Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Offender Management Discretionary Grant Program: FY 2004

Alaska, Chugachmiut: $241,484

Chugachmiut is a regional non-profit consortium promoting self-determination to the seven tribes of the Chugach Region. The Community Based Offender Management Program proposes to develop and implement a comprehensive and effective sex offender management system for the Native communities of Nanwalek and Port Graham, Alaska. Port Graham and Nanwalek lie in the Chugach Region of Alaska which spans some 15,000 square miles. The Community Based Offender Management program proposes to develop and implement a comprehensive and effective sex offender management system. The project will proceed through the four phases of planning and capacity building, program implementation, evaluation and program modification, and finally, dissemination. Objectives to accomplish the goals of this project include solidifying working relationships with tribal governments; acquiring faith-based personnel; acquiring specialized services of a psychologist or mental health professional in the area of posttraumatic stress disorder, providing training and education on specialized treatment and management services; developing village-based protocols consistent with the State of Alaska regulations and guidelines for the areas of offender assessment, treatment, reentry, supervision, and community notification; establishing program evaluation protocols; and implementation of established protocols.

Arizona, Maricopa County: $250,000

Maricopa County is located in the South Central part of Arizona. As of 2002, Maricopa County had a population of over 3,200,000 people, with approximately two-thirds of the state's population residing within the county. It is expected that by the year 2040, there will be more than 6,000,000 people residing in Maricopa County. Maricopa County Adult Probation currently supervises over 1,300 sexual offenders, with an average of 70 offenders in custody as a condition of their probation at any given time. In the last year, approximately 134 offenders have served a period of incarceration of 30 days or more, with the majority serving a period of six months or longer. Maricopa County Adult Probation will use grant funds to implement a sex offender management strategy through a two phased process that addresses the needs and gaps in the current system. In Phase I, the grantee will finalize development of its multidisciplinary team and engage in a comprehensive assessment of current sex offender management practices. The team members will determine the processes and structure that they will use to collect the necessary information, analyze it, and develop strategies to address local issues. Maricopa County's focus will be placed on the reentry of sex offenders on probation who serve time in jail and then return to the community. One of the perceived gaps in the system is the lack of sex offender treatment in the jail. An implementation plan will be developed based on the jurisdiction's analysis of its most pressing needs. In Phase II, Maricopa will implement strategies developed by the local jurisdiction's team and approved by BJA.

Arkansas: $200,887

Arkansas is a predominately rural state with only 4 of the 75 counties having populations over 100,000. There are over one million women over the age of 18 living in Arkansas. According to the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center, approximately 12.4% of adult women living in Arkansas have been victims of rape at some point in their lifetime. Currently, almost 5,000 registered sex offenders are residing in Arkansas. The vast majority of these offenders are adults. Approximately 12-17% of released sex offenders fail to ever register with law enforcement agencies. The mission of the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence is to enhance investigation, treatment, support, and prevention in cases of child abuse, rape, and domestic violence. As a reflection of this mission, the Commission proposes to unite dedicated and committed stakeholders toward one common vision of preventing the reoccurrence of sexual victimizations in Arkansas. Arkansas has established a multidisciplinary policy team which consists of all professional groups involved in adult sex offender management in the State of Arkansas. The policy team will conduct a thorough review of the state's current sex offender management practices, identify strengths and needs within their system, and develop a strategy to address those needs. Grant funds will be used to implement the strategy to address gaps in the current system. The strategy will include a plan to monitor and evaluate the practices implemented and their outcomes, and a procedure for ongoing collection and analysis of information that can be used beyond the duration of the grant period.

California, City and County of San Francisco: $250,000

San Francisco is the third largest city in the State of California. San Francisco's current residential population is 776,723. With the commuter population, the daily population doubles to approximately 1.5 million. Within the 49 square mile city limit, there are 984 registered sex offenders. The San Francisco grant team aims to improve its knowledge about this population, and to develop strategies to better identify, track and monitor, and supervise this population once they have been released into the community with the underlying goal of increasing public safety and preventing future victimization. In order to achieve this overall goal, the San Francisco grant team will undergo a two phase process as part of the sex offender management project. During phase I, the grant team will: 1) finalize a multidisciplinary policy team; 2) establish processes for information collection and analysis; and 3) collect information and data for a cross-system analysis related to their sex offender management strategy. Phase II will involve: 1) implementing proposed strategies approved by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the grantee's policy team; 2) utilizing BJA's technical assistance resources; and 3) designing and implementing a monitoring and evaluation plan based on the implementation plan.

