MIDDLESEX COUNTY PRISON COORDINATING COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER
MCPCC met on March 12, 2008 in West Newton. Mary Ann Donaldson, Tom Crowther, Toby Frost,
Marjorie Moerschner, Lynne Sullivan, Dorothy Weitzman and Carol Winton were
present.
Mary Ann opened the meeting with a prayer.
Carol had informed us that Cheryl Binder who was scheduled to be our
speaker would not be able to make this meeting, so we decided to move up to
today a discussion we had planned for later.
There has been a lot in the news and elsewhere lately about sex offenses,
offenders and the sex offender registry. A day-long conference was held
recently at Boston College on "Sexual Offending, Prevention and Management
for Families, Agencies And Communities," which several MCPCC committee
members attended. Several of us went to a meeting at the Unitarian Church in
West Newton at which Robin Casarjian, author of
Houses of Healing, spoke. The other speaker was an ex-inmate who had gotten a
college degree under the Partakers program and was sponsored by the Unitarian
Church during that time. As a juvenile, this man with several older youths was
involved in an armed robbery in which one of the victims was killed, and in
consequence spent a number of years in prison starting at age seventeen. He was
also classified as a sex offender because during the robbery he took money from a woman's bra. Since his release he has been in
court mandated therapy, which he must pay for- but because of his CORI record
he has found it very difficult to get a job, not to mention a place to live.
Sexual offending, especially when children are involved, is
understandably a very difficult and very emotional subject. Most offenders are
lumped together in the public's mind and rational thinking on this subject
is hard to achieve. We had felt this was something that MCPCC should discuss,
and invited "C" a non-contact sex offender, to talk to us about his
experience with the correctional systems.
C's offense was downloading illegal pornography, which is free and
available on the internet. Illegal pornography is that which involves children
under the age of eighteen. Officials take illegal pornography seriously; just
as they believe that smoking marijuana will lead inevitably to heroin addiction
they believe that child porn will lead to child abuse, though there is no
evidence showing that to be the case.
C spent 13 months in a medium-high security federal prison. Unfortunately he could not take part in a rehabilitative program because such programs are available only for those serving terms of 15 months or longer. After prison he was on home confinement
for
many months with electronic monitoring. He is still on parole. His
computer is monitored and he has to take a polygraph test every 6 months. His
parole officer is federal, handles only sexual offenses, and has an
overwhelming case load. C is in group therapy. The federal system prefers
behavior modification rather than cognitive therapy.
He has to pay
for his monitoring device, polygraph tests and therapy. He has a job, but
finding one took time and many rejections. Like the man who spoke at the
Unitarian Church, he is encumbered with debt.
Sex offenders
are classified at 3 levels, level 3 being the most dangerous. 20% are
classified at this level, 70% at level 2 and 10% at level 1. C was first
classified as level 2, but with legal help was able to be reclassified as level
1.
He said that
recidivism rates for sex offenders are very low- 69% for contact, 1-3% for
non-contact offenders, figures cited by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D. an authority on
sexual addiction, author and speaker, and David Finkelhor,
Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire.
This is a
sensitive subject for discussion. We all felt that it was sensitively
discussed, and that it was a good and worthwhile meeting. We thank C for
speaking with us and adding to our understanding.
He would be willing to conduct a similar presentation or conversation with a selected small audience. Please contact an MCPCC member at tandwf@earthlink.net if you are interested.
At our April meeting Billerica Chaplain Milton Thomas will be our guest and in May, Cheryl Binder, the interim director of education at Billerica, will be with us.
NEXT
MEETING: APRIL 9 at 7 PM