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State Officials Lobby Against Sexual-Predator Bill: Hospitalizing Offenders Too Costly, They Say

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 12:01 CST

By Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Feb. 22--Sexual predators who are likely to strike again should be given longer prison sentences and community treatment after their release instead of being sent to mental hospitals, two state officials testified yesterday.

"While civil commitment of sexual offenders to mental hospitals could result in some additional protections to society, the associated costs will outweigh the likely benefits," said Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

In testimony before the House Criminal Justice Committee, Wilkinson and Michael Hogan, director of the Department of Mental Health, spoke out against a bill that would allow the state to send sex offenders to psychiatric units after they've served their time.

Wilkinson and Hogan estimated it would cost as much as $9 million to operate a new 40-bed unit for sex offenders for the first year, with expenses running as high as $44 million within five years.

Rep. Keith L. Faber introduced the bill last year after Florida 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped and killed by a registered sex offender who had briefly worked at her school.

"One of the most important things state government can do is protect the people," he said.

Faber, a Celina Republican, said the program would be expensive, but worth it.

"If we only put four people away a year and they have a 50 percent recidivism rate, isn't it worth potentially saving two citizens from a heinous crime or even losing their lives?" he asked.

But Ohio also has an obligation to protect other mentalhealth patients, which would mean sending sex offenders to a maximum-security unit, Hogan said.

The problem is there is only one such unit -- Timothy B. Moritz at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare on the West Side -- and it always is full, he said.

"Construction of hospital facilities is expensive, and because of capital-budget constraints, we currently have four outmoded facilities that are waiting to be replaced, including Moritz," Hogan said.

New York state is facing a similar problem. Officials there are considering spending $130 million to raze a prison and build a corrections compound to house up to 500 sexual predators who already have served their sentences.

Even if the Ohio bill was modified to allow the Department of Mental Health to contract with prison officials to house sex offenders after their release, it still would cost a lot of money, Wilkinson said.

"Since last spring, Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's population has grown by over 1,500 offenders," he said. "At the same time, since 2001 the agency's appropriations have been reduced by over $151 million, and over 1,900 staff have been eliminated, including two prison closures."

Even after building a new unit or renovating existing facilities, there would be substantial operating expenses, Hogan said.

It now costs more than $500 a day to treat a patient at the state mental hospital, Hogan said, and there likely would be higher security expenses associated with sex offenders. And the state can't afford to shift money from programs serving people with mental illness living in the community to hospitals, he said.

Others said the bill unfairly insinuates that every sexual predator has a mental illness or personality disorder.

"More than 250,000 Ohioans with mental illnesses get labeled, experience increased discrimination and continue to be locked in poverty, at least in part due to the public perceptions linking mental illnesses and violence," said Doug DeVoe, chief executive officer of Ohio Advocates for Mental Health.

Locking up predators in hospitals also would jeopardize people with severe mental illness, he said.

"Frequently, people in hospitals are heavily medicated, are unlikely to be able to defend themselves and can't even seek redress as their testimony is considered unreliable because of their illness," DeVoe said. "In effect we're saying we don't care if psychiatric patients are the prey of violent sexual predators."

epyle@dispatch.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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