Colorado: $244,263

Each year, approximately 350 sex offenders return to the Denver metropolitan and El Paso County areas to begin parole, to enter community corrections programs or, for those offenders who have completed their sentences, to enter the community without supervision. A study published in July 2003 found that the recidivism rate among Colorado sex offenders is as high as 48% depending on the amount of treatment an offender received in prison. However, department data indicate the actual rates of reoffense are probably much higher. The Colorado Department of Corrections will engage in a comprehensive assessment of their sex offender management practices, work to identify strengths and needs in these practices, design and implement a strategy to address these needs, and evaluate the program's impact. Ultimately, the grant team seeks to enhance and improve the transition services available to sex offenders as they are released from Colorado's Sex Offender Treatment and Monitoring Program. The target community for this project will be the seven-county Denver-metropolitan area and El Paso County. The target area consists of cities and towns in rural and urban areas and is home to more than 60% of the state's population.

Georgia, DeKalb County: $250,000

DeKalb County is within the Metro Atlanta area and the second most populated county in the state of Georgia, and is home to more than 730,000 residents. It is located immediately east of the City of Atlanta and encompasses within its borders, a small portion of Atlanta's corporate limits. According to the 2000 census, the county has grown by 22% over the past decade. The county is ethnically diverse with a slight majority of the population being African Americans (54%). Caucasians are the next largest group (36%) followed by Hispanic Americans (8%) and Asian Americans (4%). The goal of this project is to help DeKalb County build a strong continuum of care for managing the increasing service gaps of the juvenile sex offender population. Furthermore, the DeKalb County team seeks to prevent further victimization, halt the development of additional psychosexual problems, and help individual offenders gain control over their sexually abusive behaviors. Through this grant, the DeKalb County team is undergoing a structured cross-system analysis of their current sex offender management practices to identify gaps in their system. The team has already identified several system needs, including the need to enhance a monitoring program of juvenile sex offenders, to develop and implement a program for youth involved with sexual battery, to develop and implement a wrap around service program for youth involved with sexual offenses, and to enhance support of victims of juvenile sex offenders. Following the identification of further strengths and needs, DeKalb County will use grant funds to address these identified gaps and needs in their sex offender management system.

Kansas, 6th Judicial District: $205,270

The 6th Judicial District lies along the Kansas/Missouri border and encompasses Miami, Linn and Bourbon counties. The sex offender management project will target males and females, age fifteen (15) and older, convicted of a misdemeanor or felony sex offense, residing in Miami, Linn or Bourbon County and assigned to Sixth Judicial District Community Services for community supervision. The Sixth Judicial District will use grant funds to lay the groundwork for the development and implementation of a continuum of sex offender management strategies. This will be accomplished by strengthening the collaboration among community agencies that is necessary to effectively manage sex offenders and engaging in a thorough assessment of system resources and practices to identify gaps and needs. Furthermore, an implementation strategy will be established as a result of the planning and assessment phases of the project and grant funds will be used to address identified gaps and needs. In addition, the team will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the program components once implemented.

Massachusetts: $244,600

There are approximately 18,000 (active and inactive) sex offenders across the 351 cities and towns of Massachusetts. The City of Boston has a disproportionately high concentration of sex offenders with 1,500 active offenders. Of all sex offenders in Boston, approximately 75% are released without any supervision in the community. Additionally, there are currently 137 juvenile sex offenders in the custody of the Department of Youth Services (DYS). The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety (EOPS) and its partners will create a strategy to effectively manage sex offenders throughout the Commonwealth. To do this, EOPS will examine the current system in a rural area as well as an urban area. Although the rural area has not been identified yet, Boston has agreed to partner with EOPS to help assess the management of sex offenders in an urban area. The grant funding will be used to: 1) define model communities, 2) create a snapshot of current services, service needs and gaps 3) document information sharing, information needs and gaps; 4) define and document model process for urban and rural service delivery; and 5) implement a strategy statewide that reflects the strategies of the identified model communities.

