Plan targets high-risk sex offenders

AUGUSTA – Under a proposal discussed by legislative panelists Tuesday, a board of experts would be established to determine whether certain sex offenders should be kept in jail even after they have completed a minimum sentence.

“We have high-risk sex offenders that are the most dangerous people that we lock up,” the head of Maine’s prison system told the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. “We have some sex offenders that are absolutely monsters.”

By unanimous resolve, the Legislature last year required the state Department of Corrections to investigate how such a board might work in Maine and to report back this session. DOC Commissioner Marty Magnusson seemed eager to oblige Tuesday, telling lawmakers that the proposal drafted by his department was aimed at keeping the “worst of the worst” behind bars. Though the law would apply only to new offenders, Magnusson estimated under pressure from committee members that if the law were in effect today it would affect 20 to 25 inmates.

“That’s my guess,” Magnusson said. “Others may disagree.”

Magnusson said there are inmates now in state custody who have indicated to prison officials they will offend again as soon as they are released. He said they include both violent adult rapists and offenders who prey on children. He said while the overall number of sex offenders in the system has decreased in recent years, the number of repeat offenders has increased.

The proposal drafted by DOC would establish a board made up of psychiatric experts in the field of sex offenders who would use the latest assessment tools to determine the danger a convicted offender might pose to the community. Those deemed a threat to public safety would not be released.

“I don’t think there is any doubt we will go forward with this and draft a committee bill,” said Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, co-chair of the committee. He said he and other committee members, however, shared a “great frustration” over the fact that the measure would apply only to new sex offenders.

Sen. Roger Sherman, R-Houlton, said the state should try to get all of its best legal minds together to find a way to address those inmates in the system now who should not be released.

“There has to be a way to protect the public from these people,” Sherman said.

He believes the public wants violent, predatory sex offenders to be locked away, and he agrees they should be prevented from reoffending and creating more victims.

“I think everybody on the committee wants this done, and they want it done this year,” said Rep. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick. He served on the committee last year and is co-chairman of the panel this session. “We have been working towards this for a couple of sessions.”

The co-chair of the panel last session, Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor, is again a member of the committee this year. She agreed the panel wants to adopt legislation that would create a board to protect the public from sex offenders.

“This is not going to be easy,” she said. “There are many issues to address and resolve, but I think we can get it done. We have people in our prisons that we should not let out; it’s like giving a violent criminal a loaded gun and telling them not to use it.”

In preparing the proposal, DOC officials researched the way other states are handling dangerous, repeat sex offenders and found 16 states have some variation of a civil commitment process that locks up the offenders in a secure psychiatric center. Several states are looking at using indeterminate sentencing for repeat sex offenders during their current legislative sessions.

The DOC developed the proposal using its own staff and corrections experts. Joseph Fitzpatrick, director of Behavioral Health Services at DOC, told lawmakers the working group that developed the proposal had consulted with some national experts as well.

“We are breaking some new ground here,” Fitzpatrick said.

Walter McKee, an Augusta defense attorney who attended committee deliberations last year for the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he has not seen the report, but he was certain the group will have significant concerns. He added that the board idea was “an answer in search of a problem” that is not needed.

McKee also said if the state does set up the forensic board review process, it is likely to be expensive, a point lawmakers on the panel also brought up in discussions of the proposal.

“You can say we have some problems with this,” he said in a phone interview. “We have some real problems with this.”

Diamond said there will be plenty of opportunities for McKee and others to weigh in on the proposal. He said legislation will be drafted and public hearings held later this session when all concerns and suggestions will be welcome.