Colorado board that writes rules for management of sex offenders rife with conflicts, state audit finds
Members of a state board that writes the rules for how Colorado sex offenders are supervised voted on policy revisions that benefited their firms, which held state contracts worth millions of dollars annually, according to a scathing performance audit the state auditor released Tuesday.
The audit further found that most of the standards the Sex Offender Management Board has set do not reference supporting evidence, as required by state statute. The board also failed to verify the qualifications and credentials of applicants it sanctioned to treat sex offenders and did not adequately investigate complaints lodged against treatment providers, the audit reported.
The board is responsible for developing standards for treating and managing Colorado’s 24,000 registered sex offenders. Those standards have prompted sharp criticism in recent years, with civil rights advocates and a bipartisan cross-section of legislators arguing they shouldn’t require low-level sex offenders to keep taking polygraphs and shouldn’t be used to bar even young juvenile offenders from living with their siblings.
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I guaran-damn-tee you this isn’t unique to Colorado. I’ll bet if all states conducted such an audit, their results would be similar. Presuming Florida specifically would be off the charts.
I wonder what it would take to get all states to conduct such an audit? I’d love to see Georgia’s results and see how close my suspicions are.
Thank you for sharing this. I’m in Colorado and am constantly watching for things revolving the SOMB and any avenues that I might be able to find to get off the freakin’ registry.
This is interesting, my son who is cognitively impaired (previously called mentally retarded) was abused by treatment provider. I filed a complaint. It is not within my rights to know what happened with this complaint.?????? 11 tests including polygraphs were administered which due to his disability should NEVER have been given. I have a forensic psychologist testimony to back this up…..but??????? Nothing happened. There was NO check and balance in place to safeguard his treatment.
“…most of the standards the Sex Offender Management Board has set do not reference supporting evidence, as required by state statute.”
Apparently no such standards or statutes exist in Floriduh, which is so corrupt, any audit would only be used to increase the penalties.
As usual, follow the money.
KiwiBlue is right! Follow the money…the same situation pervades in Illinois. Polygraphers have a real racket going on here. They get upwards of $360 a pop for every test they administer…paid for in CASH by the captive clientele of the Central Illinois Probation Dept’s sex offender management team. The team gathers together a dozen or more candidates for their next test. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already passed a few-you’ve got to keep taking them for “maintenance”.
Whose maintenance, I wonder. Who wouldn’t like to have a better than $4000 payday for a test that takes only a few minutes? Do the math!