Issue: Currently, NYS has not implemented a comprehensive approach to sexual offender management, resulting in a piecemeal system that is marginally successful in reducing the prevalence of sexual crimes. Many have called for enactment of a solitary approach to prevent sexual offenders who have served their sentence from being released to the community by “civilly committing” them to state psychiatric centers. However, current civil commitment proposals would: 1) Jeopardize the safety of current psychiatric center patients and others in the mental health system; 2) Drain enormous resources ($200,000+ per offender per year) from the mental health system and the legal system statutorily responsible for representing people with mental health needs, and; 3) Further stigmatize those living with psychiatric disabilities. Civil commitment laws expend enormous resources on a tiny percentage of sexual offenders, doing very little to reduce the number of offenses that take place.

Action: Instead, NYS must focus on enacting a comprehensive approach aimed at ensuring the public’s safety by preventing sexual violence from taking place and effectively managing offenders to prevent them from offending again. Professionals in sex offender treatment and those representing the victims of sexual violence call for the establishment of a state agency to organize the state’s current efforts to curtail sexual violence, being ultimately responsible for education, prevention, treatment, monitoring, supervision, and if necessary, civil commitment for a tiny percentage of offenders for whom earlier efforts have been unsuccessful. Any civil commitment program would need to protect the safety of those in the mental health system and the resources dedicated to serving those individuals.