Adams County now an option for conditional release program for low-risk sexually violent persons

QUINCY — The Quincy Police Department recently learned Adams County is now eligible to begin receiving people deemed by the courts as low-risk sexually violent.

Det. James Brown said the program has been available in Quincy for about two weeks, and the first person was released in Quincy last week.

“We’re having more people who, in my opinion, are at an elevated risk over that of the average sex offender,” Brown said. “These people have done something in the past that the attorney general’s office and the attorneys of the prosecuting jurisdiction have deemed it so that this person needs a special criterion as a sexually violent person.”

Brown said low-risk sexually violent people are not returned to the county where they previously lived. He said Adams County did not previously have proper treatment facilities or doctors certified to work with the sexually violent persons. Instead, they typically were sent to places like Peoria, Springfield, Champaign and Cook County.

“Now Quincy and Adams County apparently is an available option,” Brown said. “The Quincy Police Department and the City of Quincy had absolutely nothing to do with approving anything. Nobody was contacted. I’ve been doing sex offender registration for almost five years now, and I’ve been a cop for almost 25 years. I didn’t even know this program existed until about two months ago when the Liberty (Healthcare representative) called to check the first address.”

The Illinois Department of Human Services has worked since 2002 with Pennsylvania-based Liberty Healthcare Corporation, which also has a Springfield, Ill., office, for the conditional release of sexually violent persons who have been deemed low risk. Most of them are first housed in the Treatment and Detention Facility in Rushville, which has approximately 600 violent sexual offenders who have completed prison sentences — yet the state considers them too dangerous to be in society. 

These people receive ongoing treatment and risk assessment in Rushville. Many sexually violent persons spend many years, or even a lifetime, in a locked-down treatment facility.

“In the past, usually the sexually violent persons would never get out, because they can never pass the risk assessment that the therapists give when they’re in (the) Rushville (facility),” Brown said.

For a court to rule someone is sexually violent and eligible for placement in civil commitment programs like what’s offered at Rushville, they must have been convicted of a sexually violent offense or been found not guilty of a sexually violent offense by reason of insanity but is dangerous because he or she suffers from a mental disorder that makes it probable that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence. Sexually violent people are required to register every 90 days for natural life.

If a person fits that criterion, the attorney general’s office will file a petition to have them declared a sexually violent person.

Liberty Healthcare monitors the sexually violent persons and helps them secure housing. The sexually violent persons are mainly confined to their residences with an ankle monitor for the first several months of conditional release.  

They must follow a lengthy set of rules, such as:

• Not answering their doors for anyone other than law enforcement.
• No unauthorized phone calls.
• No internet access or unapproved electronic devices.

“They have a 10-page list of rules. It’s really quite impressive,” Brown said. “For the first several months, they have to be escorted even to go grocery shopping. They have to turn in all purchase receipts of anything they buy. If a minor even knocks on their door, they have to call it in to their Liberty Healthcare agent who supervises them. 

“If it’s to the point where if things are looking a little weird, the supervisory agent can make the can make the offender seal up all their windows. As much as I don’t necessarily maybe agree with the release of some of these individuals, I will say this is an impressive and intense list of rules and regulations.”

Few low-risk sexually violent people become eligible for release. Brown said Liberty Healthcare has worked with the release of 187 low-risk sexually violent people throughout the state.

However, Brown added 139 of them eventually had their conditional release revoked.

“We’re not going to get like 20 of them next week,” he said. “There’s an increased risk and possibility that these individuals are being released in our community now, and maybe that risk is slightly higher than the average sex offender who hopes learn from their initial offense. We’re wanting to make sure everybody is aware and remind them how they can find out who’s living in their neighborhood.”

Quincy residents can check the status of a person or find out if any sex offenders live in their neighborhoods by going to the Quincy Police Department website and navigating to the “Offender Watch” program search tab.