{"id":33355,"date":"2016-11-18T09:03:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T17:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/cuts-to-bethel-sex-offender-program-prompt-recidivism-fears\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T09:03:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T17:03:02","slug":"cuts-to-bethel-sex-offender-program-prompt-recidivism-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/cuts-to-bethel-sex-offender-program-prompt-recidivism-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuts to Bethel sex offender program prompt recidivism fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BETHEL<\/strong> \u2014 Advocates for Bethel\u2019s Sex Offender Treatment Program fear a rise in recidivism rates for sex offenders following deep budget cuts and a significant staffing reduction for the program driven by decreased funding from the state Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n<p>The program\u2019s staff has been reduced from three members with a combined 40 years of experience to one member with four months of experience, KYUK-AM reported. Board members, former employees and advocates say the changes will end up costing the state more in the long run and will damage Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a tailor made program for the YK Delta, and I hate to see it flounder for a lack of funding,\u201d said Mike Grey, the Bethel District Attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Since the program started in 2008 there has been a recidivism rate of 1.7 percent, almost half of the state\u2019s average of 3 to 5 percent. Supporters of the program credit the low rate on area-specific treatments based on Yup\u2019ik values and culture.<\/p>\n<p>Besides participating in regular counseling sessions, the men in the program hunt and fish and then donate the meat to the Tundra Women\u2019s Coalition, the local women and children\u2019s shelter. They also donate meat to their victims\u2019 families when it\u2019s accepted.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the program fear the recidivism rate could go up because the program relies heavily on the experience of staff members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand tough economic times,\u201d Grey said, \u201cbut when you\u2019ve got a program that\u2019s really working, it\u2019s a shame that they can\u2019t find a way to keep getting the funds to keep the program going. And I just hate to see it fall apart, which is what I\u2019m afraid is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The budget and staffing cuts come after lawmakers reduced correction department\u2019s budget by more than $8.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>DOC spokesman Corey Allen Young says the cost saving measures made sense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn light of the financial situation we\u2019re in \u201cif we can do it a lot cheaper and still have the same results, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BETHEL \u2014 Advocates for Bethel\u2019s Sex Offender Treatment Program fear a rise in recidivism rates for sex offenders following deep budget cuts and a significant staffing reduction for the program driven by decreased funding from the state Department of Corrections. The program\u2019s staff has been reduced from three members with a combined 40 years of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33355"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}