| Citizens for Reform Newsletter www.citizensforreform.com *** P.O. Box 172, St. Peter, MN 56082 *** e-mail: cfrjustice4all43@msn.com ______________________________________________________________________________________ May 2003 Twenty-sixth Edition By: Concerned Citizens ______________________________________________________________________________________ MSOP Officials Assure Residents of Major Program Changes With the resignations of Dr. Anita Schlank, clinical director of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), Joanne Fairfield, assistant clinical director, and David Dipman, program psychologist, residents suspected a problem within the program. The program has now been in existence for approx. 10 years, and has not shown the taxpayers of Minnesota a return for their multi-millions of dollars spent, which was to improve the lives of those who are in this treatment program, so that they may be reintegrated with society to live healthy, productive lives. Recently the Hospital Review Board had told residents that a major program change will be forthcoming. Patient Advocate of the MSOP Randy Valentine has also that residents should be expecting major program changes. Residents are not sure exactly what to expect and are reluctant to believe that anything good could ever come after the abuses they have endured over the past 10 years. It is also questionable whether or not the program is constitutionally sufficient to meet the needs of residents. The program has utterly failed to provide and implement any individualized treatment programming with objective measures of guidance. As a result, it is difficult for residents and staff to know if individuals are improving and in what ways. For the most part, treatment staffs at the MSOP are inexperienced in the treatment of sex offenders. The training of staff in this area has been developed ad hoc, and has consisted mostly of over-rated staff training modules (no college education necessary). Trust is an important element in a therapeutic relationship, yet trust and rapport between residents and the staff at the MSOP is either non-existent or very low, partly because of the deficiencies of the program. Treatment staffs have verbally abused residents and have also performed strip searches of them. Treatment staffs have abused their powers by excessively implementing punishment for the least alleged facility infractions.The program’s failure to meet adequate standards of treatment to date has contributed to a belief by residents that they have no chance of ever being released and that their confinement amounts to nothing more than a life sentence. Will the new major program changes include any of the following? 1) The adoption and implementation of a plan for initial and ongoing training and/or hiring of competent sex offender therapists. 2) Implementation of strategies to rectify the lack of trust and rapport between residents and treatment providers. 3) Implementation of a treatment program for residents, which includes all therapy components recognized as necessary by prevailing standards in comparable programs where participation is coerced. This should include the involvement of spouses, family members, and other support persons in the treatment of residents, and plans for encouraging the visitation and support of those persons. (Note: Maybe this can now be done with the resignation of Fairfield, who seemed obsessed with dividing family members and others from residents with her apparent expertise in foretelling the future.) 4) Developing and maintaining individual treatment plans for residents that include objective benchmarks of improvement so as to document, measure and guide an individual’s progress in therapy. 5) Provide expert psychologists or psychiatrists in the diagnosis and treatment of sex offenders to supervise the clinical work of treatment staff, including monitoring of the treatment plans of individual residents, and to consult with staff regarding specific issues or concerns about therapy “mental health” treatment. (Note: Maybe this can now be done with the resignation of Anita Schlank who seemed more engrossed in writing books about her alleged successes in treating sex offenders.) If the MSOP/DHS continues to deny residents access to mental health treatment recognized by prevailing professional standards, which gives them a reasonable opportunity to be cured, or to improve for eventual release, the program should be challenged in a court of law. Providing promises of major program changes simply doesn’t justify the past 10 years of preventative detention the residents have had to endure. |
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