The Special Commitment Center is a treatment facility for residents who have served their criminal sentence and are being held under civil law. After being convicted of crime(s) and serving a prison sentence, people who meet the definition of a sexually violent predator must be civilly committed to SCC to receive treatment and supervision. Civil commitment is involuntary and non-punitive.
What is the Special Commitment Center?
The Special Commitment Center programs provide behavioral health treatment developed specifically for civilly committed sex offenders. When a judge sends someone to SCC, the program serves as the treatment lead of a multi-tiered system of residents living on McNeil Island and local communities throughout the state.
SCC facilities
The SCC operates three facilities: the Total Confinement Facility and two secure community transition facilities.
- Total Confinement Facility on McNeil Island
The SCC’s total confinement facility, located on McNeil Island, opened in May 2004. Civilly committed residents first enter the SCC’s total confinement facility, offering a Sex Offender Treatment Program that consists of increasingly challenging levels of rigorous treatment.
SCC Sex Offender Treatment Program
Sex offense-specific treatment focuses on equipping residents with the knowledge and skills that will help them refrain from future re-offenses. Treatment helps residents develop the skills needed to cope more appropriately while also helping them build protective factors such as healthy relationships, job skills, and hobbies. The development of these skills and protective factors increases residents’ sense of self, competence, and motivation to continue to transform their lives in positive ways.
Treatment offered at SCC follows the risk, needs, responsivity model, which matches the level of care provided to the resident’s risk of re-offense.
The goal of the SCC’s treatment program is to mitigate risk factors associated with sexual offending and to prepare residents for successful reintegration. This is done through individual therapy, and group therapy aimed at skill development (self-regulation, coping skills, communication skills, relationship skills, etc.) and relapse prevention. Given that treatment is individualized, the SCC treatment program focuses on what is in the best interest of the resident, what is important in reducing potential for re-offense and what skills, resources, and supports are needed in preparing a resident for an eventual and safe community transition. Each resident’s treatment goals are reassessed on an annual basis.
- Secure Community Transition Facility in Pierce County
Also located on McNeil Island is the Secure Community Transition Facility in Pierce County, designed to house SCC residents who receive court-ordered conditional releases from total confinement. This SCTF has a maximum capacity of 24 beds.
- Secure Community Transition Facility in King County
The SCC maintains a SCTF in South Seattle that can house up to 12 residents who receive court-ordered conditional release from the total confinement facility. The SCC maintains an SCTF in South Seattle that can house up to 12 residents who receive court-ordered conditional release from the total confinement facility.
Community Transition
The U.S. Constitution requires SCC residents to get a yearly evaluation to determine if they still meet the criteria for civil commitment at McNeil Island’s total confinement facility, or if a less restrictive alternative should be considered. Total confinement residents may also independently petition the court to be transferred to less restrictive alternatives in the state of Washington. In both instances, a judge decides if an LRA is in the resident’s best interest and in the interest of the community -- i.e. if conditions can be imposed on the resident to adequately protect the community.
In addition to annual reviews, any SCC resident committed to the total confinement facility may at any time petition the superior court for a conditional release to an LRA placement, or an unconditional release. While rare, courts can order unconditional releases of residents; in these cases, unconditionally released residents no longer have SCC oversight.
What are less restrictive alternatives?
A less restrictive alternative, or LRA, is a court-ordered housing option where a person lives in a setting that is not as strict as the SCC’s total confinement facility on McNeil Island. An LRA is only used when a judge authorizes it.
The rules for an LRA are set in state law.
Residents released to LRAs may transfer to state-owned and -operated secure community transition facilities, or they may transfer into community LRA homes. SCTFs are state-owned and state-operated LRAs, which offer additional levels of security and 24/7 intensive staffing. There are two SCTFs -- one on McNeil Island in Pierce County and one in south Seattle in King County.
Community LRA homes are run by private business providers. LRA residents of both SCTFs and community LRAs are required to follow court-ordered conditions that include sex offender behavioral health treatment and monitoring by GPS tracking bracelets.
A resident is not released to an LRA unless a court determines that release is in the resident’s best interest and in the interest of the community -- i.e., that proposed conditions can keep the community safe.
Only a court has jurisdiction of an LRA case. Only a judge can determine how long a resident must be under the court order that oversees the case. (Part of the judge’s job includes determining impacts to community safety.) Residents released to LRAs may transfer to secure community transition facilities on McNeil Island in Pierce County or in South Seattle in King County or may be transferred to community LRAs. Learn more about the types of Less Restrictive Alternatives.
Upon completion of their prison sentence, a person identified as potentially being a sexually violent predator goes through a psychological evaluation by a licensed psychologist. The evaluation must identify that the person suffers from a personality disorder and/or mental abnormality that makes them more likely than not to commit an act of sexual violence if not confined to a secure facility. A superior court judge (court system) will review the evaluation to make the final decision. The defense attorney and prosecutor may have experts provide additional evaluations. If the court determines a person to be a sexually violent predator, the person is then civilly committed to the SCC for public safety and to undergo treatment.
Residents undergo a new psychological evaluation and a court review every year to determine whether they still meet the criteria outlined in FAQ 1. This process is outlined in Revised Code of Washington 71.09.070. Annual examinations of persons committed under chapter—Suspension of section.
Residents may be released from the SCC, per court order, either conditionally or unconditionally.
Conditional release means a resident is ordered by the court to be released to a less restrictive alternative in the community, while still under close supervision and with court-imposed safety conditions.
Unconditional release means a resident is ordered by the court to release without any additional conditions imposed by the court, the same as if they were released directly from prison and occurs when a person no longer meets criteria for civil commitment.
Once the resident is unconditionally released from civil commitment under RCW 71.09, they are no longer considered to meet the definition of “sexually violent predator.” The fact that they were once civilly committed remains on their criminal record.
Before the creation of the SCC, sexually violent predators were released into the community after their prison sentences. The Community Protection Act of 1990 created the ability to civilly commit sexually violent predators, and the SCC was established to provide inpatient treatment.