State budget cuts have reduced Bethel's Sex Offender Treatment Program to a fraction of its former self. In a year, the program’s staff has gone from three members, with a combined experience of almost 40 years, to one member with four months experience. Now board members, former employees, and advocates are saying the change is too much, too soon. They fear recidivism will increase, costing the state more money down the line and damaging YK Delta communities along the way.
Michael Gray is the Bethel District Attorney. He regularly sees sex offenders and victims in the courtroom and was one of several community members who wrote letters to Gov. Bill Walker protesting the program cuts.
“It’s a tailor-made program for the YK Delta, and I hate to see it flounder for a lack of funding,” he said.
According to numbers from the program's former clinician, who worked with the program for eight years, the re-offense rate was 1.7 percent from September 2008 to October 2016, less than the state’s average of three to five percent. According to numbers from the DOC from July 2009 to present, the re-offense rate is three percent.
Supporters credit the program’s success to its being created specifically for the YK Delta, using Yup’ik values and culture as its foundation.
Besides regular counseling sessions, the men hunt and fish and then donate the meat to the Tundra Women’s Coalition, the local women and children’s shelter. They also donate meat to their victims' families when it’s accepted.
The program sets up what they call safety nets. That’s five people in the offender’s community who know the person’s offenses, their triggers, and watch them when they return to the community.
The program also assembles Victim Impact Panels. Victims and people who work with victims meet with offenders and tell their stories of what it’s like to survive an assault or respond to a scene.
Now the program’s community advisory board and supporters, like Gray, fear all that work will go away.
“I understand tough economic times,” Gray said, “but when you’ve got a program that’s really working, it’s a shame that they can’t find a way to keep getting the funds to keep the program going. And I just hate to see it fall apart, which is what I’m afraid is going to happen.”
Two mental health clinicians started the program: Steve Dempsey and Joan Dewey. Dempsey supervised and came to the program with more than 20 years experience working with sex offenders. For many years, a Yup’ik-speaking case manager worked with them.
Last year, Joan Dewey retired. In July of 2016, the state hired a replacement clinician with no background in treating sex offenders. In October, Dempsey’s contract ended and wasn’t renewed. Funding for the case manager ran out about the same time. Now, the entire program is being run by one clinician with four months experience treating sex offenders. Her supervisor is in Juneau.
The cuts were made to help bring the Department of Corrections out of the red after lawmakers reduced the Department's budget by more than $8.5 million.
Dempsey’s contract cost just $251,400 annually. He didn’t live in Bethel, so that included his salary, per diem, and airfare from Ketchikan every two weeks. The current clinician is being paid less than half that at $92,976.
DOC spokesman Corey Allen Young says the savings made sense.
“In light of the financial situation we’re in,” he said, “if we can do it a lot cheaper and still have the same results, that’s what we’re going to do.”
When asked what would happen if they don’t get those same results, Young responded, “I mean, it’s just like with anything. You always look at ways to improve, and the bottom goal is a successful transition for our inmates inside the institution and when they get out.”
That’s exactly what the board doesn’t think will happen after going so quickly from decades of clinical experience with multiple staff, to four months experience with one person.
The DOC expects to save $16,728 per participant. They want to use the savings to continue the subsistence portion of the program and encourage community involvement.
Gray, the Bethel District Attorney, says that if recidivism rises, the cost of prosecuting, imprisoning, and treating re-offenders will far outweigh any initial savings. And the cost to communities and victims will be irreparable and immeasurable.
“Being victimized trails and haunts victims for decades,” Gray said, “and if you can avoid one... I mean, what’s the cost of avoiding one victim? What’s the cost of avoiding two victims? What’s the cost of avoiding three victims? How do you measure that?”
The community advisory board for the Bethel Sex Offender Treatment Program meets at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Moravian Church to discuss the changes.
Update: This story has been updated with the YK Delta Sex Offender Treatment Program's re-offense rate from the Department of Corrections.
