65% of SVPs have only child victims, 17.5% have only adult victims and 17.5% have both adult and
child victims.
A Perverse Abomination of the Law Updated April 21 2022
Sexual Assault is a War Crime. The ICC Must Investigate Russian Soldiers Who Are Allegedly Committing it.
Sign Now
War is brutal for all involved: the images coming out of Ukraine make that abundantly clear. But women are often some of the unseen victims of war, experiencing predatory behavior from invading soldiers -- from street harassment to violent sexual assault. And new reports coming from Ukraine suggest that these atrocities are on the rise, with Russian soldiers as perpetrators and Ukrainian civilians as victims. We must put a stop to this patriarchal violence!
Sign now to demand that the International Criminal Court investigate these instances of sexual violence and charge the perpetrators with war crimes!
There are many ripple effects of the violence of war, and right now, Ukranian officials are witnessing an increase in reports of sexual violence involving Russian soldiers. Rape is a war crime, plain and simple. And Russia is no stranger to war crimes -- images from on the ground have shown civilians killed execution style, with their hands tied behind their back and bullets indicating close-range gunshots. Reports of sexual assault in Ukraine are just another example of the way Putin's deranged invasion plans have wreaked havoc on the eastern European country. Sign the petition now to put pressure on the ICC! Russian soldiers should be investigated for war crimes NOW and the perpetrators must be charged!: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/797/642/202/
