Responsibilities are a horrible thing; they take up time and always get in the way of what you really want to do!
Cst. Khoa N. Hoang
As we get older our focus on responsibilities evolve from “when I want” to “when you want.” After all, how do you say no to paying bills, spending time with your kids, or taking care of loved ones? You can’t (well… shouldn’t!)
When I was asked by Susan Love, program director of Circles of Support and Accountability (www.cosa-ottawa.ca) to sit as vice-president of their steering committee, I thought perhaps she had made a mistake. I was a police officer who had spent his entire career chasing after criminals, and now was being asked to help former sex offenders reintegrate into society.
After taking some time to seek the advice of others, I understood that my responsibilities to this community also include those released into our community from prison. So I went to the CoSA training sessions, met with CoSA staff, and read up on as much as I could about sex offenders.
It’s interesting – there are very few labels in society that brings more instant fear and anger than which is associated to a “sex offender.” CoSA refers to them as “former sex offenders,” which is probably more accurate but has no less an impact. The label itself is ingrained into the very depths of our emotional response system.
CoSA is an organization that creates “circles” of volunteers who meet with former sex offenders to help them reintegrate into society. There’s no debate that being released into an unfamiliar world after being jailed for 15 years is an immense challenge. To make things more challenging, society gives them “the label.” No wonder these individuals easily find a way back into jail, which becomes a safe and familiar setting where they can be protected by guards and feel somewhat stable.
But that was before CoSA, when ignorance was bliss, and turning a blind eye to society’s dirty secrets somehow made them go away. And they did go away . . . to jail after committing another offence and leaving behind another victim with entire families affected. Therein lies the problem. Our only way of responding to sex offenders was to wait until another victim came forward and throw them back in jail.
CoSA’s motto is rather simple — “no more victims.” Unfortunately, the goal is much more difficult to achieve. Together, this incredibly dedicated, intelligent, and hard working team began focusing on the root causes of sexual offending. It has been successful in recruiting subject experts from across the country and there is now a willingness to actually solve the problem.
Currently, CoSA-Ottawa holds an impressive 100-per-cent success rate with not a single client sexually reoffending since the program was established 10 years ago. Clients typically participate in the program for years and use CoSA’s support system to learn how to adapt to the challenges of daily life.
Part of the strategic intervention is to hold clients accountable by having them sign a covenant, a written agreement letting them know that the organization works very closely with the police on a regular basis.
It’s important to appreciate that sex offenders typically have formative gaps early in their lives when it comes to the ability to learn, adapt, grow, and change. This is no excuse for their behaviour, merely an observation and a component of the nature of their care.
It has been over a year now since I began working with Ottawa’s Circle of Support and Accountability. Fear of the unknown played a big role in my reluctance, but there was also the fear of failure that I wouldn’t be successful working with such stereotyped and troubled clients. CoSA’s overwhelming success in preventing more victims has been very encouraging to me, but I have no doubt there will be emerging challenges to come in this sensitive area.
The greatest journeys have always started with a single step.