Bill would add oversight for some sex offenders
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: February 28, 2007
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate is starting work on a bill that would give the state more oversight of some sexual offenders after their release from prison and head off a push for a civil commitment program.
Civil commitment would allow the state to hold such offenders after their sentences are complete.
The bill, S-123, is in large part the result of work between Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, a Republican.
The measure, which Sears calls "civil commitment lite," appears likely to get some traction in the Senate, given that every member of Sears' committee has signed onto the bill, including Senate Majority Leader John Campbell, D-Windsor.
Commissioner of Public Safety Kerry Sleeper said Tuesday the bill is a good one, but he would have preferred a civil commitment bill to move forward.
The proposal being considered in the Senate would increase the frequency that offenders would have to report on their housing and work situations, and increase the amount of detail they would provide to the state sex offender registry.
If the offender failed to meet those conditions, they could be returned to prison under a life sentence. Afterward, they would be eligible for probation or parole, but only if tracked by a global positioning system.
Like the civil commitment proposal supported by Gov. James Douglas and some legislators, primarily Republicans, the bill being considered by Sears' committee would apply to offenders who have not completed sex offender treatment programs, are deemed by the state as likely to commit another crime and are reaching the end of their maximum sentences.
"It is a group of high-risk sex offenders who will be coming out, and who the civil commitment bill was designed for," Sears said.
However, it is also a fairly small group — perhaps 15 to 20 people expected to be released from prison over the next decade. The number should also diminish over time, since the Legislature put in place mandatory maximum life sentences last legislative session. That means new offenders will be unlikely to be released unless they complete sexual offender treatment.
The civil commitment proposal has received scant support from lawmakers, who are concerned about the cost to an already overburdened prison system. Other states have found that civil commitment programs end up costing many times what they are projected to cost to hold relatively few offenders, opponents of the idea said.
"I know for some people in the building it will not be enough," Sears said of his bill. "I prefer to work on what is achievable, and I think this is achievable."
Sleeper said the Senate Judiciary Committee proposal is a good alternative if civil commitment is not a possibility.
"This places a much higher level of accountability on these offenders," Sleeper said. "Clearly the proposed legislation does have a certain enhanced degree of control over the sex offender once he is released."
It also may provide additional pressure on incarcerated sex offenders to go through treatment programs, Sears and Sleeper said.
House Judiciary Committee members have not seen the legislation yet, and said they would suspend judgment until they had a chance to review it.
If sex offenders violate the terms of the bill after they are released, they would be returned to prison and be eligible for release only if they were able to be monitored through global positioning technology.
Such active GPS tracking — which reports minute by minute on someone's movement — is not available widely in the state now, but should be soon, lawmakers said.
Other states that have a civil commitment program are being swamped under the costs, Campbell said.
"They are all being drowned under the weight of fiscal pressures," he said.
The bill now being considered in the Judiciary Committee is a good one, and perhaps should be expanded at some point to include violent as well as sexually violent offenders, Campbell said.
The proposal should not increase the prison population in Vermont substantially and avoids the necessity of creating a new facility for holding such offenders and establishing a court system for hearing such cases, lawmakers said.
Dubie said the bill is a good step.
"The legislation is a move in the right direction to provide additional supervision, control and oversight for a group of individuals who have not successfully completed sexual offender treatment as part of their prison sentences," he said. "I think it is a reasonable step in the right direction (but) we have more work to do."
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