Posted by: "Tjuana Boulanger"
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14298158p-15157069c.html
Overhaul urged in care, release of sex offenders By Judy Lin -- Bee Capitol
Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation should treat high-risk
sex offenders and give advance warning to communities before paroling them, and
help cities find appropriate places to house them, according to a task force
report released Tuesday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed the High Risk Sex
Offender Task Force, a bipartisan committee made up of lawmakers, law
enforcement officials, victims' advocates and corrections system representatives
trying to figure out the best system for bringing convicted sex offenders back
into society while minimizing their potential threat.
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In submitting its report to Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, the task force warned
that California is in desperate need of a comprehensive plan to register, treat
and house roughly 3,000 high-risk sex offenders, especially when just 500 of
them are being electronically monitored by the state. "We're finally getting our
arms around how to deal with one of the most serious (issues) from a community's
perspective: dealing with sex offenders," said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer,
R-Orange, who co-chaired the task force. Schwarzenegger had ordered the task
force to come up with recommendations for the Corrections Department in 90 days
after reports that sex offenders were living in family-occupied motels in
Southern California near Disneyland and in parole agents' offices in the Bay
Area. "The issue of housing came up again and again. And we struggled long and
hard," said Suzanne Brown-McBride, executive director of California Coalition
Against Sexual Assault and a member of the task
force. "I think we are very, very concerned, not just that offenders have
housing, but that they be appropriately monitored." The Republican governor
responded Tuesday by expanding the size and scope of the task force to include
finding solutions for placing sexually violent predators, a group of the
highest-risk sex offenders who fall under the watch of the Department of Mental
Health. Kimberley Belshé, secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency, and
Steven Mayberg, director of the Department of Mental Health, will join the task
force. Current task force members recommended establishing a permanent Sex
Offender Management Board to oversee the state's policies on sex offenders. The
task force suggested the state needed an oversight board for all sex offenders
because while most serve time in prisons, others receive treatment in mental
hospitals. Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully pointed to convicted
child molesters like Timothy Lee Boggs, who
spent time in both. The task force said the department must treat, not just
house, sex offenders. "Today in California, sex offenders don't get any
treatment until they're released by the Department of Corrections," Spitzer
said. The task force also recommended notifying victims 90 days before the
anticipated release of a high-risk sex offender. And it suggested giving local
law enforcement a 60-day notice. Members said state prison officials should
aggressively put all high-risk sex offenders on electronic monitoring. At $23 a
day for equipment and parole agents, the tab for 3,000 high-risk sex offenders
would top $25 million, according to Spitzer. Proposition 83 on the Nov. 7 ballot
goes even further. It would require all registered sex offenders to wear
electronic monitoring devices for life. Task force members said the report
directs state agencies to report on costs and on what changes would be needed to
meet the goals.





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