For too long, the state has been sneaking around trying to release or parole dangerous sexually violent predators (SVPs) and rapists in residential neighborhoods. Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones is committed to reforming the SVP release and placement process so that public safety is top priority.
The Problem
A Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) is an individual convicted of a sexually violent offense and diagnosed with a mental disorder that causes them to be a danger to others with a high likelihood to reoffend.
When an SVP is recommended for conditional release, the Department of State Hospitals (DHS) is responsible for coordinating their release placement. DHS has often tried to duck their responsibility by giving their vendors, such as Liberty Healthcare, the freedom to place SVPs in unsuspecting communities across California.
Senate Minority Leader Jones’s Audit of the Department of State Hospitals and the Mismanaged SVP Release Program
On October 15, 2024, the California State Auditor released an audit report exposing the dangerous Sexually Violent Predator Conditional Release Program (SVP CONREP) currently overseen by the Department of State Hospitals (DSH). The audit highlights DSH’s failures in properly overseeing its state contractor, Liberty Healthcare, despite paying the contractor almost $100 million since the release program began. After years of public outcry over the reckless release of sexually violent predators (SVP) into communities, Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones called for this the audit last year. Click here to read the audit report.
“Today’s audit reinforces exactly what we’ve long been warning about: the Newsom Administration’s Department of State Hospitals has failed to properly oversee the dangerous sexually violent predator release program contracted out to Liberty Healthcare,” said Leader Jones. “Over the last 20 years of a no-bid contract, DSH has paid Liberty Healthcare nearly $93 million to manage just 56 individuals—averaging $1.66 million per SVP. With this price tag, Californians deserve real safety assurances, but the audit reveals critical lapses in safety oversight and even reoffenses among released SVPs. This longstanding contract has allowed Liberty Healthcare’s performance to slip, while DSH fails to hold them accountable.>
“As we’ve said all along, SVPs should be housed on state property under constant supervision, as past governors have mandated. The auditor's suggestion of transitional housing – even on state-monitored grounds – is a step DSH has stubbornly resisted but deserves serious consideration. It’s clear the current release program fails to meet expectations and safety standards. I look forward to working with the Legislature next year to fix this program, rein in Liberty Healthcare, and ensure DSH delivers the public safety Californians expect and deserve,” concluded Leader Jones.
After a year of anticipation, the Auditor’s report reveals shocking details about SVP CONREP. Key findings include:
Exorbitant Costs of the Program and No-Bid Contract
-From fiscal years 2018–19 through 2022–23, DSH’s annual payments to Liberty Healthcare for program services increased by 77 percent, growing from $5.3 million to $9.4 million. (Page 28)
-DSH has not been successful in obtaining bids to perform program services from any vendor other than Liberty Healthcare since the program began in 2003, although DSH has made at least four attempts to seek such bids. (Page 2)
Reoffenses Occur Despite High Costs
-4 percent of program participants reoffended after their release from a state hospital (Grant Parks Cover Letter)
Failure to Hold Liberty Healthcare Accountable and Ensure Safety Standards
-DSH has not held Liberty Healthcare accountable for resolving the various deficiencies in its administration of the program. (Page 51)
-DSH concluded that the electronic system was not functioning in a manner…to inform treatment decisions and mitigate risks to public safety. (Page 25)
-…we did identify a small number of placements that were within five miles of another placement. (Page 33)
Recommendations for Transitional Housing
-Multiple other states have programs that are similar to California’s program and that use state-owned, state-operated, or contracted transitional housing for participants who are no longer confined to state hospitals. (Page 19)
-DSH should explore establishing state-owned transitional housing similar to other states. (Page 35)
In 2023, Leader Jones requested that the Joint Legislative Audit Committee authorize an audit of Liberty Healthcare’s long-running exclusive contract to manage the Sexually Violent Predator Conditional Release Program (SVP CONREP) currently overseen by DSH. The Committee unanimously approved the audit with wide bipartisan support. Nearly 1,600 Californians signed the petition in support of the audit after years of frustration and safety concerns. Click here to download the full audit request letter.
