SOMB Quarterly Minute
October 2021
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I am excited to kick off this quarter’s newsletter and share that I am humbled to have accepted the role as Vice Chair with the SOMB. Since joining the board as a Victim Representative, I have been continually impressed by the expertise and passion with which stakeholders, fellow board members, and staff delve into this complex and important work. My vision is to ensure that the rights and interests of survivors are represented in all conversations and decisions within the SOMB, and to create avenues for survivors and victim representatives to have a voice in these processes and outcomes. I believe that having a Treatment Provider Representative and a Victim Representative in the role of Chair and Vice Chair mirrors the important balance the board seeks to achieve in this work, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with all the important voices that work together to achieve these goals.
Katie Abeyta
Vice-Chair, Sex Offender Management Board
Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center
Director of Victim Advocacy and Outreach
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October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month!
Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) is here and we want to take the time acknowledge the challenging work you all do day-in and day-out. The events that have transpired over the last 18 months has required next-level effort in responding to domestic violence and meeting the needs of communities statewide. We all are bearing witness to perhaps one of the largest stress tests of the Criminal Justice System and the transformational leadership shown to adapt and continue delivering services is remarkable. The DVOMB extends its appreciation to those providing direct services whether you are an Approved Provider, a Supervision Officer, or a Treatment Victim Advocate. This month serves as a reminder to reflect on why YOU are important to this work. DVAM also represents an opportunity to raise awareness in your community about domestic violence and how to engage others in the movement to make our communities safer. Think about how you might be able to support the campaign in your community or with people outside of work.
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WHERE: Online
WHEN: October 15, 2021
TIME: 9:00AM
Click here to review previous meeting minutes, agendas, and handouts.
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Practice Corner
HB21-1064 - Update Processes for Juvenile Sex Offender Registry
The legislative oversight committee concerning the treatment of persons with mental health disorders in the criminal and juvenile justice systems, provided recommendations to address numerous factors related to juveniles and adults (those that committed a sexual offense as a juvenile) who had to register as a Sexual Offender. Back in August 2017, the SOMB completed a White Paper on the Research, Implications and Recommendations regarding Registration and Notification of Juveniles Who Have Committed Sexual Offenses and shared this with the legislative oversight committee. After four years of discussion and planning, the legislature created and approved HB21-1064, which was signed by the Governor and became effective September 1, 2021.
A few items that this bill incorporates includes:
- Specifying that if a juvenile who is moving to Colorado would be otherwise required to register on Colorado's sex offender registry (registry) but the juvenile's duty to register in another state has been terminated by a court order, then the juvenile is not required to register or petition the court for removal from the registry;
- Expanding judicial discretion at the time of sentencing to exempt from registration or from requiring juveniles to register for all first offense registerable juvenile sex crimes if a sex offender management board evaluator recommends exemption and the juvenile is otherwise statutorily eligible;
- Adding language to adult or juvenile provisions that currently reference only crimes defined as "unlawful sexual behavior" to also include convictions and adjudications for nonsexual crimes where there has been, pursuant to statute, a judicial finding of an underlying factual basis involving unlawful sexual behavior;
- Adding a requirement for the court to send notice before the end of each juvenile's sentence concerning a juvenile's duty to register and set a hearing to consider the juvenile's ongoing duty to register;
- Adding language that if a person is required to register due to an adjudication or disposition as a juvenile, the duty to register automatically terminates either when the person reaches 25 years of age or 7 years from the date the juvenile was required to register, whichever occurs later;
Changing the current law that allows the Colorado bureau of investigation (CBI) to inform a requesting party if a person is on the registry so that the CBI may release information about a juvenile only under certain restrictions;
Please review the complete bill summary and copy of the signed bill here.
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Research Corner
Believe it or not, the SOMB Provider Management System which includes the data collection component is nearly 2 years old. The SOMB would like to express its appreciation to all of the providers who are actively using the system. Are you having any challenges related to the use of the System? If so, you can use the system to communicate with the SOMB staff including Dr. Yuanting Zhang (yuanting.zhang@state.co.us) regarding any questions or concerns.
The SOMB continues to modify the Provider Management System based on feedback from providers and stakeholders. For example, providers can indicate that they do or do not provide direct client services (so that the SOMB knows which providers need to be doing the required data entry at the completion of that service), update their addresses, and identify the counties in which services are provided and the language in which these services are provided.
