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Civil and criminal law meet in sex offender cases

Captured fugitive and convicted child molester Steve Whitsett faces up to 15 years in prison for his helicopter escape from a treatment facility

June 8, 2000
Web posted at: 4:21 p.m. EDT (2021 GMT)

by David Williams
CNN Interactive Lawcenter

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The Florida inmate recaptured Tuesday after making a daring helicopter escape was being held until a court could decide if he is a sexual predator.

Steve Whitsett pleaded guilty in 1995 to 11 counts of indecent assault of a minor and another count for sexual battery. He was released last September after serving four years of an eight-year sentence. However, instead of going free, he was held in the Martin County Treatment Center until a court could decide if he should be civilly committed.

ALSO Supreme Court opinion: Kansas v. Hendricks Florida civil commitment law

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Under Florida law, a violent sexual offender can be committed for mental health treatment after he has served his criminal sentence if a jury finds he is "predatory" and has a mental abnormality.

Greg Venz, the director of the state's Violent Sexual Predator Program says that 6 1/2 percent of the sexual offender cases that are reviewed by his office are committed.

"We are trying to get the worst of the worst," Venz said. "All of the folks we review are bad but we are trying to get the folks that are likely to engage in these predatory type crimes."

Currently, about 175 people are being held in Florida under the commitment law.

Venz says the program tries to teach the offenders to avoid temptation and control deviant thoughts.

"It's sort of like high blood pressure: You're not going to cure it so you try to manage it so they are a minimal risk," he said.

The program gives the offenders job training and tries to help them pass high school equivalency tests, in hopes of helping them become "more productive members of society," Venz said.

However, he said some offenders are so dangerous they may never be released.

Critics of the program say institutionalizing offenders after they've completed their prison sentences violates the Constitution's protections against double jeopardy.

The Supreme Court rejected that argument in 1997. In Kansas v. Hendricks, the court said "this Court has consistently upheld involuntary commitment statutes that detain people who are unable to control their behavior and thereby pose a danger to the public health and safety, provided the confinement takes place pursuant to proper procedures and evidentiary standards."

In a 6-3 ruling, the court said involuntary confinement under Kansas's commitment law is not punishment.

"Commitment under the Act does not implicate either of the two primary objectives of criminal punishment: retribution or deterrence. Its purpose is not retributive: It does not affix culpability for prior criminal conduct, but uses such conduct solely for evidentiary purposes; it does not make criminal conviction a prerequisite for commitment...nor can the Act be said to act as a deterrent, since persons with a mental abnormality or personality disorder are unlikely to be deterred by the threat of confinement," the court said.

University of Florida law professor Chris Slobogin said that decision led other states to pass similar laws. He said at least 16 states have passed civil commitment laws and several other states are considering them.

He said the court's view on these laws is clear.

"They're based on dangerousness. It's not about what they have done, it's what they could do," Slobogin said. "The commitment, which is forward-looking, is not punishment, is not criminal. Therefore ,it does not violate double jeopardy."

Bruce Lyons, a Florida attorney and chairperson of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Council, said the law gives prosecutors another chance to keep offenders behind bars.

"What they've done is they've converted a prison into a civil commitment facility," Lyons said. "It's anything but civil; it's nothing but a converted jail."

Lyons also questioned giving states the power to keep certain offenders in custody for life because of what they might do.

"Many of the legitimate sources will say that predicting future recidivism is guesswork at best," he said.

Escaped child molester captured with guns, cash
June 6, 2000

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