CA: New CDCR Treatment Regulations Delayed

Source: ACSOL The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reported today a delay of up to 30 days in issuance of new regulations that are expected to clarify how long registrants on parole must undergo treatment.  The projected date for issuance of the regulations is no later than October 30, 2024. CDCR previously entered into a settlement agreement regarding this matter several months ago in response to a lawsuit challenging an unwritten CDCR policy that required all registrants on parole to undergo treatment the entire time they are on…

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CA Court Halts Treatment Requirements for Registrant on Parole

Source: ACSOL A Superior Court judge in San Mateo county ruled this week that a registrant on parole is no longer required to participate in an additional treatment program.  This ruling was made after a hearing in which a CA Department of Corrections (CDCR) representative testified that “a sex offender cannot successfully ‘complete’ a sex offender management treatment program” while on parole. “This court’s ruling clarifies that many registrants on parole are required to complete only one treatment program,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.  “No longer can CDCR require…

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SC: Shield Ministries doctor explains treatment for sex offenders

Source: abcnews4.com 1/6/23 “When you have a pedophile leading pedophiles, it puts a really bad taste in your mouth,” Walterboro resident Kevin Lyles said. This is a common concern among Walterboro residents that live near Barracada Road. The executive director of Shield Ministries, David Truluck, is a registered sex offender planning to open a third treatment center and halfway house there. We took the resident’s concerns to Dr. William Burke, a doctor who treats sex offenders in the Shield Ministries program. Dr. Burke has performed around 10,000 evaluations on sex…

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UT: Audit: Staff shortage at Division of Adult Probation and Parole contributing to repeat offenses

Source: ksl.com 11/16/22 A legislative audit blames recent “serious crimes” committed by people on probation or parole on high turnover rates and inexperience on one of Utah’s parole boards. The Utah Department of Correction’s Division of Adult Probation and Parole lacks the staff to adequately supervise and screen sex offenders and offenders with mental illnesses, according to the Legislative Auditor General Office’s new audit. The office presented its findings to the Legislative Audit Subcommittee on Tuesday, along with two other audits addressing the Board of Pardons and Parole, and cooperation…

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IA: Supreme Court upholds prison sex offender treatment process

Source: radioiowa.com 11/24/21 The Iowa Supreme Court rules against a group of inmates at the Newton prison who said their constitutional rights were violated by a delay in getting sex offender treatment need to be considered for parole. The ruling says the Iowa Department of Corrections has not postponed treatment in order to delay parole. It says it is a numbers problem where there are more male sex offenders in Iowa’s prison system than spots available for treatment. Read the full article  

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CO: Colorado District Attorneys Sound The Alarm Over Bill To Revamp Sex Offender Management

UPDATED: CO: Bill To Transform Sex Offender Management Pulled After Claims It Would Hurt Public Safety [denver.cbslocal.com – 6/3/21] [denver.cbslocal.com – 5/24/21] DENVER (CBS4) – A bill dealing with sex crimes has exploded in controversy at the State Capitol. District attorneys say the bill would allow some of the state’s most violent sex offenders to be released from prison without any treatment. The bill sponsor, Rep. Kerry Tipper, says hundreds of them aren’t getting treatment now because of a long waitlist even though a District Court ruled that sex offenders…

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MN: Psychologist at Minnesota sex offender program charged with sexually assaulting two clients

[startribune.com – 4/23/21] The psychologist, Michelle D. _______, 38, of Duluth, was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving the men, who were undergoing treatment for sexual offenses. A warrant covering Minnesota and its border states has been issued for her arrest. The assaults occurred between 2016 and early 2018 on the campus of the state’s secure treatment facility in Moose Lake, including in rooms where clients undergo psychological assessments and polygraph tests, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Carlton County District Court. The charges…

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MN: Minnesota House committee hears sex offender program’s request for funding

[msn.com – 4/6/21] The Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee learned more Tuesday about the proposed $17.8 million contained in Gov. Tim Walz’s bonding request for the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in St. Peter. The funding would renovate two buildings on the program’s campus, adding 30 beds to Community Preparation Services, as well as provide more programming and administrative space. Clients transferred to CPS continue treatment in a less restrictive setting that prepares them to integrate back into the community. Right now, all 89 beds at CPS are full, with about…

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Canada: Psychiatric patients awarded nearly $10M in lawsuit over experimental treatments

