The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Speaking at a press conference in Albany last week, J. David Seay, the executive director of NAMI-NY, expressed concern that patients within the mental health field would be unjustly bunched with violent criminals if sex offenders were dispersed throughout the system without regard. Another worry was that patients with mental disorders are ³twelve times more likely to be victims of crime and violence² than those without.

³We oppose any legislation that would misuse facilities as a dumping ground for sexual predators,² Seay said at the press conference. ³State psychological centers are state resources and should not be used as a warehouse for sexual predators.²

Also speaking at the press conference was Michael Seereiter, director of public policy for the Mental Health Association in New York State, who noted that state psychiatric facilities are already at 100 percent capacity and to release sexual predators into a system that has seen drastic cutbacks over the last quarter-decade would cripple it.

There are currently 17 adult psychiatric hospitals in the New York State system, with one closing on April 1 in Middletown.

³Over the past 25 to 35 years there has been a movement called deinstitutionalization where community-based services are able to handle more of the mentally ill¹s needs,² said Seereiter. ³The psychiatric system that once treated 93,000 patients total in the early 1950s now has downsized to about 3,900 [patients].²

Sexual predators are a population, Seereiter said, that the psychiatric system was ³never meant to treat, confine or even house.²

Much of the battle over civil confinement is being fought between mental health advocates and the state Assembly on one side and Pataki and the state Senate on the other. The former say state money and beds in psychiatric wards are scarce, and other options have to be explored before legislation is passed. The latter argue that dangerous sexual predators must be kept off the streets after their prison sentences.

At his State of the State address on Jan. 4, Pataki urged, ³Our goal must be nothing less than to provide our children and families with every possible protection from sexually violent predators.²

At least 16 states and Washington, D.C. have existing laws that allow courts to civilly confine soon-to-be-released inmates considered to be at risk to repeat offenses or who have mental abnormalities.

Pataki announced last Tuesday that he would allocate $130 million in his 2006-07 Executive Budget to support his civil confinement proposal through the construction of a state facility near the Town of Pharsalia. The money would be used to raze the existing 258-bed minimum-security prison and construct a state-of-the-art, 500-bed, secure facility that Pataki said could be completed by 2009. Control of Camp Pharsalia, as it is currently called, would be transferred from the Department of Correctional Services to the Office of Mental Health.

In addition to $130 million, Pataki also made available $35 million for the renovation of current OMH facilities to hold sexual predators while Camp Pharsalia is being built and $27 million in ³new operating support for OMH in connection with housing and treating sexual predators in existing facilities in 2006-07.²

The phrase being used to describe the Mental Health Association¹s response to Pataki¹s designation of funds is ³somewhat mollified² according to Seereiter. His organization¹s concerns regarding the safety of mental health patients is addressed by separate facilities at Camp Pharsalia, but the money to handle uptake of the long-term secure facility would still be coming from the Office of Mental Health¹s budget.

³We are concerned this would zap existing mental health resources,² said Seereiter. ³This should be laid out separately in the budget.²

Assemblyman Peter Rivera, D-Bronx, the chair of the committee on mental health, last week proposed to the Assembly a system of civil confinement that offers a comprehensive trial that results in civil confinement, outside supervision similar to parole or, if a jury of peers in court located in the county in which the crime was committed cannot come to a unanimous decision, the release of the sex offender. The proposal also includes an expansion of the sentencing for sex offenders pending their first crime.

³What we¹re promoting is a change in the punishment,² said Rivera. ³We¹ll see what happens; the Senate and the Governor are not looking at that issue.²

Another take on what to do to keep children safe from sexual predators is being advocated by Richard Hamill, president of the New York State Alliance of Sex Offender Services Providers.

³Sex offender management is a complex problem, as is civil confinement,² said Hamill. ³What my professional group is advocating for is lifetime probation or parole for sex offenders.²

Hamill contends that sex offenders respond very well to personal attention from parole. One-on-one supervision results in a recidivism rate of about 50 percent, according to Hamill.

Many legislators in both houses are acting in good faith, according to Hamill.

³The Assembly is taking a careful look at the research in the field,² said Hamill. ³It¹s a complex problem that, hopefully the discussion will help to solve.²
http://www.legislativegazette.com/read_more.php?story=892