SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There's not much stopping a sexually violent predator from being released from prison to be placed in a residential community. When their sentence is finished and they are conditionally released, the Department of State Hospitals allows its vendor, Liberty Healthcare, house them in "unsuspecting areas" in California.
A sexually violent predator, or SVP, is someone convicted of a sexually violent offense who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder that makes them likely to offend again.
"Their crimes are so heinous, and the sexual crime and violence that they've committed on another human being is so impactful," Senator Brian Jones said.
The Sexually Violent Predator Accountability, Fairness and Enforcement Act, or the SAFE Act, would require public safety to be considered when placing SVPs, and the Department of State Hospitals to approve SVP placement before Liberty Healthcare assigns a placement and signs a lease.
"Because right now what happens is state hospitals just turns them over to Liberty Healthcare and then doesn't pay attention at all to where their placement is being proposed by Liberty Health," Jones said.
A public records request found it cost more than $450,000 taxpayer dollars to house one SVP last year.
Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones representing San Diego introduced the bill in February. The SAFE Act made its way through the Senate but was blocked by the appropriations committee last week before it was even voted on.
"For the Department of State Hospitals to continue to put them into neighborhoods is completely unbelievable and unacceptable," Senator Jones said. "I truly believe that if the full body of the assembly was allowed to vote on this they would vote to approve it."
Three years ago, an SVP was going to be placed in Jeff Grace's Rancho Bernardo neighborhood.
"Knowing that the SVP was going to be placed about 300 yards away from our front door, our doors were locked forever, it was going to change our lives and how we lived," Grace said.
He and other families in the neighborhood fought against the placement, and the SVP was housed elsewhere. That's how Keep RB Safe was created. The group helped block an SVP placement in a Poway neighborhood last month.
"We can do all we can locally in a very reactive way," Grace said. "What really needs to happen is legislative change in Sacramento."
Senator Jones audited Liberty Healthcare to see where state funds are going and to get some transparency. He is expecting the results in the fall.
The SAFE Act cannot move forward this year, but the same measure or something similar will likely be introduced next year.
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