CANON CITY, Colo., How much should it cost taxpayers to treat a nonviolent sex offender for reentry into society? In the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) it costs nearly a half- million dollars per offender paroled.
The purpose of sex offender therapy according to DOC, the Department of Public Safety, and State Judicial Department documents is not to: ''increase the minimum sentence'' but rather, "provide offenders the opportunity to progress...and be considered for parolee." However the treatment to success percentage, as determined by the number of inmates who successfully complete treatment, have served their sentence, and are then paroled, has an egregious .8 percent success rate.
When this, less than one percent success rate, is expressed in dollars to output, the taxpayer paid $445,629 per parolee just for treatment and evaluation. This figure does not include the additional millions spent to incarcerate those held past their sentencing release date.
How is it possible that it cost CDOC nearly a half-million dollars in treatment per parolee? The answer is that there are so few eligible inmates actually paroled. The reason so few inmates are paroled in accordance with sentencing guidelines is less clear. Several factors could contribute to this occurrence. First the parole board might not believe treatment works, or they may discount the recommendation of the CDOC therapists who say an inmate is safe to reenter society. The second factor could be political, the parole board choosing to ignore the recommendation of professionals and sentencing guidelines established by law, because of political bias and the unpopularity of releasing any sex offenders into society.
Regardless of the reason, any public program that has a success rate lower than one percent has to be considered a complete failure, especially when it costs the taxpayers millions a year to implement. The cost of $445,629 per parolee could decrease -- if the parole board began releasing offenders who served their time and were deemed safe, as the law mandates. However, the trend is that costs are increasing by a rate of $16,634 a year, making this public policy one of the most expensive in the nation.
* Fiscal analysis conducted with FY 07-08 figures. The FY 09 minimal 4 percent parole increase could decrease the treatment cost per parolee, however, costs for FY 09 were not available for analysis at the time of publication.
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