[orilliamatters.com – 2/12/21] ‘Those who were youths were harmed in a severe and lifelong manner that deserves particular attention,’ judge finds Patients who were subjected to “degrading and inhumane” experimental treatments at the former Oak Ridge maximum-security psychiatric facility in Penetanguishene have been awarded a total of just under $10 million. The awards for the 28 patients range from $1,000 up to $2.7 million for a vulnerable teenager in “mental agony” who was shackled naked to other patients, including a sex offender. … In 1975, after running away, stealing and…

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TX: Beeville optometrist (!) appointed by Gov. Abbott to Texas sex offender treatment council

[caller.com – 10/1/20] AUSTIN – Beeville optometrist Elizabeth Perez Aliseda has been appointed to the Texas  Council on Sex Offender Treatment by Gov. Greg Abbott. Aliseda owns Mira Vision Boutique in Beeville. She is also a member of the Texas Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association and a former president of the Coastal Bend College Foundation and the Beeville Rotary Club. Read more about this appointment of an optometrist who will manage sex offender treatment  

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Inside an innovative program helping sex offenders reintegrate into society – and why it works

[theconversation.com – 5/10/20] In recent years, the biggest increases in Australia’s prison population have come from people convicted of sexual offences. From 2017-18, this segment of the prison population increased by 10%. The following year, it was up again by 7%. As a corollary, more and more sexual offenders are being released from prisons back to our communities. Understandably, a great deal of public concern often accompanies the release of sexual offenders, especially those who have committed offences against children. Despite this, very few programs exist to support sexual offenders…

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The Effectiveness of Sex Offender Treatment Programs

[sosen.org – 3/11/19] An article posted in the Daily Mail on June 24 2016 caught my eye, why?, because it’s something that I have been saying for years and nobody has been listening to. So here is the link to the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4635876/Scandal-100million-sex-crime-cure-hubs.html and some of the basic information that is in the article, “The scandal of the sex crime ‘cure’ hubs: How minister buried report into £100million prison programme to treat paedophiles and rapists that INCREASED reoffending rates”. Sex Offender Treatment Programme is psychological group-therapy course Believed to have…

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UT: Social work expert disagrees with federal law enforcers about sex offender treatment

[deseretnews.com – 12/15/18] A University of Utah social work professor and therapist disagrees with the state’s top federal law enforcement officials’ assessment that treatment for child sex offenders doesn’t work. Rob Butters, who has also worked as a probation officer, said it’s unfortunate they made the statement in a public forum because “it’s simply not true.” “We know that treatment works a lot better than incarceration,” he said. “Prison doesn’t make people better. It just keeps them incapacitated.” U.S. Attorney John Huber and FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Barnhart…

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WA: Judges Denies Lakewood’s Request To Stop Sex Offender Relocation

[patch.com – 8/6/18] LAKEWOOD, WA – A Pierce County judge has denied Lakewood’s request to stop the transfer of three sex offenders from McNeil Island to a private residential adult treatment house in the city. On Friday, Lakewood officials asked Pierce County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Martin to stop the transfer. Although Martin denied that request, the city’s is still engaged in a lawsuit against the state to stop the transfer of sex offenders from facilities like Western State into residential treatment facilities. Read more about this important precedent  

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How do we get better, really? The Achieving Clinical Excellence 2018 Conference in Östersund, Sweden

[sajrt.blogspot.com 5/9/18] The evidence is in, and there’s no doubt. Psychotherapy works for a wide range of conditions and behaviors. People can and do change, often suddenly and unpredictably. Among the most effective mechanisms for change is the most ancient and fundamental approach: the human conversation. Why even mention this? Those working in the fields of violence and trauma (including sexual abuse) too often believe that people who harm others are either unwilling or unable to change, despite decades of evidence. Too many professionals argue over lesser findings or ask…

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OR: Retired social worker writes about pioneering work with sex offenders

[statesmanjournal.com] Conversations at the dinner table were different growing up in the Callahan home. When your mother is best known for her work with sex offenders, that’s to be expected. “Some of my earliest memories were of dropping her off at a prison and picking her up,” said Barbara Baer, the oldest of Marilyn Callahan’s three grown children. “I didn’t know anything different. That was her profession, just like other families had parents who were attorneys and doctors.” Callahan is a retired licensed clinical social worker, renowned locally as a…

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