The Sex Offender Treatment Board is
part of the Tennessee Department of Correction which manages the
Board's legislatively mandated work including the Sex Offender
Fund.
In 1995, the Tennessee
General Assembly created the Sex Offender Treatment Board in the
Department of Correction. The General Assembly declared,
reference TCA 39-13-702 (a), that the "...comprehensive
evaluation, identification, treatment and continued monitoring
of sex offenders who are subject to the supervision of the
criminal justice system are necessary in order to work toward
the elimination of recidivism of such offenders."
To that end, the General
Assembly charged the Board with these activities:
-
developing and
prescribing a standardized procedure for the evaluation and
identification of sex offenders
-
developing and
implementing methods of intervention
-
development of
guidelines and standards for a system of programs for the
treatment of sex offenders placed on probation, incarcerated
in the Department of Correction, placed on parole, or placed
in community corrections.
Additionally, the Board was
charged with researching and analyzing the program
effectiveness, developing and prescribing an offender tracking
system and developing a system for monitoring offender behavior.
Historically, the Board's
work emphasized development of a statewide system of
professionals specializing in sex offender treatment. This
foundational work was essential due to the deficit of treatment
professionals with specialized knowledge and training of the
adult and juvenile sex offender populations. Therefore, in
1995, the Board contracted with the Special Problems Unit,
Department of Psychiatry, University of Tennessee - Memphis.
The Sex Offender Treatment manual was an outcome of the
collaboration. For eleven (11) years, the Board has
provided specialized training in sex offender treatment
techniques through an annual training conference.
Recently, the Board has emphasized formalizing standards,
guidelines, as well as administrative policy and procedure.