Civil Committment

Civil Commitment

At a time when fellow Americans in the great state of Minnesota and other states in this great union seem to struggle with how best to treat sex offenders once they have served their sentences, I feel compelled to offer my opinion concerning civil committment.

As I have stated in previous posts, I am 52 years old. I am also old enough to remember air raid sirens in school and to have learned from the “Greatest Generation.” My dad was a city police officer during my entire childhood. I served in the U.S. Army during the “Cold War” when our enemies were great communist powers of the eastern bloc nations. I also consider myself to be a Christian, dad, Strict Constitutional Conservative, a patriot and yes a registered sex offender.

Aside from the fact that I am a registered sex offender and happen to be blessed enough to reside in a state that if memory serves me correctly, prevents civil commitment via the state constitution, it jars my conscience by which in essence a state or the federal government can force a person to remain incarcerated beyond their maximum sentence this absolutely goes against virtually every fiber I have in my being.

As I was growing up I learned about a convict’s debt to society and how once paid, society in theory then owed that convict a second chance.

As I grew up, I also learned about the concentration camps of the Nazis, the gulags and the purges of the communist nations and about our own slavery issues and then our internment camps of World War II. I also learned about our own horrific mental institutions of the past.

I cannot in my own mind reconcile civil commitment as being a good thing when it so resembles and conflicts with what I was taught as a young person as being bad and wrong. I believe in freedom, with some restraints, but not restraint based upon what a person might do in the future. When we go there, any of us can be locked up because I might rob a bank tomorrow and I can’t prove otherwise. These inmates who are civilly committed rely on assessments done by “professionals” who are paid by the state and know where their bread and butter come from.

Just yesterday, I had an e-mail conversation with Kim ****** our state leader of Indiana Voices, the state chapter of the national RSOL about the possibility of trying to get an interview with the head of the Indiana Sex Offender Management and Monitoring (INSOMM) Program for a future article in our newsletter which is sent out to our incarcerated members. I wanted to try to write an article concerning the future of the INSOMM program, which inmates hate and always swirl rumors about its demise. However, research shows therapy is effective in deterring sex crime recidivism.

I wanted to let inmates who have been convicted of sex crimes in the state of Indiana know that there is absolutely no (zero) buzz out here concerning the end of funding by the Indiana State Legislature for the INSOMM program and at the same time gain the support of the director of the program in fighting for less restrictive legislation based upon the success of the INSOMM program with Indiana’s 1.05% sex offender recidivism rate (one of the lowest in the nation), which should also help to insure continued funding for the INSOMM program by allowing them to tout their success to our state legislators. Kim’s response to me was, “I have met with Dr. Deming with Liberty Behavioral.  He literally through me out of his office! His boss is DOC.  He’s not going to give us any info! Nor is he going to testify on our behalf.”

This type of reaction is anecdotal evidence that Dr. Karen Franklin is correct in her article “Remarkable experiment proves pull of adversarial allegiance” in which she states, “Psychologists’ scoring of forensic tools depends on which side they believe has hired them.” These people know where their paycheck comes from and seem to base their responses to questions posed to them upon who is paying them and what they believe their employer wants to hear and not the facts of the case.

These are the same people who write the reports determining whether someone who has been civilly committed rely to give a fair assessment as to whether or not they should or should not be released from detention. This is an abomination of all that is right.

This is beginning to appear to look like a cross of the old Soviet gulags, World War II era internment camps and our not so long done away mental hospitals where shock therapy and frontal lobotomies were performed.

This treatment of our fellow citizens of these United States should be abhored all citizens and the fact that it doesn’t, abhors me. It makes me seriously wonder about the “State of our Union” and what kind of country my children are going to grow up to live in. I believe it is time to find ways to do away with civil commitment, if Indiana and 29 other states can do without it, the other 20 states and the federal government can too.
     If you’re not worried, your eyes aren’t open. 

Chuck

T

This

Why An Activist?

