Pataki Wants to Keep Sex Criminals Confined

1010 WINS) (ALBANY) Unable to get the state Assembly's ruling Democrats to approve civil confinement legislation, Republican Gov. George Pataki has ordered state officials to begin keeping some sexual predators locked up after their prison sentences have been completed.

``The governor can't wait any longer for the Assembly leadership to pass his proposal,'' Pataki spokesman Kevin Quinn said Monday.

``He has reassessed our abilities under current law and asked the (state) Office of Mental Health and Department of Correctional Services to push the envelope with the application of existing law, knowing that this aggressive interpretation might open us up to lawsuits,'' the Pataki aide said. ``The Assembly leadership has given us no choice.''

Quinn said that on Sept. 12, Pataki, who is eyeing a run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, ordered state authorities to begin evaluating every sexually violent predator in state prison before their release to determine if they should be civilly confined.

The executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union said Pataki's action ``reeks of political exploitation.''

``There's a grave risk of abuse whenever a governor engages in official lawlessness because he doesn't like the law and is running for president,'' said Donna Lieberman. ``And, there's a grave risk of abuse when the governor allocates to himself the role of judge and legislature by directing who should be incarcerated and for how long.''

She said the NYCLU was ``actively monitoring the situation'' and would evaluate any complaints it receives before deciding about a possible lawsuit challenging the policy.

As of the end of last week, 32 inmates had been evaluated and five sent to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center under the governor's new program, Quinn said. The other 27 have been released.

In all, New York has about 5,000 prison inmates convicted of sexually violent crimes. Quinn said that when such inmates approach their release dates, they will be evaluated by psychiatrists to determine if they represent a continuing threat.

Quinn said any inmate ordered held beyond the release date can challenge the determination in court.

Under the Pataki plan, the state is using its involuntary commitment law that deals with the mentally ill against the convicted sex criminals. Quinn said he knew of no other state doing that.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, issued a statement appearing to support the governor's action, although an aide said that without having details of the policy it was impossible to determine if it was legal.

``We are glad that the administration is finally taking steps to use New York's existing civil-confinement law as one part of our ongoing effort to protect the public from sex offenses,'' Silver's statement said.

Silver said Assembly Democrats ``have repeatedly urged the administration and local district attorneys to ensure that our existing laws, including New York's existing civil-commitment law, are being fully used to protect the public against sexual predators.''

The Pataki administration said at least 16 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted civil confinement statutes that allow them to hold convicted sex offenders in psychiatric facilities when their prison sentences have been completed, if they represent a continuing threat to the public. Such laws have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since 1998, Pataki has annually introduced civil-confinement legislation and it has passed the Republican-led state Senate six times. The Democratic-controlled Assembly, however, has refused to approve the legislation.

The five inmates ordered held beyond their prison sentences were all males and all had been convicted of molesting children.

FYI...

A bullet is alot cheaper than long term care/monitoring in a psyche ward.

I read about this yesterday. It's a great idea, unfortunately, it's been tried before and the courts overturned the practice.

Years ago, the mentally ill doing time in prison were usually sent to secure mental institutions once their prison sentence was completed. A suit was filed, claiming that these people were being held unfairly. Their argument was it wasn't a crime to be crazy. They were successful in court, and a large number of mentally ill individuals were released into society. Also in the late 70's/early 80's, Mario Cuomo's de-institutionalization policy for state hospitals was put in place. Thousands of mentally ill people were released to the community and treated by the Dept. of Mental Health on an out-patient basis. The effects of these two moves were that we ended up with an overwhelming increase in crime. It was during the early 80's that the New York State Dept. of Correctional Services (NYDOCS) was forced to build a large number of prisons all over the state to hold the increased prison population.

I worked in uniform for NYDOCS from 1980 through 2003. When I first started, there were a handful of mental hygiene satellite units at some of the maximum security prisons across the state. And there was one secure mental health building in the state that was specifically for evaluation and treatment of the criminally insane. It was run specifically by the state's Dept. of Mental Hygiene. No NYDOCS personnel worked there. The inmates would be sent there on referral only, were evaluated and treated and then sent back to their home prison.

Over the years, the programs and units for the mentally ill have increased across the state. When I retired in 2003, my facility had closed down one of its segregation units to turn it into a mental health satellite unit. The number of mentally ill inmates has increased tenfold, and it's not getting any better.

At my facility (a medium A, with dorm type rooms), they even have a sexual perp housing unit. I was rather surprised that they went ahead with it, since I figured that some ACLU lawyer would file suit claiming these guys were being singled out from the rest of the population. As far as I know, the unit still exists, but what benefit it has had remains to be seen.

Governor Pataki is trying to do the right thing. I just wonder if it will be allowed to continue, given the history of the courts in this state.

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