CO: Audit Finds Deficiencies In How Colorado Sex Offender Management Board Carries Out Statutory Duties

[Press Release by the Colorado Office of the State Auditor – 7/28/20]

Download PDFs of the reports from leg.colorado.gov/audits

DENVER—The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) has released its performance audit of the 25-member Sex Offender Management Board (Board) at the Department of Public Safety (Department).

The Board is not meeting its statutory charge to provide evidence-based standards for the evaluation, identification, treatment, management, and monitoring of Colorado’s 24,000 registered sex offenders. Specifically, of the Board’s 381 subsections of standards on evaluating, identifying, and treating offenders, only 18 percent in the Adult Standards and 11 percent in the Juvenile Standards cited supporting evidence.

The audit also found problems with how the Board identifies and mitigates conflicts of interest among its members, identifying nine members who had actual conflicts or situations that created the appearance of a conflict that were not disclosed and did not prevent the members from performing official actions. For example, three members approved providers in 2018 working at the same businesses in which the members were owners, directors, or officers. Another member—the director of a private agency awarded a $3.5 million contract by the State for mental health therapy services for sex offenders—voted to change standards that applied to their agency.

Further, the Board did not verify that 13 service provider applicants, out of a sample of 18, met requirements related to references, competency in professional standards and ethics, training, and competency to serve offenders with developmental/intellectual disabilities or juvenile offenders.

The Board also took no action on four complaints against providers submitted during the audit period. These complaints all met the Board’s criteria requiring review and investigation.

The audit was performed in response to a legislative request and makes six recommendations to improve Board transparency and accountability, and provider oversight.

The full report is available @ www.colorado.gov/auditor.

About the Office of the State Auditor (OSA):
Under the direction of the State Auditor, the OSA is the State’s nonpartisan, independent external auditor with broad authority to audit state agencies, departments, institutions of higher education, and the Judicial and Legislative Branches. The OSA also conducts evaluations of the State’s tax expenditures (e.g., credits, exemptions, deductions) established in statute and tracks about 4,000 Colorado local governments for compliance with the Local Government Audit Law. The OSA’s professional staff serve the people of Colorado by addressing relevant public issues through high-quality, objective audits, evaluations, and other work products that promote accountability and positive change in government.

Dianne E. Ray, CPA —— State Auditor

Contact: Greg Fugate
osa.media@state.co.us

colorado_somb_report_press_release_final_7-28-2020 PDF

 

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Whodathunkit? State bureaucrats skimming off the top? Voting for state spending on their private interests and not doing what they’s supposedly paid for?

Blasphemy! Someone please scrape me off the floor. I, for one, am absolutely flabbergasted.

Oh, man. This is so sweet! Nice to see an official report that shows the whole thing is way more about money than actual public safety.

This is a breath of fresh air!!

There was the polygraph issue they had a few years ago in the same vein so nothing changed. What else is new in CO government?

Additional article: Colorado’s sex offender management board gets failing grade.

https://kdvr.com/news/local/colorados-sex-offender-management-board-gets-failing-grade/

Go auditors!! 👍 Doing a job that counts!! 🙂

How about the many conflicts of interests in the California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB)? From the conflicts of interest in the “studies” that “validate” the Saratso risk assessment, aka STATIC99, all the way to the treatment programs that use said assessments and other pseudoscience like the polygraph lie detector? Guaranteed the corruption in California is much worse. Just take a look at who is actually on CASOMB to figure it out yourself.

With all this, nothing going change.

My report from the Aurora somb psi recommendation did not have accurate information. I had a misdemeanor 5 years probation max. Though they were not originally asking for it the board recommendation was the max for purposes of treatment.
An inaccurate evaluation used for conviction sentencing structure where everyone deserves a fair trial.
Maybe we can do a class action lawsuit? Anyone here from or convicted in Colorado?

Can we get this going on in CA?

This actually confirms what many people have been saying for years and just not from the media. Every offender knows that the board is corrupt, self serving, a bunch of good old boys and girls. Jeff the polygrapher whom everyone hate. THE under Veeder equally bad. Ask any offender group in the mental health field how many people actually completed all of their umpteenth phases and there is many 1 or 2 in all of their history of therapy. Now, will this report result in lawsuits? Hopefully.