   Many of you might be wondering what would motivate a registrant such as myself to become an outspoken lobbyist/activist for sex offender/registrant issues when there may be several dangers associated with doing so.
   First, regardless of what some may think, I am still a man. I have honorably served my country in its armed forces. I am also a practicing Christian and I still hold myself in high esteem. Of course I'm partially doing it for myself even though there might be some risk involved.
  I am also a dad to four kids, two step-kids and two biological kids. My oldest might bristle at being called a kid since she's working hard on 21 right now, but she's still one of my kids.
  Ryan my step-son passed away very suddenly in 2010 just short of his 16th birthday due to a congenital heart defect about a month after my incarceration began.
   My two biological children are 12 and 11 right now.
   My son shares my same name, me being Jr. and he the III. No matter what I do, even if I should win my appeal, my name will have irremovable scars on it in virtual perpetuity via the internet, which never forgets and due to the registry, and various other web sites.
   As I see it, my only option is to find a way to force myself back into respectable society by being a relentless cause fighter. I absolutely intend to make a name for myself by being too big to be ignored. I intend for there to be a lot more good to be found on the internet about me than bad and thereby rehabilitating my name for my kids, myself and most especially my son, who shares my name and as he gets older, has people look up his name on the internet and also find mine. The hope is, they will see a lot of good to go along with the bad.
   I was also sitting in church a few months ago and it came to me that I needed to become more involved. I had become acquainted with both RSOL and then INRSOL now Indiana Voices while incarcerated and once my internet restrictions had been lifted, I made contact with Kim, the leader at Indiana Voices and began looking for a place to fit in. 
   I had seen that the web site had been sitting dormant for a few months and asked if there was any way I could help with that since it is the one and only place many people will have any contact with us. The site is still a work in progress structurally, but we are very blessed to have a member (Nick) who owns his own web hosting company and both hosts our site as well as doing all the web master work for us, as well as the Women Against the Registry site.  
   At different times I've been given a few different titles, but I think as far as the site is concerned, Contributing Editor/Writer probably works the best.
    Our legislative session here in Indiana is in full swing and we have been very busy with letter writing campaigns to various legislators both for and against current legislation. So far, we have been very pleased with the current session, we only have one bill left that concerns us with some vague wording that we are trying to have changed to make it more definitive. I have probably written 100 e-mails to various legislators, the Indiana Public Defender's Office and ACLU of Indiana in regards to this session's legislation.
   At the moment, our organization is a collection of some very passionate, dedicated, intelligent and talented volunteer men and women. We are hoping once we get our site the way we want it and the hustle and bustle of the legislative session over to convert our organization over to a 501c group. 
   I have also filed a First Amendment complaint with the ACLU of Indiana based upon the ruling by U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, granting a temporary restraining order, preventing Proposition 35 from going into effect, which was based upon the plaintiffs likelihood of success, due to Prop. 35's requirement that offenders be forced to divulge their user names for any and all social media sites, e-mail and chat room accounts, thus preventing "Anonymous Free Speech."
   Indiana has virtually the same stipulations as part of its registry requirements in IC 11-8-8-8. This all being made possible by the recent U.S. 7th Circuit Court of  Appeals ruling overturning Indiana's social networking ban. I am still awaiting word as to whether the ACLU will accept my complaint.  
   If this isn't enough, I have enrolled in the local community college to get an Associates of Applied Science in Paralegal Studies starting in June. I want to work in family and appellate law, I also hope, working through Indiana Voices to be able to help draft new legislation involving our registry. 
   I was listening to a web based radio show this past week featuring the well known activist, Shana Rowan of USA Fair, who said about trying to get people to advocate about sex offender issues,"Fear is always going to be there anyway, as long as things are the way they are. We have a choice of, OK, I'm gonna sit back and be afraid and hope that nothing happens or I'm going to stand up and be like; Hey! This is happening, this is not right and probably be afraid, but, I mean, either way, we get the fear and to me; why live with that and not do anything about it?"
   I believe that it is my duty to live for my God, my kids and myself. If I don't stand up for any of them, then I become a failure. In the process of all this I also get to partake in the second most important commandment, which is to; love your neighbor as yourself. In some things like this, when you do for yourself, you are also doing for your neighbor. 
   That's why I'm an activist and what I'm doing beyond just blabbing away on this blog. lol

Chuck   
      
  

The Victim Complex

Original Post: http://sporeflections.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/the-victim-complex/

 

January 22, 2009 in Jungian Psychology

A Spo-fan asked to write about the Victim Complex.

