In June 2019, after serving more than 29 years in Illinois prisons, Otis Arrington expected to be released to freedom: He had finished his time, which he describes as difficult and traumatic, and his exit date was pending. But three days before he was slated to get out, Arrington says he was informed that he would, instead, be placed under a new form of confinement — one with no end date, meted out after he had already completed the punishment imposed by the criminal courts.
“I was supposed to get out, and they kidnapped me,” says Arrington, now 62 years old. He is speaking over the phone from the Treatment and Detention Facility in Rushville — a rural area in western Illinois — where he is one of roughly 560 men (or, at least, people who the state has deemed men) who are being held indefinitely under a little-known “civil commitment” statute.
Under this legal mechanism, which exists in at least 20 states and the District of Columbia, individuals convicted of certain sexual offenses (or in some instances convicted of nothing), and deemed to have a mental disorder and constitute a danger to society, can be involuntarily committed to “treatment” facilities after they’ve already served their criminal sentence. While in civil commitment, individuals are supposed to receive mental healthcare and regular examinations, and to be released once it is determined they are no longer dangerous. As the statute that established civil commitment in Illinois in 1998 puts it, individuals are to receive “control, care and treatment until such time as the person is no longer a sexually violent person.”
Yet, In These Times spoke with people held in civil commitment, rights advocates, scholars and lawyers who say that, instead of receiving effective treatment, people held under civil commitment statutes are subject to prison conditions, inadequate mental healthcare, scientifically dubious evaluations, and homophobic bias; they are deprived of meaningful due process; and they have little hope of getting out anytime soon. Rehabilitation is not the goal, critics charge, but rather, civil commitment is intended to indefinitely detain and punish people whom society has deemed undesirable. This confinement does not rectify the harm individuals have done, and there is no evidence that civil commitment laws reduce sexual violence in society, critics say. Instead, they argue, it unleashes untold new harms: as the site of abuse, trauma and, according to some, sexual violence.
“We served our time, and then they turn our sentence into a life sentence,” says Arrington. “There are guys here who have been here over 20 years.” He adds, “You would be amazed at how many residents have died here.”
Civil commitment is no different what was done to individuals back in the 1900’s due to psychological problems. They call it treatment, but I call it a wheel same bull crap causing more harm. We’ve as a society and a species haven’t evolved much except in the stupidity department. End this modern day slavery of human trafficking of individuals that are deemed a threat; yet most aren’t and just want to move on!!!
“Stone walls a prison make nor iron bars a cage” their is a lot of meaning in that poem. One person gave a rendition of rape on here and many times she was castrated for her views it seems and it seemed out of place on here but it wasn’t.
Sure the old saying, if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen but who is in the kitchen with the cook, baker, and candle stick maker. TV commercials in the bast spoke about the mind and yes the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Are authorities over inducing with many of these registry ordeals.
This pandemic we are in. No one could predict it or forsee it coming. Sure casualities are being lost and people are dying as Peace, love, and happiness told me. once on here.Will Allen wants to stand his ground and many of you are sweeped up in all this misadventure.
We all have different lifestyles in life but growing up with this registry pitfall is unfathomable in many respects in many of these encounters. So who’s using the right methods or the wrong methods. Who is preventing or preverting in this ordeal?
Who is bring one down with their level of understanding when lady wisdom gets out of balance. And yes lady wisdom was a metaphor used in the bible in king Solomon’s time.
Their are a lot of thinkers on this topic out in California and other area’s of the usa and much of this registry is punitive and is a hinder to one in many ways in this callous way to defend the honor of the abuser or do we all abuse in many ways. Even not having good headlights of one broken out light on cars can be an abuse to the other and cause an accident whether its daylight or night time its still a conscious ordeal to get it fixed in this audacious and irreconcilable stone wall event. Authorities should be ashamed and accountable for their actions or where is the reconciliation.
Much of this lifetime is white washing on the cake so who holds things against others in many respects. All the world over people got to be free.
I don’t want to stay quiet…This gulag needs to be dismantled and destroyed! The courts keep sending men to civil commitment because they want them out of the way, they want them out of our society.
These facilities do not help, rehabilitate, or heal these men, on the contrary, they are very harmful, punitive, and destroy the soul of our men and our society. Nothing worse than authorities telling you that you don’t belong in our society and you need to be locked up for life for one crime, which you have paid dearly for! It is unconstitutional and inhumane!
Coalinga State Hospital is our states’s miserable legacy from the 90s and we keep feeding into it. The taxpayers would rather waste billions of dollars of state budget in fear that maybe one of these thousands of men might in the future commit a crime. These billions of dollars can go towards many social services and rehabilitative programs to help heal and prevent abuse.
I find that the “better use of tax dollars” argument would really be the best way to tackle this horrible system. The problem is once you have staff and facilities and already invested into operations they’ll always use the excuse that it’s easier to just keep running things as is. And they also use the reasoning that they’ll “do the dirty work” so to the elected officials it’s just an easier way to dispose of people without killing them. This “civil commitment” concept is really just the natural response to the rso phenomenon.
“I don’t wanna deal with it, here’s the money you guys do it and just be quiet about it” – (insert elected official)
I am a registered citizen in Texas. In 2005 I was transferred to the Hightower unit where the sex offender treatments programs are located. I don’t know why I was moved there 6 years before my release to wait for the 4 month treatment (it is called Education Program rather than treatment), I did the 4 month because of being classified as very low risk.
Anyway, to give one example, there was an inmate who had been a 3rd grade teacher with 11 victims. He thought it hilarious that he had 11 victims and only got an 8 year sentence. He would sit around and joke and laugh about how his little 8 year old victims would cry and beg him to stop. I was caught between crying for his victims and a strong desire to cause him serious bodily harm. I finally turned away and prayed for those kids.
He never expressed any remorse, guilt, nothing, no feelings, except to laugh about how he probably destroyed 11 innocent lives.
It has been more than 30 years since my despicable offense and there are still days that I am saddened by the two young minds that I affected.
I honestly feel that had that man have been released back into society that he would have reoffended. I don’t know that for sure, but with a person who expressed no remorse and laughed about the damage he did, I can only assume he would reoffend.
Is involuntary commitment the absolute answer, I don’t know, but I do know that the ones I had the misfortune of knowing shouldn’t be able to get out and roam free due to their lack of remorse and empathy.
All I can say is that I have mixed feelings on it. Maybe someone can come up with a better solution, someone a lot smarter than me. But I doubt if anyone would put much effort into rehabing us “dregs of society”, as I’ve heard us registered person’s called.