High-risk sex offenders still have nowhere to go

Two years ago (and how time flies!) I wrote about the lack of any real residential inpatient options for high risk sex offenders in Connecticut. As of today, nothing has changed. The man whose case prompted the prior post is set to be released from custody on Christmas eve and – surprise, surprise! – he’s most likely going to end up in a shelter.

And even that’s not certain.

Instead, 52-year-old Ransome Lee Moody will be waiting in line for a bed at Immanuel Baptist Homeless Shelter in New Haven, a place where indigent offenders who have done their time often go for housing when there are no other options.

Now Moody is not a nice guy. Having spent 32 years of his 52 year life behind bars for various sexual and violent crimes, it’s clear that there’s a problem and he’s a danger either to himself or to society. So it would be appropriate if there were a place to house people like him, which would provide them the appropriate treatment and security and allow them to successfully integrate back into society, if possible.

Such a place was envisioned by the legislature – perhaps the only good thing to come out of the wholesale *cough*bullshit*cough* “reforms” to the criminal justice system in the wake of the Cheshire murders.

Somehow, in the midst of all that fist thumping and righteous indignation, the legislature managed to make a provision for a residential treatment center for high risk offenders: 12 on parole and 12 on probation. They even secured a bid from contractors and identified a location.

Then came the budget crisis. And of that behemoth bill, the one thing that lost its funding was the one sensible proposition. Meanwhile, the state is still funding the prosecution and eventual housing of people charged with and convicted of the redundant crime of home invasion.

And so now, despite the best efforts of the judicial department to find Mr. Moody a roof over his head and much needed treatment, we’re all going to play a game of Russian roulette:

But last month, [Moody's lawyer, public defender Jay] McKay said “we’re quite a long distance from the hopes of Judge Holzberg.” McKay told Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford the facility would have taken care of Moody’s housing and his therapeutic needs.

“But the problem is that there isn’t one,” Clifford said. “It is a hope. And that was the legislature’s hope also. But with the budget crisis, we don’t have it.”

In the meantime, probation and parole officials will struggle to find options for homeless sex offenders, addressing public safety but also helping offenders adjust to life outside prison walls.

Probation officials said if that shelter is full, Moody could look for a bed at two other New Haven shelters. And in what they called a rare case that all beds will be filled, Moody could end up on the streets.

When asked at last month’s hearing if Moody would be guaranteed a bed, Chief Probation Officer William Anselmo admitted it was not a sure thing.

“We can do our best,” Anselmo told Clifford. “We don’t have a safe house. We don’t drop them off at a motel and pay for the night. Unfortunately, we do have some sex offenders supervised by probation, registered offenders that do live under the bridge for a couple of nights. We’ve had guys sleeping on the green in New Haven. Unfortunately, we just do not have the resource to put somebody up for the night.”

So if you happen upon the New Haven green next week and see Mr. Moody sleeping on a park bench, be sure to go over and say hello. Tell him that while he may have spectacularly failed society, it too has failed him.

[By the way, I haven't heard anything from either the residents of New Haven nor the American Idol Governor on the release of Mr. Moody, have you? If she has tried to keep him in jail longer than his sentence because he's such a damn menace to society and I just missed it, please let me know.]