Sexually Violent Predators:

What happens after they've served time?

Atascadero Psych Techs are willing to start
treatment, but SVPs hold out for court appeals

The experience that Atascadero State Hospital Psych Techs are having in treating "sexually violent predators" can be described with one word -- frustrating.

Despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the SVP concept, most of the SVPs are still following their lawyers' advice. They're refusing treatment until their individual court appeals are concluded.

The program's employees are anxious to launch meaningful therapy, but they're limited to little more than observing and charting behavior patterns. And they must force the angry patients to obey rules that seem petty compared to prison rules.

ASH has about 20 SVPs committed by the courts. Another 120 or so patients are held at ASH pending a court determination that they should be committed as SVPs.

Among staffers on the SVP program are two Psych Techs with many years of experience treating sex offenders -- Ed Browne, a shift supervisor on one of the five SVP units, and Dan Dean, who also chairs the Psych Tech Professional Organization.

Earlier, they worked on the Sex Offender Treatment and Evaluation Project (SOTEP), a decade-long study to determine whether a relapse-prevention treatment program can help keep sex offenders from repeating their crimes. Unlike the SVP program, participation in SOTEP was voluntary.

"The SOTEP program was successful," Dean explained. "It reduced recidivism. It helped keep many of the program's patients from recommitting after they were released. Now, if we could just get these SVPs to make commitments to the same kind of treatment."

Each SVP will be returned to court where he will hear that the only way he gets out of ASH is by successfully completing the relapse-prevention program, being accepted into a Conditional Release Program (CONREP) and getting a court determination that he is not likely to offend again.

"They learn coping behaviors to help get around those kinds of thoughts and emotions. They learn that, while they may not have control over the rise of their impulses, they certainly can learn to control their behavior and whether they act upon those impulses," Browne said.

But getting patients committed to learning about themselves means overcoming more than legal obstacles.

"You have to remember that these guys have spent many years in prison. A sex offender learns a lot of game-playing just for self-defense, because sex offenders are prime targets for mistreatment in prison," Browne said. "When they get here, one of the first things we must do is get them to drop their pretenses."

Dean added: "We can address their current behavior problems, but until they're willing to start therapy in earnest, we can't make a correlation between those problems and their conduct out in the community -- the conduct that led to their offenses."

"The phrase (sexually violent predator) was designed to get the public all riled up. It's what the politicians used to justify passing the law. So, when you tag someone with that kind of loaded label, you create an illusion that they're somehow very, very different from other sex offenders.

"But these guys aren't so different. In fact, their general personalities, backgrounds, characteristics are much like most other sex offenders, many of whom are at large in communities throughout California today.

"So it's easy to understand how patients in the SVP program resent a label which has been used to lock them up indefinitely even after they've finished serving their time in prison," Dean said. "Until we get past these kinds of resentments, we're not going to have these guys' attention."

How did the SVPs react to the Supreme Court decision?

"Prior to the decision, they all believed the court was going to rule in their favor, after which a bus would roll up and they would all go home," Browne said.

"So after the decision came down, they were very disappointed, to say the least," Dean said. Anticipating this, the hospital increased staffing on the units in case patients organized a mass resistance, but no problems occurred.

Brown praised many hospital staff for displaying "great courage" in the opening of the SVP program. "I think they've done an admirable job adjusting to this situation. Just think: they've been called on to confront prison-wise men, some of them 6-foot-2 bruisers, who have been schooled for years in violence.

"Our people have had to impose restrictions on men who are angry and extremely resistant. I'm pleased to say none of our folks have flinched from this duty in any way," he continued. "They've stood right up to these guys in the most assertive and professional manner. I'm proud to be working with people of such quality."

Both Browne and Dean also commend management for their support in this difficult phase. "Even if we haven't yet been able to deliver the kind of therapy we know is needed, I feel good about what we have accomplished. We've certainly created a stable environment to where these guys can begin trusting us a little bit," Dean concluded.