This is a charged topic; people dominated by The Victim Complex seem to be multiplying. Worse, they are easily outraged when their Victim status is challenged. A lot of my work involves listening to people who feel they are the Victim of this, that, or the other.
Unlike other complexes this one ironically fights back when someone suggests it ‘needs shrinking’.

– I will state right now there are real victims and injustices. Sorting through real victimization and The Victim Complex can be complicated. With that said, I can get to my points.

The Victim Complex is one of the most seductive of complexes. When you talk to a Victim, they find someway to get into the conversation they have been victimized.  Sometimes these are the same folks who believe life is what you make of it and they can create their own destiny. In contrast, they are the first to run to a lawyer for a lawsuit, or be influenced by slights from others.

Job of the Old Testament is the Archetypal Image of the Victim. He is a ‘good man’ who doesn’t deserve his sorrows. His misfortunes are intentional – God allows the devil to torment and ruin Job. People ask Job “what he did wrong” to deserve such misfortune; he legitimately replies he did nothing wrong.  This captures the sense of Victimhood viz. “I don’t deserve this. I am innocent and others have been bad to me.”
(An aside note;  the point is for Job to ultimately trust Heaven that no matter what, God has things under control.)

Victims have a hard time moving on. To heal, they have to accept  harsh truths;
1) They can’t undo the damage.
2) There will be no apology or real justice for the hurts.
3) They have to admit ‘defeat’ viz. 1) and 2) will be so
4) They really are in control of their destinies, not just a passive recipient to outside forces.

I’ve known people who let a few minutes of hurt dominate their lives for evermore. Things are worse when someone makes a career out of The Victim. The Complex can be an ugly dog in the manger. Until life is corrected to the way they want to it to be, they – and no one else  – may be happy.

Perhaps here is a good point to disclose I am wary of groups. A support group tends to invest energy in keeping its members from growing up and going away. Group members can reinforce the legitimacy of Victim, rather than helping each other move on. To announce to your fellow group members you are healing/moving on betrays the other members of the group.

On  the positive side, the Victim Archetype warns when you are succumbing to Victim energy. It points out you have a choice – a hurt can take over, or you can opt not to let it haunt you, and you can turn it into something proactive. When people become conscious they are in a Victim Complex, they usually vow  ’Never again!”.  They let go of the event haunting them; they move on with their lives. Scarlet O’Hara raising her fist to heaven stating “As God is my Witness I will never go hungry again!” has some ring of Victim complex liberation. 
Sometimes the released energies are translated to helping society victims (Martin Luther King and Gandhi come to mind here).
One of my patients said the following  when she was freeing herself from decades of Victim energy.
“20 years ago I was physically assaulted for 30 minutes. I’ve been mentally assaulted [by the Victim role] for 20 years. “

Watch for Victim energy next time you feel a bristling sensation, when you feel imposed upon or outraged, or when you are having a self-pity party — are there elements of being a Victim?

Commentary: 

   I have come to hate the word "victim." Are there true victims in life? Sure there are, our houses burn down, we're robbed or we're raped. A true victim is one who has had no part in some sort of a personal tragedy that has affected their circumstance in life.
   Most of us can be classified as victims of something, the fact is, bad things happen in life. 
   What I find so despicable about the way we treat and talk about victims, especially when talking about people who have been involved in some form of sexual abuse is partially touched upon in the story above were it talks about victimhood being "one of the most seductive complexes." 
   The worst part is; many in society will talk about a person who has been involved in some form of sexual abuse and say, "Their life is ruined"; really? This is a terrible thing to say to another human being who is still alive and breathing.  What if they believe you? You, have now given this person permission to not succeed. This is a very seductive trap, because now "we" have given this person our permission to not even try, because it is now a foregone conclusion that your life is over. What a terrible thing to do to another living, breathing human being. We don't just do this as individuals, but as a society as a whole, we need to change the way things are done.
   I hate using the word "victim" to describe another living human being and from this point forward I will always try to describe people, regardless of their circumstances as something other than a victim and don't ever let yourself become a "victim" of anything, even when something bad happens to you.

