SEX OFFENDER SAFETY – PART OF YOUR SENTENCING CALCULATION
It is important for the court to consider your client’s, (sex offender) safety, by requesting the court grant initial placement into a Sex Offender Management Program (SOMP), while waiting for your client’s voluntary admittance into a SOTP Program.
Following their interview and investigation, the Probation Officer will draft the official Presentence Report (PSR). Together with preparation, your message stands a better chance of being part of the PSR, and is included “on the record”.
Not being placed into a SOMP, and should an incident occur, could at best result in your client spending the remainder of their sentence in isolation for their protection. Then over time, this may yield a host of mental health phobias, leading to more severe ailments.
The benefit of being proactive as you help your client during their transition into the prison environment safely; cannot be overstated. This is especially significant if the PSR includes the documentation of a mental illness with diagnosis, including the treating physician’s records and testimony.
ENSURING THE PHYSICAL SAFETY OF YOUR CLIENT
Among inmates and convicts, sex offenders are at the bottom of the prison hierarchy and generally, are greeted with hostility.
The BOP, where needed, assigns sex offenders to higher security facilities, which may not be perfect. But this can be especially evident when they’re placed in general population.
Next, when the new sex offender first arrives and meets their new bunkmate, it is not unusual for them to be asked, what did you do?
No matter how they answer, eventually, their roommate or bunkmate Will Find Out! After that, at best, the sex offender is avoided – at worse, they could be robbed, beaten, or even killed. Then he/she may have to spend the rest of their entire sentence in solitary confinement?
Therefore, in your memorandum, safety may dictate placement in either a facility with a Sex Offender Management Program (SOMP) or at minimum, a camp.
