Senate OKs bill on detaining sex offenders

RICHMOND

A proposal that would allow sexual predators awaiting civil commitment reviews to be held with jail inmates has some lawmakers calling the measure unconstitutional and a threat to the treatment program.

Virginia law currently bans mingling those being held indefinitely after their prison sentences for treatment with those serving active sentences.

But the Senate has unanimously endorsed a proposal advanced by the Attorney General's office that would put into law what has been the practice for years.

"This is approving the practice that has been going on since the first person was committed in October of 2003," Assistant Attorney General Pamela Sargent told a House subcommittee.

Under the measure, sheriffs wouldn't be required to have separate detention areas for individuals awaiting their civil commitment review hearings, in which a judge determines if they must remain committed. Virginia's 200 sex offenders are held in Burkeville, but are returned to the localities where they were sentenced for the hearings.

Twenty states have civil commitment programs. They have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, but only so long as the detainment is for treatment, not further punishment.

Some House Republican legislators said the practice of housing civil commitment individuals with criminals — no matter how briefly — could subject Virginia to lawsuits that could bring down the entire program.

"When this breaks, it won't be one person," Delegate Robert Bell, R-Albemarle, told Sargent. "As you know, the system will break, and at that point the entire system will be declared unconstitutional."

A subcommittee chaired by Bell stripped similar language from the House's version of the civil committee bill, opting instead to allow the reviews to be done via video conferencing in areas where that's available.

Sargent said segregating offenders when they're held for the hearings, which could be up to a week at a time, is too expensive and impractical for sheriffs, who support the law change.

She said she was confident the practice was legal and constitutional "because it's for a very short time period."

Some legislators questioned if offenders should be in jail at all if they are being rehabilitated.

"Logic would tell me that if I'm not being punished for a crime, what the heck are you putting me in a prison or a jail with a bunch of criminals?" said Delegate David Albo, R-Fairfax. "That's not fair."

Offenders and some attorneys who defend them agree.

"Jail is punitive! For five seconds or two hours or three weeks, it's punitive and way worse than any prison," committed sex offender Mike Holzmiller wrote in a letter to The Associated Press.

Holzmiller molested a young girl when he was 19. After spending six months in prison, he was released but he violated probation in 2002 and was sent back to prison. Now 36, he has been committed since 2008.

When offenders go for their commitment reviews, they are handcuffed, shackled and transported by sheriff's deputies to the local jail, where they are booked like other inmates, Holzmiller said.

"I'm tired of going before my judge in cuffs and shackles and an undersized jumpsuit and flip flops," he said.

In letters to the AP, several other offenders said they feared being attacked by other inmates when transferred to jails.

"I would like to see the entire program revamped so that it cannot extend punishment to people," said Leigh Drewry, a Lynchburg lawyer who has successfully challenged parts of the civil commitment law in the past. "If that means I challenge it because they've made it unconstitutional, so be it."

Virginia's civil commitment program already is drawing fire for its explosive growth. When the program started in 2003 only four crimes qualified someone to be committed. In 2006 the list was expanded to 28.

As the list grew, so did the costs. In 2004, the program cost $2.7 million. This year's estimate is $24 million.

Legislators are debating Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to spend nearly $70 million to meet the expanding needs, including $43.5 million to renovate a closed prison in Brunswick to use when the 3-year-old, 300-bed Burkeville center is full later this year.

The differences in the two versions of the bill will be worked out before the session ends on Feb. 26.