A state district judge in Montgomery County agreed Friday to allow a convicted sex offender to live on his own in the community, the first time a person held under Texas' civil commitment program has been allowed to live outside of confinement since 2005.
Offenders in Texas’ civil commitment program are required to abide by a host of rules relating to their confinement, monitoring, interactions, treatment and sexual activity. Violations of the rules can result in criminal charges, a jury trial and imprisonment.
The following are examples of the rules, which program participants are required to agree to with a signature.
Mayra Beltran/Houston ChronicleJudge Michael Seiler, of the 435th District Court, granted approval of the living arrangement sought by the state Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, the little-known agency that oversees Texas' controversial civil commitment program.
The program allows the state to keep certain repeat sex offenders in confinement following the completion of their criminal sentences in what is supposed to be a treatment program.
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More than 360 convicted sex offenders have been ordered into the civil commitment program since 1999, but not a single one has completed treatment and been set free in that time, leading legal experts to question the constitutionality of the way Texas has operated the program. More than 180 of those offenders have been returned to prison for violating administrative and treatment rules.
The Office of Violent Sex Offender Management and its former leaders also have come under sharp criticism from legal experts and state lawmakers who have pledged to reform the agency. The former director of the agency was forced out last April, and a scathing state audit released this week concluded the office had no formal budget process, could not account for all of its spending and failed to monitor the services provided to offenders in the program.
Following Seiler's ruling, Erik Games, 40, will remain in the civil commitment program and will be subject to more supervision once he leaves a halfway house. He has been in the civil commitment program since 2009.
The judge's decision comes only weeks after agency officials announced they had no more space to house committed offenders.
Since 2009, all civil commitment trials and hearings have been held in Seiler's court, giving the Montgomery County judge nearly sole authority over offenders in the state program.
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