Lawmakers reject governor's plan for sex offenders

RICHMOND — Legislators have put the brakes on Gov. Bob McDonnell's plans to infuse millions of dollars into the state's program to indefinitely detain sex offenders after their prison sentences, choosing instead to investigate the program's explosive growth.

McDonnell had requested about $70 million over the next year and a half for the civil commitment program, in which more than 200 offenders are held in a Burkeville psychiatric facility for treatment.

In the budget passed Sunday, legislators rejected McDonnell's plan, instead choosing to double-bunk up to 150 of the offenders and consider transferring some of them to one of the 19 other states with civil commitment programs.

In the meantime, a legislative panel will study the program over the summer. The General Assembly approved an additional $14 million to deal with immediate needs.

Delegate Beverly Sherwood, R-Frederick and head of the budget-writing panel that considers public safety issues for the House, said legislators want to know why so many offenders are going into the program and so few are being released before pouring millions more into it.

"There seem to not be a lot of answers to our questions," Sherwood said.

The program's budget has ballooned from $2.7 million in 2004 to an expected $24 million this year.

While more than 200 offenders have been committed since the program began less than a decade ago, only 10 have been released from the treatment facility. About 50 others were allowed to leave straight from prison under strict monitoring.

It costs the state about $100,000 a year to treat each offender. Monitoring them in the community costs about $20,000.

When the program first started, only four violent sex crimes qualified someone for commitment. In 2006, the law was expanded to include 28 crimes, including everything from attempted abduction to statutory rape, and commitments shot up from three per month to an average of 12.

The $62 million, 300-bed Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Burkeville that opened three years ago is expected to be full within months.

"We've basically quadrupled the number of people eligible for civil commitment over the last five years, and now the bills are coming due," McDonnell said.

McDonnell had proposed spending more than $43 million to retrofit a closed prison to use for the program and more than $24 million to increase staff and operating expenses. He said officials must take a look into the pool of offenders the state has declared eligible for civil commitment.

McDonnell said that while he's "all for saving money," he has to make sure the lawmakers' plan will meet strict guidelines for mental health treatment. McDonnell has a month to consider changes to the budget and hundreds of other bills passed during the session that ended Sunday.

"If I don't think that I've got physical space to house people, then I'm going to have to do something else," he said. "That would be the worst result for me, is not having the resources but yet those people are still coming into the system."

The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services already is looking into which states could house offenders, said department commissioner James Stewart III.

Stewart said putting two offenders in each room will take care of the immediate problem.

Some lawmakers and attorneys are concerned about double-bunking the offenders.

"That's not an ideal situation, I don't think," said Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania. "But when you have so many other priorities or pressing needs in the commonwealth, you have to balance everything."

Leigh Drewry, a Lynchburg lawyer who has successfully challenged parts of the civil commitment law in the past, said putting two offenders in a room could pose several problems. Beyond the nature of their crimes, the offenders had to be diagnosed with a mental disorder in order to be committed.

"If they're truly looking for treatment, then it's a bad idea," Drewry said. "If they're doing what I expect they're doing, which is extending their criminal sentences, then it probably doesn't matter."

Drewry said he was pleased that lawmakers are finally investigating the program.

"Nobody was going to listen to me about civil rights or this isn't fair," he said. "It wasn't a matter of fairness. It's a problem of how much money is this going to cost."