Nine months since the uproar over a convicted serial rapist being moved to a quiet Southbury neighborhood, Connecticut continues to lack options for housing sex offenders. The Department of Correction and Judicial Branch were supposed to have 24 beds available in a secured setting by July 1. But they’ve been unable to meet that deadline, set by the General Assembly and the governor. “It has proven to be difficult,” Brian Garnett, a DOC spokesman, told the Waterbury Republican-American.
There were no responses this spring to a state request for a consultant to develop a statewide system of treatment and housing for sex offenders. Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said Gov. M. Jodi Rell could use her authority to site a facility on state property immediately. He said the Republican governor’s office is deliberately overlooking an obvious and easy solution to the problem. “Either you want to do this or you don’t. If you want to do it, you could do it on state property tomorrow–period,” Lawlor said.
Link: http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2008/07/28/ap-state-ct/d926enho1.txt