Based on feedback and suggestions, the following features have been newly added to the Provided Management System. The SOMB encourages all providers to log in and check them out. There are only a few additional things providers need to add so please do it today. The SOMB recently added a question to identify your ethnicity (including a tip on how to do it; you can choose one or more of the choices, or enter in the answer in the comment box). Why is the SOMB asking for this information? The SOMB would like to respond to questions from the Colorado State Legislature and other stakeholders regarding the diversity of SOMB approved providers. The SOMB does not plan to make public this information currently, but recognizes that client treatment matching can be enhanced through consideration of diversity issues.
Another example of new information is the ability for providers to enter supervisor information. Providers can update their supervisor’s information or add information on a supervisor. In this way, the SOMB will have the most current information about approved providers. There is also a link to remind providers to update their Supervision Agreements for Associate Level Evaluators, Treatment Providers, and Polygraph Examiners. Finally, providers can now update mental health licensure information including license number and expiration date if the license was recently renewed; Providers can also add additional licenses or credentials if needed. Please try out these new functions and let the SOMB know if you have more suggestions in order to serve you better!
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Welcome, New Board Members! |
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Joshua Nowak is an Associate Attorney for McDermott, Stuart, & Ward LLP. Joshua was previously a Public Defender in Adams County where he represented clients accused of misdemeanors and felonies. Joshua is from Fort Collins and attended the University of Northern Colorado where he obtained a degree in Political Science and Psychology. Joshua then attended the University of Denver for law school. Joshua spends his free-time playing with his two poorly-behaved dogs or watching “The Office” on repeat.
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I am the Sexual Assault Resource Prosecutor for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council. My pronouns are she/her/hers. My daily work includes lobbying at the Capitol; researching scholarly articles; analyzing criminal justice system data and training prosecutors and law enforcement on best practices for the investigation and prosecution of sexual crimes. I have been a prosecutor since 2012, having worked in both El Paso and Boulder counties - where I have prosecuted solely sexual crimes on adults and children for the last six years. I believe strongly in the power of prosecution to serve all members of the community, including victims, non-victims and defendants. I live in Denver with my partner Matt and our dog, Callahan. When I’m not crafting sexual violence policy at the Capitol or analyzing research, you can find me at a movie theater, with a good book in my chair, or on a river with a fly-rod in hand. I am honored to serve on the SOMB! |
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In 2020 we started a new initiative. We encouraged our stakeholders to submit a training proposal they think would be beneficial for our stakeholders. We opened registration and once we collected a significant number of registrants, we would open registration with further details about the training. We've heard from you and we are now ready to open registration for one of such trainings.
Team Resilience in the Workplace Training
Team resilience is essential for organizational and treatment teams to thrive in today’s ever-changing world. Treatment teams working with persons who have committed violent and/or sexual offenses require resilience to remain effective treatment providers – even under the stress of the current pandemic effects on the workplace. Many facilities are experiencing high turnover rates in organizational teams, and those who remain on the team may feel fatigued, burnt-out, and disconnected. These are effects of secondary traumatic stress, which is common among those working in health, mental health, and corrections fields. Investing in team resilience will help these essential work teams in achieving productivity, alignment, and higher morale through trying times. This presentation will assist team members, leaders, and any professionals working with offending populations.
This presentation will begin with defining team resilience components and secondary traumatic stress symptoms for professionals. Audience members will be given a chance to discuss how they have experienced and/or observed these components and symptoms. Original research regarding team resilience will be presented. This research was conducted with professionals working with persons who committed sexual offenses, making real-life connections for the audience. Audience members will be asked for examples of team dynamics changing in relation to secondary trauma symptoms. These real-life examples will be used to discuss how team resilience could (or did) counteract negative experiences of secondary trauma. Audience members will learn various ways to build team resilience and practice team resilience-building strategies. Audience members will leave this workshop with team resilience knowledge and tools applicable to their practice.
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Presenter Bio:
Sara Mulholland has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 2009, who has practiced in the fields of offense-specific treatment, addictions, crisis intervention, behavior modification, and IDD. She has her EdD in Organizational Leadership with a behavioral health focus, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and an SOMB clinical supervisor. She completed her dissertation addressing team resilience in the presence of secondary trauma, and she is a Resilience @ Work accredited practitioner. She frequently addresses workplace resilience, leadership, counter-transference, behavior modification, and offense-specific treatment approaches in workshops.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: DVOMB approved providers, SOMB approved treatment providers, evaluations, polygraph examiners, and members of the CST/MDT.
