State-funded therapy for sex offenders halted

Psychologist, sheriff call cuts dangerous By Carl Chancellor Beacon Journal staff writerPublished on Sunday, Mar 23, 2008 Recent cuts to Ohio's prison budget means the state has stopped paying for counseling services for paroled sex offenders across the state, including the more than 800 supervised sex offenders living in Akron. Those cuts are a great concern to Dr. James A. Orlando of Summit Psychological Associates, which at any given time treats between 125 and 200 sex offenders in Summit, Stark, Portage, Tuscarawas and Mahoning counties. ''This is a dangerous situation . . . It's a serious public safety issue,'' said Orlando, a trained clinical psychologist. Orlando said the decision by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to no longer pay for the treatment of paroled sex offenders beginning in March,means that there are high-risk sex offenders, who represent a very real danger to children and adults, walking the streets of Akron unchecked. ''They are being left to their own devices not to re-offend. If we don't find a way to manage them in the community, there are going to be more sex offenses and more people are going to be victimized,'' Orlando said. As part of trimming the department's $1.7 billion-plus budget for 2008 by $71 million, it was decided to no longer pay for the counseling and treatment of paroled sex offenders. ''The cuts came without any warning. We got a letter on Feb. 28 that said on March 3, the program would be cut,'' Orlando said. As a consequence, his and other counseling agencies across the state are scrambling to provide crucial treatment services to paroled sex offenders. ''We've set up a sliding scale and are offering minimal co-pay (options),'' Orlando said. The hope is if the treatment programs are as affordable as possible, sex offenders will voluntarily seek treatment for their conditions. However, Orlando is dubious. He said many paroled sex offenders are unemployed and find it difficult to find jobs because of their felony records. ''They just can't pay for treatment,'' Orlando said. He said the state payment of about $35 per client for a group counseling session made it possible for sex offenders to go into treatment. Orlando said he plans to approach county mental health boards for possible funding. Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander shares Orlando's concerns. ''Without treatment, the odds go up that they are going to re-offend,'' Alexander said. He called the situation a real ''Catch 22.'' ''They are told that as a condition of parole they have to seek treatment, but the state is no longer going to pay for it . . . I'm just dumbfounded. I don't understand it,'' Alexander said. Budget cuts Linda Janes, the ODRC's deputy director of the division of parole and community services, said the cuts were an unavoidable consequence of budget constraints. ''As part of our cost-savings effort we've cut all external treatment contracts statewide,'' Janes said. She said the department previously spent roughly $1.3 million a year funding external treatment programs for sex offenders. ''We feel absolutely awful about the cuts but it's a consequence of the budget crisis,'' Janes said. She said the ODRC has taken a ''multifaceted'' approach to cost-cutting, which in addition to eliminating external contracts, includes making staff cuts and other cost-savings initiatives. One of those initiatives, Janes said, has been to shift the task of counseling paroled sex offenders to the department's Adult Parole Authority. ''We are in the process of training in-house staff now to provide that treatment. Hopefully, that will begin in May,'' Janes said. She said sex offenders on parole will be able to go to adult parole offices, which are located in every county, for treatment and counseling. Coping strategies Summit Psychological Associates and Orlando have for more than 20 years been providing sex offender treatment, which is modeled on the Alcoholic Anonymous approach. ''Since 1984, we've been teaching sex offenders to recognize high-risk factors and we help them develop strategies and behavioral controls to allow them to live out the rest of their lives without re-offending,'' Orlando said. Still, Orlando admits that there is no way to cure a sex offender. He said the group therapy sessions provided by his agency, which initially are offered weekly and then on a monthly basis, teach offenders behavioral controls that make it much less likely they will re-offend. Orlando said the ''heart of sex-offender treatment'' is to give offenders the tools to control their urges. ''Even though you (an offender) will still have deviant desires, you won't act on it,'' Orlando said. ''But right now we have a situation where these guys are getting out of prison with no training and without the tools to know how to cope with their urges . . . Without treatment, all we are doing is increasing the likelihood that some little girl or little boy is going to be molested, that someone is going to be victimized, that someone is going to be hurt,'' Orlando said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Carl Chancellor can be reached at 330-996-3725 or cchancellor@thebeaconjournal.com.