Sexual predator program working

I was somewhat surprised to see The Gazette Editorial Board's opinion on Iowa's sexual predator treatment program (May 24, Gomers, What's going wrong). Clearly, the opinion reflects and implies that the $7 million program is a failure, based on the lack of a single release of a convicted sexual predator in the 11 years of the program's existence.

I suggest that, to the contrary, the program is doing exactly what it was intended to do, keep sexually violent predators under control and in treatment programs until deemed “safe” to be released.

Eleven years may or may not be a long time. The 1998 Sexually Violent Predators Act of Iowa states that “ ... inpatient treatment is indefinite,” reflecting among other things that nobody really knows how long it takes to rehab a sexually violent predator, or if a given predator can in fact be rehabilitated at all.

There are no time limits or deadlines for accomplishing the rehab objective and no guarantees of achievement, only a commitment to try.

Unlike tragic repercussions from releases in other parts of this country, since the Iowa treatment program was initiated on July 1, 1998, not a single Iowan has been raped, killed or otherwise abused by a previously convicted sexually violent predator who was turned loose on the public by some well-meaning government agency that erroneously deemed the individual “cured.”

In answer to The Gazette's dangling question “Is this $7 million-a-year program doing its job?” I suggest the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Thomas J. Kopecky

Cedar Rapids