The state is limited in what it can do to address community concerns about the release of a sex offender who refused treatment in jail.
Lawmakers say state statutes require sex offender treatment before inmates are released, but the mandate does not apply to a small number of sex offenders who were convicted and imprisoned before the law went into effect.
The release last week of Richard Laws, who served 23 years in prison for the kidnapping and rape of a Waitsfield woman, has reignited the issue. Laws served his maximum sentence and refused treatment while in jail.
Barre Police Chief Tim Bombardier circulated fliers and a news release last week about Laws’ release from prison because he is classified as high-risk, noncompliant and homeless. Since then, there have been dozens of news reports about Laws’ release.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, and Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, the chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, circulated a memo to legislators this week detailing the state’s existing laws regarding sex offenders, which have undergone many changes since the first sex offender was convicted in the 1990s.
“Attitudes against sex offenders and sexual violence and violence against women have changed so much,” Sears said Tuesday.
Vermont laws have changed as well. In 2006, the state adopted indeterminate sentencing, which requires a maximum life sentence for sex offenders. Under the law, the Department of Corrections may not release an offender from prison until they complete treatment.
The indeterminate sentencing requirement does not apply to Laws retroactively, however, so the only restrictions imposed on him are through the Department of Public Safety, which is responsible for the Vermont Sex Offender Registry.
Sears said Tuesday that the Legislature has made sufficient changes to the sex offender system.
“We’ve already done, I think, what we can do,” shy of adopting civil confinement laws, Sears said. That policy, under which states’ corrections systems would continue to monitor offenders after their release, was discussed and dismissed by the Legislature several years ago.
Earlier this session, Grad sponsored legislation that tightens restrictions on when sex offenders are required to report to the registry upon their release from prison. Gov. Peter Shumlin signed it into law last month. Grad said there is only a small number of offenders who are in the same category as Laws.
“I think we always can ask if we’re doing enough — if we’re doing enough for public safety, if we’re doing enough for victims,” Grad said.
Laws is required to comply with a higher level of scrutiny under the registry because of his classification as high risk and noncompliant. He must check in once a month, as well as give details about any vehicle he operates (even though his license is currently suspended, as reported by WCAX).
Laws is one of 24 homeless sex offenders on the registry, which means he must call the registry each day to disclose his whereabouts.
According to Tom Powell, a forensic psychiatrist who worked for the DOC for decades, the assessment that an individual is “high-risk” looks at a variety of factors associated with recidivism. Two primary risk factors, he said, are antisocial orientation and persistent interest in sexual behavior, such as an attraction to children or violent sex, he said.
Powell said that Laws has a “scarlet letter” because of the publicity around his release, which could make it difficult for him to reintegrate into society. Sex offenders have an average recidivism rate of about 15 percent, Powell said, but he did add that Laws could be part of a higher risk group.
“With people like that it’s a wise thing to use precaution but it’s probably a good thing to have a system of support for folks,” Powell said.
Bombardier said Laws could receive treatment now that he is free through Washington County Mental Health Services or HowardCenter, depending on where he lives.
In a news release, the Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence cautioned Vermonters that the risk of reoffense increases when an individual is marginalized and doesn’t receive adequate housing or other resources.
Auburn Watersong, associate policy director for the group, said that in the wake of Laws’ release the Network is working on providing services to victims.
“Sexual violence is with us every day,” Watersong said. “Unfortunately it’s something that exists in the lives of many, many people.”