Chuck
   

About

It Is What It Is…

…and we all have to deal with what is.

My name is Chuck and I am currently 52 years old, divorced and have four children. I live in Indiana and at the moment, we have about 4-5-inches of snow on the ground.

In May of 2008, I was accused of having improper relations with my step-daughter who is now 20 years old. In May of 2010, I was convicted of one count of Child Molestation as a C Felony, which indicates that there was no use of force, threat of force, use or threat of a weapon, use of alcohol or drugs. I was also convicted of two counts of Child Solicitation as D Felonies.

I was sentenced to a total of 8½ years, 6 years incarcerated with 2½ years of supervised probation.

I began serving my sentence at the New Castle Correctional Facility in June 2010. Indiana currently has a 2:1 Good Time policy, meaning that an inmate earns two days for every one day of “Good Time” served, which in effect reduced my incarceration time to 3 years.

The Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) also has certain educational time cuts that can be earned by inmates and I was able to earn a total of 1 full year in educational time cuts by completing the Substance Abuse Program and an Apprenticeship Program in Commercial, Residential and Industrial Housekeeping.

In the end, I spent a total of two years incarcerated, after which time I was released to both probation and parole. While I was not specifically sentenced to parole, it appears that under IDOC rules, anyone who as part of their sentencing does not receive a suspended sentence, is automatically placed on parole for two years.

It was a huge shock to me to find out two days prior to my release from custody to be informed that I was going to be placed on both probation and parole; with parole’s 25 one size fits all stipulations for all released sex offenders, regardless of the conviction. Even a person who’s offense had no involvement with a child/adolescent, is not allowed any contact with a minor, not even their own in any form, even written, telephonic or through third party message, not even an; I love you.

Due to the way my sentencing order was written and having only received the suspended sentence on the C Felony, I had to serve a total of 6 months on parole, the other 18 months was served while still incarcerated for the C Felony and being released from its one size fits all stipulations this past November. Parole also prevents all use of the internet by a convicted sex offender. Now, due to my no longer being on parole, I am allowed to access and use the internet.

I am still under the supervision of both probation and the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender’s Registry, however, in Indiana, probation stipulations are set by the sentencing judge as he/she sees fit, usually based upon the circumstances of the crimes for which a person was convicted. The crimes I was convicted of in no way involved the use of a computer or the internet and so, I am now allowed access to the internet and based upon a recent court ruling in the U.S. 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing registered sex offenders access to social networking sites, chat rooms and instant messaging programs,  to access those avenues of communication.

I am also required to attend weekly group therapy sessions for sex offenders

I am just starting this blog and I wanted to give my readers a little of my background before diving in.

Since my release, I have also become an active member of Indiana Voices, becoming what I would call a Contributing Editor of the web site, meaning that I post content and provide commentary on some of the stories. We are a family oriented organization, affiliated with the national RSOL organization and their goals of trying to lessen the impact registries have on the registrants themselves and their families.

It is not exactly my intent for this page to be an extension of that site, even though I am the same person who writes both here and there and I do want to cover the same basic subject matter in an attempt to help better inform the general public to the truth about sex offenders and the issues they and their families face every day.

It is also not intended for this blog to be about me personally, my life or my family’s lives, although, there may at times be my own anecdotal evidence that creeps in.

I AM NOT associated in any way, NOR DO I support any group advocating sexual relations between adults and children. Period!

I do hope to possibly be controversial and thought provoking, and a dealer in as many facts as I can find to use. I hope you will enjoy this blog as it evolves.

Chuck