Sex offender training session held

By Tonia Noe-Rose

June 18, 2008 — There are presently 27 registered sex offenders on the Kentucky registry for Carter County with all listed as either compliant or incarcerated. And at some point in time, most or all offenders are placed back into society and expected to live a non-offensive and productive life. But, are they watched and do they have certain rules to live by? The answer is yes, according to officials with the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

During a sex offender forum and training session Tuesday at the Morehead Conference Center, officials with the Kentucky Department of Corrections, Morehead State University professors and members of the Women’s Crisis Center in Morehead spoke about the sexual assault cycle, treatment and supervision of sexual offenders once they are released from jail.

Lisa Howard, Department of Corrections, spoke at the forum and said the Sex Offender Treatment Program is mandated for fives years after the offender is released from prison. In cases where an offender has a 10-year prison sentence, the program would begin four years prior to his or her release.

Brent Blankenship, also with the Department of Corrections, said the program works to prevent offender relapse in order to ensure the safety of children and adults within communities and to provide tools to the offender so he or she can live a more productive life.

“We get them to the prospective that they don’t want to hurt people anymore,” he said. “There is no cure for this, but it is treatable.”

Walt Jones, specialized polygraph examiner, also was a speaker and said polygraph testing the offender while in the program serves as surveillance so the offender will not make bad choices. The polygraph is a tool that is not infallible. “It’s only as good as the working relationship between the therapist, the probation officer and the polygraph examiner,” he explained. “It’s called the containment triangle and we try to put the offender in the middle of the triangle with the therapist, his or her parole officer and myself.

Jones added that nearly 100 percent of all sex offenders would return to society at one point in time.

“To be tested, a person must be a convicted sex offender and in the sex offender program,” he commented. “It’s a fact that 97-percent of all sex offenders will be back on the streets again. We can’t kill them and we can’t put them on a desert island. They have to be put back into society in hopes they will succeed in the treatment program and learn to become productive citizens and never sexually offend another person.”

Blankenship said the sexual assault cycle begins with a “very” unhappy person looking for relief through gratification. His or her thoughts become distorted and they begin to make thinking errors. The offender then regresses into deviant and sexual fantasies and substance abuse. “The offender will then select a particular victim for particular reasons,” he said. “They don’t feel good about themselves and they use their victim to fill the void.”

Once an offender is released, Howard said he or she has little to no “wiggle room” to make mistakes.

“They are watched very closely and can’t be in normal places such as parks, schools, day care centers, swimming pools, theaters or other places where children congregate without advance approval of his or her probation officers, she said. “The margin of freedom is so small that they don’t’ have much room to breath.”

Blankenship said the offender is allowed a home computer but they must allow software to be installed that allows officials to monitor activity. The offender also must consent to a search (without a warrant) of his or her computer’s hardware, software, floppy disks, CD-Rom’s or related storage devices to determine possession of pornography.

Presently there are 639,910 sex offenders registered in the U.S. with 6,728 on the Kentucky registry. To view sex offenders in Carter and surrounding counties go to www.kentuckystatepolice.com and click on the sex offenders’ registry.

The sexual abuse cycle involves secrecy, denial and isolation and unfolds in the following way:

(1) Emotional pain

Low self-esteem

Focus on self

Low empathy

(2) Unhealthy fantasies

Masturbation

Pornography

(3) Dissatisfaction

(4) Thinking about acting out fantasies

(5) Distorted thinking

Excuses to offend

Alcohol and drug abuse

(6) Seemingly unimportant decisions

Plotting and planning the offense

(7) High risk situation

(8) Selecting and grooming the victim

(9) Offending

(10) Temporary Relief

(11) False Promises/The cover up

(12) Stop for a while

(13) Emotional pain returns

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