Available case types

(Originally written on October 31, 2002)

Life 25 Judicial Review

The system allows for a judge and jury to review the clients file after a 15 year period to determine if the person will be granted the privilege (not a right) to discuss conditional release with the National Parole Board. Otherwise, life means life in Canada and the person would not be released any other way. To accomplish this task of Life 25 Judicial review requires, assessment and court testimony. The assessment is exhaustive and hence there needs to be a lead time of about 12 months before court to do the task justice. Success is understood by way of the client being able to either

• talk to the National Parole Board about conditional release or not and
• if the client is able to receive “ a day reduction in time from his life 25 sentence” which will move forward their timeframe of when they can talk with the National Parole Board about conditional release.

Life 25 Cases:

• Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
• Calgary, Alberta

Sex Offenders

There are many types of sex offenders and hence there are many ways to look at litigation and mitigation. The key elements are assessment and court testimony. The issue of degree of harm to the victim and whether or not the client will reoffend are just two of the many questions for such cases. The time requirement for such cases is about 6 months before court. If the client is on bail this can be most useful as therapy can be assessed while the client is in the community.

Sex Offender Cases: Available on request to lawyers.

Adolescent Homicide

Adolescent's who commit homicide are rare and hence there is no template for this type of crime. This lack of base rate is very important as the assessment and court testimony are more focused upon the experience and training rather than the education of the assessor. Friel has spent 14 years as a clinical psychologist at Edmonton Young Offender Centre and one of his main units was the adolescent homicide unit.

Adolescent Homicide Cases: Available on request to lawyers.

Adolescent Sex Offenders

Adolescents, depending on the study, make up about to 50 to 70 percent of all sex crimes committed. Further, fewer than 10 percent of these numbers go on and commit sex crimes as adults. So, adolescent treatment programs need to be part of any assessment to determine if the program is harmful or useful since most adolescent sex offenders do not get treatment and very few carry on the same crimes as adults.

Sex Offender Cases: Available on request.

Adult Homicide Offenders

Homicide is rare in the adult population and as with juveniles and child murderers the base rate is also small and hence all cases must be treated from the individual position. The important thing to recall in all homicides is that nothing is committed without reason even in the most bizarre of circumstances such as multiple murders. Finding the reason for the murder is difficult but not impossible and does require an exhaustive assessment. Treatment is a major issue and is generally forgotten once these people are sentenced due to the length of sentence. But, a good treatment plan at sentencing will assist in the next phase and that is Correctional Service of Canada placement and National Parole Board Review.

Adult Homicide cases: Available on request.

Celebrity Cases

These cases garner much media attention. The most recent one we did was Thatcher. We were asked to assess him for reduced security which he did receive.

Celebrity Cases: Are not generally available upon request. Only under special circumstances such as another celebrity case for my office.

Denial Cases

It has been shown that about 10 percent of serving inmates are not guilty. They have been convicted and all appeals failed. These cases sue to be considered the "lost cause". However, the National Parole Board will now review these cases. I have a favourable decision from the National Parole Board on such as case – sex offender.

Denial Case: Are not generally available upon request. Only under special circumstances such as another denial case for my office.

Aggression, Violence and Recidivism: at the 85 % level of Confidence

(Originally written on October 31, 2002)

In 1996, in Montreal, at the Canadian Psychologist Association Congress I spoke alone, I might add, against the Hare PCLR. My abstract was published. Now in 2002 Gendreau et al have come to some of my earlier conclusions about this assessment tool. Further, today, they found that the Canadian assessment tool the Level of Service Inventory – Revised in predicting general (.37 vs .23) and violent (.26 vs .21) recidivism was better than the PCL R. What this means is that both instruments are poor tools for predicting the future. No one can predict the future. I have used both instruments and find them wanting.

Dr. Friel has spent his entire professional life in the assessment and treatment and in lecturing about people who commit heinous crimes. He has come to the conclusion that today, at this moment, the best method available at the 85 % level of confidence is the Forensic Examination in Psychology Method.

Sex Offenders and Group Treatment

Adolescents

There are some researchers who think that about 10% of adolescent sex offenders go on to become adult sex offenders. Thinking this idea through, using the available literature, it would suggest to me that adolescent sex offender group treatment programs need to be assessed to determine if they are being a benefit or not.

Adults

Group therapy for adults  is precarious for these reasons and others:

• Bullying – it is not uncommon for the group leader or one of the group members to bully one of the offenders into agreeing to something that they would not normally agree to just to stop the psychological harassment.
• New Sexual Perversions - perverse  Mental Sexually Fantasies can be learned from other sex offenders.
• Connections – it is highly likely that some of these men will form social bonds due to intimate knowledge learned about each other and connect with each other in the community sometime later.
• Release – since conditional release can be dependent upon treatment it is not unreasonable to assume that in group many men will say what the  group facilitator wants to hear and this then will be reported as progress when in fact it is deception.

Summary

There is only one answer, at present, to this issue and that is one to one individual assessment and therapy with a trained clinical psychologist or social worker for each sex offender.