Prison and judicial authorities plan to review the sentencing of sex offenders.

One of the Island's prison psychologists revealed this to The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Christopher Snyder -- who arrived on the Island in the autumn of 1996 and implemented the institutional portion of a sex offenders management programme last June at Westgate Correctional Facility -- acknowledged public concern about the treatment and release of sex offenders.

The issue recently reared its head with news of the release last month of convicted child killer and rapist Chesterfield Johnson.

Johnson, who was serving 20 years for manslaughter for the death in February 1978 of 11-year-old school girl Connie Furtado, was scheduled to be released last month.

And while Dr. Snyder admitted that Johnson was not able to benefit from the new rehabilitation programme, he said Johnson and others could still receive help.

And he said prison officials were looking at several ways in which the community and sex offenders could be best served.

"This is a thorny issue,'' Dr. Snyder. "But at the bottom of this is community safety. Whatever we can do to reduce recidivism, we will.'' He noted that some jurisdictions have "predators laws'' which mandates that the community be notified about the release of sex offenders.

Dr. Snyder said he believed that the release of a sex offender should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Stressing that community's safety was paramount, he explained that the community would be best served to be notified of a sex offender's release if the perpetrator was in denial, refused treatment, and was deemed to be at a high risk of re-offending.

But, he said, if the prisoner accepted what they did was wrong, sought and received treatment and was making attempts and succeeding at changing their behaviour, notification could be disastrous.

"My personal view is that the sentencing protection should come at the first part of the sentencing,'' Dr. Snyder said. "The Commissioner of Prisons and myself are going to be getting together with the judiciary to discuss sex offenders sentencing. That meeting will be scheduled shortly.'' One of the proposals was based on a pre-sentence evaluation of the offender before sentencing, said Dr. Snyder.

Sentencing faces review "This will enable the sentencing authority to make an informed decision with the safety of the community in mind,'' he said. "Once that is done offenders can be sentenced for a period of time depending on the rehabilitation programme they need.'' This, Dr. Snyder noted, could vary from community treatment to institution-based treatment.

"The sentence should be sufficient enough to ensure that the offender can complete treatment under stricter guidelines,'' he said.

Another alternative was to release offenders on licence at the mid-point of their sentence, he said.

"This will allow the offenders to complete the institution-based part of the programme and then be released with continuance treatment and maintenance,'' Dr. Snyder explained.

"If the offender does not comply with the programme outside of prison he will have to return to prison.'' Such a process will be monitored by Probation Services, he added.

Comparing this process to the current system in which an offender can be released after serving two-thirds of a sentence, Dr. Snyder said: "This type of sentencing arrangement provides for better control of the offender.''