Click here to download the full audit.
Click here to read Leader Jones’s press release about the audit.
Click here to download Leader Jones’s letter requesting the audit.
Click here to read the press release about the Joint Legislative Audit Committee authorizing Leader Jones's audit request of Liberty Healthcare.
Senate Minority Leader Jones Has Introduced 3 Bipartisan Bills to Fix the SVP Release Program
Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) has introduced three bipartisan bills that would protect our neighborhoods and families from dangerous sexually violent predators, perpetrators of some of the most horrendous and violent sex crimes. All three bills were called the “Sexually Violent Predator Accountability, Fairness, and Enforcement Act” (SAFE Act): SB 841 (2022), SB 832 (2023), and SB 1074 (2024). Both SB 841 and SB 832 failed in the Senate Public Safety Committee, never going before the full Senate or Assembly for consideration. This year’s SB 1074 unanimously passed out of the Senate and the Assembly Public Safety Committee, but failed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Click here for the SB 1074 fact sheet.
Click here to sign the petition supporting the SAFE Act.
“The SAFE Act is designed to protect our neighborhoods and families from dangerous sexually violent predators, perpetrators of some of the most horrendous and violent sex crimes,” said Leader Jones. “By blocking our bipartisan measure, Assembly Democrat leadership is now complicit in helping the Newsom Administration protect these predators over families.
“SVPs have committed crimes so heinous, I argue they should never be released from prison. If the state is ordered by a court to release SVPs and has no choice but to do so, the state has the responsibility to do it in a manner that best protects the public.
“Families across California are being jolted by the state’s secret attempt to put an SVP in their neighborhoods in a manner that completely disregards public safety. State Hospital officials have often tried to duck their responsibility by giving their vendors, such as East Coast-based Liberty Health Care, too much freedom in targeting unsuspecting communities. This practice is unacceptable.
“Three times I’ve introduced a bill to force the Newsom Administration to take responsibility for the sexually violent predators and rapists it releases into our backyards,” continued Leader Jones. “Assembly Democrat leadership is actively shielding the Newsom Administration from any responsibility to protect our communities. Without the SAFE Act, predators will continue to be dumped wherever is convenient."
Specifically, Leader Jones’s Senate Bill 1074 would:
- Make public safety the highest criteria of any potential placement of an SVP
- Require the Department of State Hospitals to take ownership in the placement process by approving any placements BEFORE the vendor can sign any leases for placement locations
“The SAFE Act would end DSH’s secretive SVP placements where they release SVPs into our communities without transparency and avoid answering.
- Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego)
“As a legislator who represents predominantly rural communities from Lake Tahoe to Death Valley, I have seen our neighborhoods become dumping grounds for Sexually Violent Predators. The decision-making process surrounding the placement of these predators has been unclear from the beginning, and this lack of transparency only fuels public distrust and exacerbates the challenges we face. It’s time to put an end to the dangerous practice of allowing Sexually Violent Predators to roam freely in our communities. I stand with Minority Leader Brian Jones in holding the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) accountable for every single step of the placement process.”
- Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil (D-Jackson)
More on the Disastrous Sexually Violent Predator Conditional Release Program
East Coast based-Liberty Healthcare's modus operandi is well known: they come into unsuspecting communities up and down California and employ a disturbing placement strategy in which full details of where they are leasing homes for sexually violent predators are kept secret from neighbors, school officials, and even local law enforcement. Later, after the leases for homes are signed using tax dollars, Liberty Healthcare then starts to slowly release details and a community is ripped apart. Many County District Attorneys have gone to court to block these dangerous placements of SVPs, and many judges have actually stepped up and ruled against these placements.
Unfortunately, a lot of taxpayer money is wasted year after year by DSH in this process while the vendor just makes more money and moves on to other communities to start the whole cycle over again. DSH is very close-mouthed with any details about the operation of their 20-year exclusive partnership with SVP contractor Liberty Healthcare. It's almost as if DSH simply wants to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
It's long past time to bring transparency and accountability to DSH and the details of their deal with Liberty Healthcare.
