(Columbia) March 22, 2005 - A sexual predator was recently released from the Department of Mental Health's Sexual Violent Predator Program.
   
James Bennington was shackled and in front of a judge, but he wasn't a prisoner. He already served 15 years for having sex with a minor, "Sir, I victimized one person, but it turns out to be their whole family, my family."

The 57-year-old Vietnam vet, a former Department of Corrections employee has been held in Columbia's old Death Row for the last four and half years, "I'm not in jail. I'm not in prison. It's supposed to be the Department of Mental Health, supposed to be a hospital setting."

Dr. Brenda Ratliff is the department's medical director and admits, "It's not a good place. It's not and I agree with that." Her agency is supposed to rehabilitate people like James.

James says he wants rehabilitation, "Most of the people don't mind being in the program. It's just we're not getting therapy." He says he lived in a rat infested prison cell, with no electricity. He was treated by a well intending, but unqualified staff and only received a couple of hours of therapy a week

Ratliff doesn't dispute the numbers, "I'm trying to check to see if the two hours is accurate. I know it isn't real high, but some of that is by design of the program." It comes down to her department's depleted budget, "Where do we find the resources to find a better building and which are we going to go for: better staff or a building if we have limited resources."

Bennington says the program as it's currently run could be eliminated, "This program is nothing but a waste of tax funds."

That raises the question of why aren't sex offenders treated in jail, instead of afterwards, one Ratliff would like to know the answer to as well, "I asked that very question. And I think that's very relevant, because I think it would be better for the person. Maybe they would be ready to be released when their time served was up. It looks to me that it would be more efficient even if mental health was involved with providing the councilors."

But what concerns Ratliff the most is that without proper treatment, statistics show sex offenders are more likely to do it again, "It puts everybody in the community at risk."

After Bennington's fourth annual review, case managers testify that he is no longer a danger to society. He's being released to his native state of Indiana, even though technically, he still hasn't finished all of the program's requirements.

Ratliff says the better the program, the better the chance people like James won't victimize somebody else, something James won't make a claim for, "Nobody is ever certain, but I hope I don't do it again."

Reported by Kara Gormley

Posted 6:08pm by Chantelle Janelle