Sex Offenders Seek End to Extra Jail Time

Attorneys for eight repeat sex offenders are accusing the state of acting unconstitutionally by housing the men, who have already completed their prison sentences, in Los Angeles County jails rather than in hospitals and by denying them mental health treatment during their stays.

The inmates are awaiting court hearings to determine whether they will be committed to state hospitals under California’s Sexually Violent Predator Act, which took effect in 1996 and was clarified by a recent state Supreme Court decision.

The attorneys have asked judges to order their clients placed in the hospitals during the hearing process, which can last years. They filed motions saying that the inmates, who are alleged to have mental disorders, are being treated like prisoners rather than patients.

After receiving the motions, Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley brought the cases into one courtroom in March and has heard testimony for several weeks. His pending decision could apply to 112 men who committed their sex crimes in Los Angeles County.

“Anecdotally, I’ve been hearing a lot of horror stories, so I thought it was time to look into this,” Wesley, assisting supervising judge of the criminal division, said in an interview. “I’m not saying these are good people. I’m saying they are still human beings.”

Though Wesley is still studying the laws, he said he is inclined to believe it is only right to provide the inmates mental health services. “If we are going to house these people on the premises, we should be giving them treatment,” he said.

The sex predator law allows judges or juries to commit repeat sex offenders to state hospitals after their prison terms have ended.

The process is twofold. After release from prison, the offender is transferred to a county jail, where he is arraigned and then participates in a hearing to determine if there is probable cause to believe he may commit new sexually violent crimes.

If probable cause is found, the inmate is sent to Atascadero State Hospital until his trial, which will determine whether he should be committed to the hospital for two years. For that to happen, at least two mental health experts must have determined that the inmate presents a “substantial danger” to society because he is likely to attack again.

The Los Angeles County Jail is home to 51 repeat sex offenders, some of whom have been awaiting probable cause hearings for more than three years, jail officials said.

Wesley issued an order in March to the state attorney general and Department of Mental Health asking them to show why the offenders should not be housed in a state hospital and receive mental health treatment pending their probable cause hearings.

“I want to see what’s wrong,” Wesley said. “I just want to know how people can be detained for so many years without treatment and without trial.”

The attorney general’s office, representing the Mental Health Department, responded in writing that the state has no legal responsibility to provide treatment until offenders arrive at Atascadero State Hospital after their probable cause hearings.

“There is no law saying we should bring treatment into the local county jail, and there is definitely no law saying they should be transferred to another facility,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Karen Ackerson-Brazille, who added that the housing issue has been raised in other counties as well.

Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Nora Romero said the attorneys are responsible for their clients’ lengthy waits in county jail because they often seek postponements of the court hearings.

“If they really want treatment, all they have to do is go forward with the probable cause hearing,” she said.

The attorneys counter that it takes a long time to gather case histories, get their clients evaluated and argue legal issues that arise. Attorney Jonathan Mandel said that at one client’s request, he sacrificed that time and moved forward with the probable cause hearing so the client could get transferred from jail to the hospital.

“Nobody wants to rush, because you want to prepare,” he said. “But if you don’t rush, they’re sitting in jail.”

Attorney Todd L. Melnik said it is unconstitutional for his client to be forced to wait in jail rather than a hospital for his probable cause hearing, because he has already been punished for his crime.

His client, Barry Blake, finished his state prison term for assault in May 2000. But because of two prior convictions on sex charges, he has been waiting to see if he will be committed to a hospital before being released into the community. Melnik has asked that Blake be placed in a hospital pending those hearings.

A 1999 California Supreme Court decision upholding the predator law as constitutional said that it was not designed to be punitive and should treat the offenders “not as criminals, but as sick persons.” Melnik said the law is being applied in a punitive way.

“Here he has been in county jail for two years, not getting a lick of treatment,” Melnik said. “If these guys are really mentally ill, then why aren’t we doing more to rehabilitate them?”

Melnik, along with the other attorneys, is arguing that a recently amended section of the state Penal Code says a sex offender must be housed in a facility that “can continue the person’s program of treatment, provide adequate security, and minimize interference with the person’s program of treatment.”

If the person is not receiving such treatment, the law says the court should order the person transferred to another facility, such as a state hospital.

The state attorney general’s office, however, argues that the section applies only to repeat sex offenders who are in outpatient programs--of which there are currently none.

In Los Angeles, repeat sex offenders are housed in the Twin Towers jail downtown and are segregated from the general jail population for their own safety.

“It’s manpower-intensive,” said Senior Deputy Paul Schrader. “Anytime they go anywhere, we have to make sure the other inmates are either locked down or placed in another area.”

Assistant County Counsel Kevin Brazile, who represents the Sheriff’s Department, said jail officials are trying to treat the offenders like civil detainees rather than criminals by housing them in a dorm area and giving them some special privileges, such as more access to vending machines and cable television. They also can have more personal belongings than regular inmates, Brazile said.

“But it’s a jail, so there’s only so much we can do with them,” he said.

Brazile said the jail does not have the resources or the authorization to provide sex offender treatment. The county Mental Health Department said it doesn’t have the expertise or funding to treat the inmates either.

Not only are the men being denied mental health treatment in county jail, their attorneys said, they also do not have regular access to education, rehabilitation programs or religious services. They receive inconsistent medical treatment and are subject to strip searches, their attorneys said. Until Judge Wesley ruled otherwise, the men were shackled when they were brought into court.

Deputy Public Defender John Douglas, who represents four inmates who are at Atascadero and will be brought to Los Angeles for their trials, is asking that his clients be placed in a facility run by the state or county mental health departments to receive required treatment for those detained due to mental illness.

The state, he said, “can’t just wash their hands of these guys because they’re currently in local custody.”

During one of the hearings in Wesley’s courtroom, repeat sex offender Kenneth Ciancio said he had not received treatment since December 1998, when he arrived at Los Angeles County Jail to await his probable cause hearing. His case is taking a long time in part because he has been contesting the state’s claim that he even qualifies under the law to be considered a sexually violent predator.

During the hearing, the judge read aloud a letter from the California Department of Corrections congratulating Ciancio on completing his prison sentence and saying that the department hoped he would reenter the community successfully someday.

Asked about the letter, Ciancio said, “I’m still hoping that day comes.”