(BBM)
The California definition of a SVP is a person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense against two or more victims
and who has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to the health and safety of others in that it is likely that he will engage in sexually violent criminal behavior. The law defines substantial sexual conduct with a child younger than 14 years old as violent crime.
To initiate the civil commitment procedure, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) and the Board of Prison Terms (BPT) conducts a review of each inmates record during the six months before their parole release date to determine if the sexual offenses meet the legal definition. If the offender meets the definition he is referred to the DMH upon completion of his prison term to determine if he meets the SVP criteria. As of September of 2004, the CDC has referred 5,577 offenders to DMH for a civil commitment review. Over 2,450 of these referrals did not meet the SVP criteria. These offenders were subsequently released back to CDC for parole.
If the DMH determines that the offender meets the criteria, he is required to undergo a clinical evaluation to determine if there is a diagnosed mental disorder. This determination is made by two DMH clinicians (psychiatrists or psychologists). If both concur that the person has a diagnosed mental disorder, the DMH will refer the case to the county district attorney of record who can file a petition for a civil commitment hearing before a judge. To date, county district attorneys have filed 1,018 of these petitions.
If the clinicians do not agree, two independent clinical evaluators under contract with the DMH will examine the offender. If the second set of evaluators do not concur, the offender will be released to CDC parole. If the second set of evaluators find the inmate meets SVP criteria, the DMH will refer the case to the district attorney of record. To date, 1,806 sex offenders did not meet the clinical evaluation criteria for civil commitment and were released back to CDC for parole and community supervision.
According to DMH officials, it costs the department approximately $41.6 million to operate and maintain the Sex Offender Commitment Program for 483 committed offenders as well as those awaiting civil commitment decisions. This includes costs related to program implementation and evaluations and court costs for persons referred from the Department of Corrections as potentially meeting the SVP criteria. This averages out to about $59,500 per offender (Based on the number of years (8) the program has operated, divided by the accumulative number of offenders (5,577) and the average number of offenders by the annual cost) ($41,583,000/697).
Which SO's are more likely to be civilly committed;
...Many are considered mentally retarded which is characterized by significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning (i.e., an IQ of approximately 70 or below).[/B]
So the question I'll leave you all with this morning, before I begin my busy day (sorry-I hate to post & run), is this;
If we know that not only is the cost of the civil committment process itself expensive, once committed, the cost for committment annually per/offender is at least 3x's the cost of incarceration; combined with the fact that the most cunning and manipulative (and the most dangerous, IMO) offenders will/can (easily) slip through the psychiatric evaluation process, being found without a mental illness diagnosis that rises to a level meeting the civil committment standard, WHY-WHY-WHY than do we not work to change the sentencing laws/requirements and keep these slimeballs in prison (NOT IN A HOSPITAL) where they belong??
Link to the above:
http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/04/12/04-012.pdf