Iowa Supreme Court says delayed parole for sex offenders isn’t unconstitutional
The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that the state is not wrongfully detaining sex offenders by delaying the treatment they must complete to be considered for parole.
The opinion issued Tuesday states that the Iowa Department of Corrections has acted reasonably in attempting to address the fact there are too many sex offenders in the system to provide treatment on a timely basis. Because of these reasonable efforts, the court said, the state is not violating the constitutional rights of the seven Newton Correctional Facility inmates who initiated the case.
The inmates who sued over the delays in treatment, the court said, are “challenging what they believe to be a Catch-22 in Iowa’s prison system: To be considered meaningfully for parole, these inmates need to have completed the sex offender treatment program (SOTP). But because of limits on resources, this treatment has tended to be available only as the inmate nears his tentative discharge date. The inmates contend, among other things, that this circumstance violates their constitutional right to due process.”
FL sex offenders aren’t even eligible for parole, and that’s not unconstitutional either, is it?
At least IA law provides eligibility for treatment and parole.
Jacob
The most significant change, however, came in 1983. In that year, sentencing guidelines were enacted, thereby effectively abolishing parole for those offenders who were sentenced for crimes committed on or after October 1, 1983.
Florida Department of Corrections
As long as judges are either afraid to apply the law “Equally” or unwilling, we will continue to run face first into walls. And yes, it hurts like Hell.
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Isaiah 1:17
Cherokeejack, I have an interesting fact about Michigan’s parole system and appealing the Parole Board’s decisions. Appellate judges started siding with inmates and overruling the Board’s decisions denying parole for no truly valid reason, particularly when the inmate was unable to obtain the “required” rehabilitation programs. So the Michigan Legislature simply changed the law to make Parole Board decisions unappealable. In effect, they eliminated due process completely, giving the Parole Board ABSOLUTE power to decide an inmate’s fate, with no requirements to justify their decisions. It was apparent to me during my incarceration that the parole rate in Michigan was guided solely by the purpose of ensuring that all available beds in the prisons were occupied at all times.
Since when did the prison system or parole board have more authority than appellate judges? That is a scary power grab right there. Don’t like a law or rule? Just make up your own and enforce it. Wow !
Sounds like some of the cops I worked with. There were two handbooks on ethics. The one you were given when hired, and the ones some cops made up. I called it the “Secret code of ethics”, although there was nothing ethical about it.
Back then there were no cell phones so bad cops got away with a lot more since there was little to no evidence otherwise. A suspect who was beaten became “Oh he tripped and fell into my patrol car mirror, Three freakin times, can you believe it?”.
Although a lot of them probably deserved it, I was not ok with it because it made the cops as bad as the people being arrested.
My point being, when someone in power doesn’t like the restrictions placed on them, some figure out ways to write their own rules or codes of conduct.
Same game being played by Michigan corrections for many years. It was only when the state began closing some prisons down to save money that incarcerated sex offenders started to get fair consideration for parole. I served 12 years without ever being able to do ANY of my required programs. I did get paroled without meeting those requirements, but most likely because I was helping too many fellow inmates with their appellate issues, and actually winning. One of the guards even congratulated me as I was leaving for having helped so many guys. There is absolutely no evidence that increasing the parole rate for sex offenders in Michigan resulted in an increase in sex based crimes. Of course, they already knew the REAL recidivism rate for sex offenders, but they would never tell the public that most sex offenders will NOT reoffend.
So this just goes to show how seriously America is taking the sexual offending by not having adequate and timely therapy to those incarcerated. To me it is unconstitutional because it is the states responsibility to provide that therapy if it is part of their sentence. You can’t just hold someone in prison indefinitely because you dropped the ball and then pass the buck off to the inmate. I’m no litigator but I do believe this should be sent to the federal supreme court. In a way, this would be like holding someone indefinitely for a drug charge because the inmate didn’t complete substance abuse treatment because the correction facility lacked the finances and resources to treat then. Not to mention that during the inmates sentence the correction facility should have plenty of time to find psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists to do treatment during the inmates time of incarceration. I definitely smell alot of BS coming out of Iowa’s Supreme Court
So, The “Prison’ can FORCE an Inmate with a “Sex Crime Conviction to do 100% of the time they were given DAY FOR DAY, BUT ANY OTHER inmate with ANY OTHER CONVICTION can “,Apply for “Early Term/Early Release” !!!?!?!?!?!?!?. If “We” Don’t take a stand and FAST, Anyone on “The Registry” is SCREWED !!!!. Cause now “The System” has found ANOTHER WAY TO PUNISH ANYONE ON THE REGISTRY !!!! Blaming it on “Limited Resources” is ABSOLUTE B.S. !!!!!!.
Tired
I guess the only people we can compare to this situation is the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. I am in no way sticking up for terrorist, but even a terrorist should be afforded a trial. How can you hold someone forever without even seeing a judge? So there are some who are worse off.
The “General & un-informed” public hates both categories, terrorist and sex offenders. Most likely the public wouldn’t mind if both were executed by firing squad.
Yes. It is worse if one is on post release supervision. With post release, you could Mac out your prison sentence and now you will be in the hands of parole who will place you or keep you in prison until you have fulfilled obligations.
So many court cases have been filed and mostly all of them have not succeeded.
So why even have a parole system. There is a horror show like this going on the New York State where the jails have turned into the new homeless shelter where PFR are stuck in prison until they can meet the criteria to find suitable housing. One can stay there for months to years, up until parole has finished. It is even worse for people on post release supervision.
Another form of extended incarceration.
Once again the system is unprepared. It seriously needs to be a reset.
Unfortunately, unless state law creates a liberty interest to be paroled, inmates will lose every time.