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FLAW IN THE LAW
EXPERTS DISAGREE WITH PREMISE
Part of the problem with Florida's civil commitment program can be traced
to the law that created it, say experts.
The Jimmy Ryce Act states: "the prognosis for rehabilitating sexually violent
predators in a prison setting is poor." But several national experts, studies,
and even officials in other state programs disagree.
In fact, prison treatment is the very first recommendation for civil commitment
laws issued by the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, the nation's
largest organization for sexual offender clinicians and researchers.
Jill Levenson, a Florida psychologist and ATSA board member, said the problem
begins with lawmakers.
"Legislators who write these laws are not the experts," she said. "Sometimes
they seek our advice before writing them, but more often than not they don't."
It hasn't always been this way. For two decades, Florida pioneered treating
sexual offenders in prison with what was known as Mentally Disordered Sex Offender
program.
But Governor Martinez and state lawmakers pulled funding for the program in
1989 in order to save taxpayers $7.3 million a year after adjusting for inflation
-- or less than a third of what it now costs to treat offenders beyond their prison
sentences.
When it was up and running, offenders received 20 to 30 hours a week of intense
therapy.
Currently, some Florida prisons offer a brief introductory sex offender course:
one hour of treatment a week for 12 weeks. But that's the most offenders ever
receive. When the legislature wrote the civil commitment law in 1998, the Florida
chapter of ATSA put out a position paper urging lawmakers to "consider taking
corrective, preventative measures now, by reinstituting a ... prison-based treatment
program."
It never happened.
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