High-risk offenders remain off street

Convicted sex offender Daniel Garren is working to earn his way back into society after being confined for 16 years.

The 66-year-old Vietnam veteran has battled anger issues - stoked by his disabling combat experiences and childhood issues of rejection and sexual abuse - since being placed in a special treatment unit for sexual predators deemed to be too risky to release. He went there after discharging his prison term for committing lascivious acts with a child.

“I was kind of an outcast from the day I was born,” said Garren, a Des Moines man who has been held in Iowa's Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, or CCUSO, at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute since April 1999.

With the help of an intensive treatment program, Garren is one of eight offenders among the 80 being held in the special unit operated by the state Department of Human Services who have progressed to a transitional phase where they eventually may become eligible for supervised release with court approval.

That would be a significant milestone because, to date, no one has become a CCUSO “graduate” completing the entire treatment regimen since the program's inception 11 years ago, although judges have ordered 17 releases for various legal reasons during that span, Jason Smith said. He directs the program, one of 20 such state units nationwide.

“We have yet to have somebody complete commitment, transitional release and then us say, ‘OK, you've completed all the treatment and now you're going to be discharged,'” Smith said.

The DHS program, with a staff of nearly 70 and an annual budget approaching $7 million, was established by 1998 legislation. State officials may seek indefinite civil commitment from the courts of high-risk sexual offenders convicted of at least two sexually violent crimes once the offenders are eligible for release from prison. Each offender held at the facility receives an annual review hearing.

Prisonlike experience

The double row of glistening metal security fence encasing the CCUSO wing at the Cherokee MHI gives the feel of a prison yard rather than a human services treatment facility in a remote northwest Iowa setting that already has the vestiges of a Shutter Island movie set. Some of the men housed there say conditions in some ways were better behind prison bars than the DHS special unit that they see as unconstitutional “double jeopardy” punishment, even though the courts have ruled otherwise.

The ages of the 80 men held at a facility, which has the capacity to expand for 150 offenders, range from 25 to 82. Smith said some of the detainees don't want to be released. Some want to work through the program. Others say, “I shouldn't be here, I want out of here,” Smith said.

“This place is hopeless,” said Dave Taft, 40, a Cedar Rapids man who served prison time for sex-related crimes, burglary and other offenses. He has progressed to the treatment program's third phase since transferring to the Cherokee facility in 2005.

“It's nothing more than a warehouse to keep people locked up at the taxpayers' expense,” he said. “The only way anyone's been released from the CCUSO is through the courts or through death.”

Taft said he has benefitted from treatment he has received and realized through the trained use of interventions that his past actions were wrong. He said he has the needed tools to prevent repeating the behavior in the future. He said he is anxious to be released to start an engraving business on the outside yet he continues to be detained, which is a source of frustration.

“I'm trying to do what I have to do to get out of here. I don't have a problem with sexual or violent behavior as I once did years ago. I do feel like I'm ready to be released,” Taft said in an interview.

“Back when I was doing my criminal offending years ago, I didn't care who I hurt. Now, years later, I understand the ramifications of that behavior and I don't want to do that again. I really don't. Those people just don't deserve that,” he said.

He added: “Those people just don't deserve it. I feel real bad about what I had done in the past. I can't change that. All I can do is prevent myself from doing it in the future.”

Several methods used

Smith said the five-phase program measures and evaluates various stages of development in deterring sexually deviant thoughts and behavior, coping with stress and managing anger, and demonstrating skills in communicating, problem-solving and work habits. The goal is enabling men to function in ways they couldn't before so they don't offend again.

The program uses physiological measures, polygraph tests and professional screenings to document that offenders no longer are at a “more likely than not level of risk to commit another sexual offense.” That measurement of likelihood is required to progress through the program phases and eventually earn release, Smith said.

“It's a difficult balance. From our standpoint, we have a very rigorous treatment program and our standards are pretty high for someone to complete it,” he said.

Smith noted that concerns exist about the impact an offender's resettlement could have on closely watching victims and the risk of releasing someone who potentially could commit a new offense. The treatment program's final stages include supervised day trips with electronic monitoring devices, work activities and routine living situations, he said.

Garren, the offender in treatment, said, “I've been locked up for 16 years now and a lot of things have changed, especially money - expenses.” He said he is adapting to using his first cordless telephone and has yet to use a cellular phone.

He said his goal is to win release and relocate in a rural area near Des Moines close to his family members where he can work on cars and do woodworking.