New York State: $223,108

Currently, 6,163 sex offenders are incarcerated in New York State prisons, representing 9.5% of the total under-custody population (64,878). During 2003, 1,140 sex offenders were released to the community from Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) facilities. A recent DOCS study found that approximately 35% of released sex offenders were returned to prison within three years of release. The NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services received a grant to support a collaborative effort that will engage in a comprehensive assessment of the state's sex offender management system and work towards identifying gaps in that system. Grant funds will be used to target the identified system gaps. The collaborative team has identified several targets for improvement in New York's sex offender management system. These targets include developing a statewide, cross-system sex offender management model and piloting the model in selected counties; improving the rates of victim impact statement completion and victim notification registration; removing barriers to availability of support for survivors of sexual assault; strengthening the validity of the classification system employed by the Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders; improving the interagency flow of information relevant to sex offender classification, treatment, and containment; and assessing the public safety impact of community notification for registered sex offenders. These efforts will focus the most attention on the transition from prison to parole for adult sex offenders, who tend to be older than other adult offenders at the time of release and disproportionately committed from non-urban communities.

Ohio, Summit County: $234,615

The incidence and prevalence of adult sexual offending is an increasing concern for the County of Summit. The justice system of Summit County lacks the collaboration necessary to prevent additional occurrences. Currently there are 130 adult convicted sex offenders who fall under the responsibility of the jurisdiction's supervision. There are currently 546 registered sex offenders residing in the county. Additional resources are needed to help manage the steady flow of offenders who have been convicted, are receiving treatment, and who are coming back into the community. Summit County stakeholders are committed to assessing their current practices to ensure that they are developing a multidisciplinary, multi-agency, and collaborative response on both the case management and policy levels that includes criminal justice system personnel, correctional officials, victim advocates, and others that play a role in preventing further victimization. Through the Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Offender Management grant program, Summit County seeks to implement a sex offender management strategy through a two phased process that addresses the needs and gaps in the current system. The first phase will entail finalizing the multi-disciplinary team, collecting data and assessing processes, and developing an implementation plan that addresses the most significant sex offender management needs. The second phase will involve utilizing grant funds to implement the plan and the development of a monitoring and evaluation plan.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: $250,000

Pennsylvania has 67 counties served by a combination of adult, juvenile, state and county services. Currently 3,806 sex offenders are incarcerated within the Department of Corrections. The Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole currently has 1,600 offenders on parole for a sexual offense. The Pennsylvania Sex Offenders Assessment Board (SOAB) has assessed 2,749 sex offenders from 67 counties since July 2000. The SOAB expects to assess approximately 13,200 sex offenders during the next year. For this grant project, the Pennsylvania SOAB will lead a multidisciplinary collaborative team through an examination of current practices, assessment of strengths and needs, and the development of an effective plan for future services to fill those needs. The team will design a data collection and analysis plan that will gather information about the offender population, information about sex offender management policies, information about system resources, and information about sex offender management practices. Additionally, the team will develop and implement a strategy, which will include the development of a sex offender specific training seminar for Pennsylvania, communicating regularly with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), participating in and receiving technical assistance, designing and implementing a monitoring and evaluation plan and supporting BJA's efforts to refine tools and other resource materials for other jurisdictions that may engage in a similar process.

Tennessee, Northeast: $208,950

The First Tennessee Human Resource Agency, in partnership with Counseling and Consultation Services, Inc. (CCS), seeks to develop new services to juvenile sex offenders that would expand the continuum of services currently available in Northeast, Tennessee. Northeast, TN is comprised of eight counties, four of which are extremely rural and characterized by communities isolated by mountainous terrain. The total population of Northeast, TN is 475,412 and contains the 1st, 2nd and 3rd judicial districts of Tennessee. The Northeast, TN grant project will conduct a comprehensive assessment of services available to juvenile sex offenders and identify gaps in those services. Grant funds will be used to enhance the available continuum of services for these youth by targeting the identified gaps in those services. Additionally, through this grant project collaborative networks will be built among key stakeholders in the region in order to develop a cohesive system for managing juvenile sex offenders. It is anticipated that needs in the existing system will include developing a risk assessment process, providing all needed services to youthful offenders close to home, developing community support for additional regional residential and day treatment services for juvenile offenders, and integrating youthful offender safely back into the community. Furthermore, the grant team will develop a system for collecting relevant data and evaluating the efficacy of implemented program components.