Media Reports on Liberty Healthcare
“The CA Department of State Hospitals (DSH) and their Conditional Release Program contractor, Liberty Healthcare have a history of improperly vetting properties regarding community safety . . . When measuring the success or failure of CONREP, consider that 70 percent of SVP’s released into communities in California were returned to custody. Why? In the words of the Liberty Healthcare Representative, Dr. Cameron Zeidler, they were returned for ‘technical reasons or sex not involving a human.’”
“Liberty holds a lucrative state contract to run California’s conditional release program for jury-designated ‘SVPs’ . . . Liberty is budgeted to get $6.75 million from the state in the current fiscal year . . . The amount DSH pays Liberty for CONREPO services has risen by $34,000 per client on average in the last two years, its newest estimate states. The department expects to SVPs will be conditionally released in the state at an average cost of $344,000 per client.”
Victorville Daily Press, 11/23/2021
“Outrage over plans to house convicted pedophile, with schizoaffective disorder and sexual sadism in million-dollar San Diego home across the road from a bus stop . . . Douglas Badger, 78, a convicted child sex offender, was recommended by the California Department of State Hospitals to be placed in a home on Frondoso Drive in the Rancho Bernardo neighbourhood which backs onto the country club.”
“Tricia Proffitt, who lives on Wild Iris Lane, told Lookout she is concerned about not just her family’s safety but also the ways in which challenges and isolation of living in Bonny Doon could negatively impact SVP Michael Cheek’s success. She’s live there for 32 years. ‘I am just shocked,’ she said. ‘I appreciate that the judge is looking at his rights, having served his time but I think it is a gross mistake to place him in Bonny Doon or any rural part of the county. He needs to be where services are easily accessible.’”
Lookout Santa Cruz, 11/15/2021
“The proposed plan of releasing Mr. (Joshua) Cooley as a transient Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) into Eureka motels is not in the best interest of the people of Eureka . . . Joshua Cooley was designated as a Sexually Violent Predator in 2010 and has a pattern of behavior that makes our residents and visitors targets of his deviant actions. Joshua Cooley’s criminal past and behavior has convinced experts that he is ‘most likely to re-offend’ . . . The proposed plan to release SVP Colley into as a transient with no stable or consistent place of residence is outrageous! . . . At this time, no one from Liberty Healthcare, the private provider of care for Mr. Cooley, has notified the Chief of Police for the City of Eureka regarding the proposed motel(s) placement or plans to monitor Colley’s actions.”
“Liberty Healthcare, hired by the state to handle sex predator releases, agreed to find temporary housing for (sex predator) Fraisure Smith in motels until a permanent residence can be located in the (Solano) county . . . the latest bizarre episode in California’s ‘sexually violent predator’ program.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 10/14/2015
“Convicted sex offender nabbed after boy found with him in car. Police took convicted sex offender Cary Verse into custody on suspicion of violating a condition of his release into the community, authorities reported . . . As one of the conditions of his 2004 release from Atascadero State Mental Hospital, Verse is not allowed to drive with any male passenger without authorization from Liberty Behavioral Health Corp.”
“Cary Verse, a four-time convicted sex offender who has been forced to move repeatedly since his release in February, will remain in San Jose motel – for now. Liberty Healthcare, the agency that monitors Verse, had been trying to move him to a permanent home in Merced this week . . . State Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced), who has been a vocal critic of Liberty’s plans to relocate Verse in Merced, said state mental health officials did not do their homework before signing a lease for the home.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 7/10/2004
“Mental Health officials began working with a private contractor, Liberty Healthcare Corp., to set up an outpatient program (for SVP Cary Verse) somewhere in the county seat. The state, however, did not disclose a precise address in Martinez after reaching a verbal agreement with a landlord, infuriating city officials and alarming neighbors. It is estimated to be within half-mile of Alhambra High School.”