Because persons who are civilly committed to a Department of Mental Health ("DMH") facility are not under any criminal sanctions, they may not be punished, but rather must be treated as though they are free citizens except for the right to come and go as they please. Both the State and Federal Constitutions have been interpreted as providing those involuntarily committed with civil rights. Additionally, in California, the Legislature has provided them with state created statutory civil rights which are codified at Welfare and Institutions Code, Sections 5325 and 5325.1. Thus, the law and the Constitutions require civil committees these rights because they are under no criminal sanctions whatsoever.

In the case of Sexually Violent Predators ("SVP"), even though there is a public perception that this group should continue to be punished -- forever -- this is illegal, unconstitutional, and un-American, lest we become like the third world countries whose human rights policies we deplore. We cannot continue to punish any person or group of persons who have already completely served their prison sentences, and thereby paid their debt to society. Under the American system of justice, persons who have served their penal sentence completely are no longer subject to further or continuing penal sanctions or conditions.

However as a group, SVP's have been singled out for continued incarceration based upon a public fear that members of this group may possibly commit another crime at some obscure and unknown time in the future. Although no one has ever reliably or accurately predicted the future, the psychological industry believes they can do so and have gotten out their crystal balls. This new system is akin to the Nazis locking up undesirables during World War Two.

To accomplish this, the psychological industry has created new categories of mental illness called "Mental Abnormalities" and "Personality Disorders," and through utilization of a panel of contract psychological evaluators, who individually earn as much as $300,000 per year for this service, individuals are diagnosed and labeled with one or more of these new disorders, and are then civilly committed to the State Mental Hospital at Atascadero.

Although these individuals are deemed not to be mentally ill for purposes of serving long prison terms, nevertheless, just prior to their scheduled release from prison, along come the DMH Evaluators who now place a "Mental Abnormality" label on the individual, often decades after the occurrence of the events upon which the label is based.

One of the travesties of this system is that by design most of these individuals did not have a mental condition needing treatment at the onset of their prison incarceration period. Because the costs of prison incarceration is far less than the costs of civil commitment, it makes no economic sense to delay treatment that should begin in prison where the approximate per inmate incarceration costs average $33,000 per year, compared with DMH costs of $150,000 to $200,000 per year. This data may be gleaned from government websites.

The question the taxpayers should be asking is, what do they get for their money? Since, as stated, those civilly committed must be treated with dignity and respect, and have civil rights essentially equal to free citizens. Their living conditions may not be those harsh type conditions expected in a penal institution, but instead must be comfortable. They are no longer considered prisoners, but rather they are "patients" in a mental hospital.

The following narrative depicts a day in the life of a new arrival at the mental hospital:

I get up in the morning at about 6:00 a.m., not because I must, but because this is when I normally wake up. Should I choose to do so, I could sleep as late as I "desire." 

The "Unit" or "Ward" I am housed in consists of eleven five man dorms. There are other Units with private rooms. In our dorms, which are about 20 feet square, there are pony walls approximately five feet high to separate each individual's living space. The Unit presently has about 50 "patients." That is what we are called: "patients," although I feel more like a political prisoner.

Three times each day, we march off down the corridor to the Dining Hall for a hot meal, where we are given an institution or cafeteria style meal. Unlike prison, we have some choices. There are alternate or substitute items should one have a preference or be dealing with a food allergy or religious diet.

After returning from breakfast, electric shavers are available for personal grooming. Then our small courtyard is opened for a fresh air break. That over with, I am sitting at a square table, writing, firmly implanted in a comfortably padded chair, and presently located in the back of the "Day Room." A room which is approximately 50 feet wide and 35 feet deep. Where I sit is approximately 35 feet from a 27" television set which receives around 40 cable channels. There is a second 27" TV in another room to watch sports. This avoids arguments.

As I write, I am alternating between watching TV and playing with a small handheld electronic "Poker" game. As I look around the room, there is a chess game in progress, a "spades" game, a ping pong game, and several individuals are intensely involved in playing their GameBoys. Others are are watching TV, with some reading the newspaper which is provided, but no one is ridding the exercycle. There are other board and card games available should patients desire to play them.

We essentially sit around all day trying to occupy our time. There is a poster on the wall beside the TV set which reads, "Boredom Kills." I cannot read the fine print from 35 feet, but this is a true statement, and for this reason we are allowed all the described activities.

To my back, out the door, is a small courtyard which is about 100 feet square, and which is open from 15 to 30 minutes at a time several times daily, and all day on weekends and holidays. There is one nice size tree, a BBQ pit, picnic tables, benches, a basketball court, a lawn area, and flower beds. Many flower and shrubs are in bloom now. Both pink and red roses, and the two Bottle Brush are particularly nice. There is a perimeter walkway on which I walk laps for exercise.

Today a friend went to the Canteen and purchased a half gallon of "Death By Chocolate" ice cream which we rapidly devoured. Although we have a refrigerator in the Day Room in which to keep our ice cream, there was none left over. All of this type social interaction is considered therapy and encouraged. Since my arrival at the hospital two weeks ago, I have attended officially sanctioned and organized "Groups" for: Bingo, Popcorn Social, Music Listening, Movie Watching, Basketball Free-Throw Shooting, Morning Stretching Exercises, and several other social interaction therapy groups. 

For this the taxpayers are spending between $150,000 and $200,000 per year per patient.

While there are many people at the hospital who are truly mentally ill, and do need this type of therapy in order to learn sufficient social skills to function in society, there are also a great many patients who have no true mental illness, but are simply political prisoners of society who have been targeted by the SVP laws and misconceived public fear.

If one discards the rhetoric of those who benefit financially from incarceration of individuals and the associated process, and then look at actual statistics and records, it is not the previously convicted and known about sex offenders who commit the majority of sexually violent crimes. Rather it is those who are unknown, who have never before been caught, who are the greatest danger to society. Even among prisoners tracked after being released from prison, 87 percent of new sex offenses committed by a group of 272,111 men released from prison in 1994 were committed by those who had not served their prison term for a sex offense. (See FN. 1.)

The same special interest groups who are behind SVP civil commitments would also like to take away all of the benefits, and force SVPs to live under draconian prison type conditions. But they cannot, because this group may not be punished, they are no longer under any criminal sanctions, and retain all the civil rights of a free citizen except the right to come and go as they please.

As long as the SVP laws exist in their present form, with treatment being delayed until the completition of the offender's prison term, the taxpayers are stuck with paying hundreds of millions of dollars to house this group in very comfortable conditions.

FN. 1. "Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from Prison in 1994." NOJ 198281. November, 2003, U.S. De Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics ("BJS", by Patrick A. Langan, Ph.D., Erica L Schmitt, and Matthew R. Durose. A report utilizing data from 15 states, with California contributing 34% of the data base, tracking 272,111 released men, with 9,691 of whom were incarcerated for a sex offense.

By Thomas B. Watson
AT-054128-4, U-16
P.O. Box 7001
Atascadero, CA 93423-7001