THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506220526
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Gov. George F. Allen has repeated his decision to shut down Virginia's only prison program that treats sexual offenders and has declined an invitation to visit the therapeutic wing at Bland Correctional Institute.
The rapists and other sexual offenders will have to ``heal themselves,'' Allen said Wednesday.
In a letter to Allen, 25 members of the Bland Sex Offender Therapeutic Community implored the governor to ``make a decision that is morally correct instead of politically advantageous.''
``If this treatment program has prevented even one man from committing another sex crime, have you not provided a terrific service to the citizens of our state?'' the inmates wrote.
At Allen's suggestion, funding for the program was eliminated earlier this year and will close down on June 30 when funding for the current fiscal year expires.
The program provides intensive counseling for sex criminals in the quarters where they are housed apart from other prisoners.
Prison officials have said the $220,000-a-year program is not a cost-effective way to deal with sex offenders, who have a high risk of recidivism.
Allen said he had not seen the letter and had no plans to visit. He said the administration has other budget priorities, and Department of Corrections Director Ron Angelone does not believe the therapy for sex offenders ``is all that effective.''
``The most effective thing we can do with sex offenders is have them serve the term and the time the judges and juries have imposed upon them,'' he said.
Allen said that under his truth-in-sentencing reforms, most sex offenders will serve at least double the time they previously served, so they will have more time to ``contemplate the wrongfulness of their acts.''
The sex offenders argue that without the treatment program, they will return to the general prison population and quickly revert to their old ways.
The therapeutic program - the first of its kind in Virginia - is based on many of the same principles as substance-abuse treatment and has been successful in lowering recidivism rates in other states.
But it is being eliminated after less than two years, the time required for an inmate to complete the program. ``Unless you change your mind and decide, by executive order, to save this program, you . . . will never know if our program is effective or not,'' the inmates wrote to Allen on June 10.
The inmates also are seeking a solution in court. U.S. District Judge James Turk has denied their request for a temporary restraining order to keep the program open past June 30, but a lawsuit is still pending.
And in a motion asking Turk to dismiss the lawsuit, the state argues that affidavits outlining the inmates' concerns about returning to crime without the program are ``rife with psycho-babble.''
The attorney general's office said inmates do not have a constitutional right to the treatment program of their choice. by CNB