WHEN: November 5, 2021
TIME: 8 30am-2pm
WHERE: Online
CEU: 5 Hours
COST: $10
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Technical Assistance Hour
The Adult Standards Coordinator will be holding semi-monthly technical assistance for providers and all other stakeholders needing assistance with the implementation of the Adult Standards and Guidelines. We encourage you to join us during that time to ask any questions on how certain standards apply or staff your cases for general assistance.
For Approved Treatment Providers
2nd Friday of the month 12-1pm (virtual) Join Here
For all Other Stakeholders 4th Friday of the month 12-1pm (virtual)
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Did you attend our Annual Conference?
IMPORTANT: If you attended our 2021 virtual conference July 14-16, 2021 you have access to replay all the sessions of the conference until October 14, 2021. This is also a deadline to receive your certificate of completion. We will not be able to offer you a certificate after this deadline.
Please note that you must be in a session for at least 50 minutes and will need to submit a feedback survey for each attended session. That will prompt an email to you with a link to the certificate of completion. Please don't delay if you haven't received yours yet. Log in to Attendee Hub here to replay the conference sessions.
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Plus more...
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We know you’ve been looking for VASOR-2/SOTIPS and J-SOAP Trainings. We are planning to host these trainings virtually at the beginning of 2022, however, we need you to sign up! In the coming weeks, we are planning to post registration for these risk assessment trainings online. Once you register and we receive a significant number of interested providers, we will work on details such as date and time. Keep in mind, these are engaging, hands-on trainings for SOMB approved treatment providers, evaluators, polygraph examiners, and supervision officers. Space is limited. Stay tuned!
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Have you seen all the online on-demand trainings we have listed on our website? Check it out here.
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We've hosted a variety of Lunch and Learns for our Treatment Providers. Have you missed them? As an approved provider you are able to request a recording and we'll be happy to provide it to you. Here are the topics we covered in 2020/2021: Standards Policy Booster, Variance Process, MDT/CST Dynamics, Section 4.0, Probation Terms & Conditions, Responding to Deceptive Polygraphs, and SOMB Purview.
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We have recently updated our Training Policy. Please take a minute to review it here.
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SOMB Committee Update
Executive Committee
The Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB) Executive Committee provides vital work on behalf of the SOMB in overseeing and guiding the work of the SOMB. The Committee meets monthly and consists of the SOMB Chair and Vice-Chair (Kimberly Kline and Katie Abeyta respectively), as well as the Application Review Committee Chair (Carl Blake). The Committee's role includes the setting of the monthly agenda for the SOMB meeting, identifying key issues that need to be addressed by the SOMB, and representing the SOMB at various events including legislative hearings. The staff of the SOMB are truly appreciative of the invaluable support provided by this Committee. The staff could not do the work of the SOMB without them.
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Policy Update
The Adult Standard Revisions Committee has been discussing the topic of Labeling and the use of Person First Language within the Adult Standards and Guidelines. Following the review of the literature on labeling, the Committee decided to appeal to the full Sex Offender Management Board, with the recommendation the Standards use person first language, and replace the terms “offender” or “sex offender”. Currently, the Committee has not made a recommendation on which language should be used but presented a new Guidelines Principle. This new Guiding Principle will address the negative impacts of labeling while not minimizing the importance of individuals taking accountability for their sexually abusive and harmful behaviors. Specifically, it addresses the importance of best serving victims by reducing risk and enhancing the protective factors of those individuals who have caused harm.
On June 18, 2021, the SOMB voted to approve the new guiding principle and to have the Adult Standards Revisions Committee initiate further discussion regarding what the new person-first language terminology will be, which passed 8 to 7. On September 16, 2021, the Adult Standards Revisions Committee met and continued to discuss terminology and language that can be used to replace the label of “offender” and/or “sex offender”. During this meeting, there were multiple suggestions and a thorough discussion of the impact each would have on victims as well as those receiving treatment under the Standards and Guidelines. The Committee came to a consensus that the next step would be to propose multiple options to the full Sex Offender Management Board. During the Board meeting on October 15, 2021, these options will be presented to the Board by the Chairs of the Committee. The Committee will be asking for further direction on how the Board would like to proceed regarding the replacement of language within the Standards and Guidelines, along with the additional Guiding Principle previously reviewed and approved.
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Contact Us
Phone: 720.454.6422
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