Philadelphia Inquirer – August 1, 1986
By Jane M. Von Bergen Inquirer Staff Writer
When Pennsauken convicted child molester Bruce Whittick and his attorney started counting up the months, it soon became clear. Whittick decided he would rather serve out his five years in a state prison than wait in the county lockup for a bed in New Jersey’s overcrowded treatment center for sex offenders. Yesterday, Camden Superior Court Judge A. Donald Bigley agreed. He told Whittick, 37, a former Camden city firefighter, that he could serve his five years in state prison instead of in the Avenel Diagnostic Treatment Center.
“Unfortunately, there’s been an explosion of these type of cases,” Bigley said during a hearing in Camden’s Hall of Justice.
The rising number of sexual-abuse cases involving children and women has resulted in overcrowding at the Avenel center, now operating at double capacity with a 10-month-long waiting list.
Judges have been sentencing sex offenders to treatment, even though no treatment will be available for months. Meanwhile, the sex offenders have had to wait in county jails. Some have sought to be released on bail or to have their sentences changed to probation.
People convicted under New Jersey’s Sex Offenders Act may be released, but they must be treated for whatever psychological problems are determined to have led to the sexual offenses. A delay getting into the program means a delay in a prisoner’s receiving parole.
The way Whittick’s attorney sees it, if the judge sentences Whittick to Avenel, a 10-month wait in the county jail is a violation of his constitutional rights.
“You’re making a finding that the person is in need of treatment,” said the attorney, Mike Pinsky. He argued that his client should either be released on probation or transferred out of the county jail into state prison.
“They have a right to prompt and effective treatment,” Pinsky said. Otherwise, he said, “we’re warehousing him in the county jail.”
Whittick, a first offender, was sentenced to five years in prison for molesting his ex-girlfriend’s two young daughters on various occasions between 1980 and 1984. He probably will be eligible for parole after 15 months in state prison, his attorney and an assistant prosecutor said.
On June 11, Judge Bigley, after reading a psychiatrist’s report labeling Whittick “compulsive and obsessive,” said the Avenel Diagnostic Treatment Center for sexual offenders would be the best place for Whittick.
Pinsky said yesterday that his client was 85th on the waiting list and that Avenel was now admitting sex offenders sentenced last October.
The average stay at Avenel, factoring in longer sentences given to repeat offenders, is five years, Department of Corrections spokesman James Stabile said.
Whittick appeared before Bigley asking that his sentence be changed. Whittick asked that instead of going to Avenel, he either be sent to state prison or given probation with outpatient treatment.
“If his behavior is compulsive and he can’t control himself, he’s a danger to society,” said Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Joan Spadea, arguing against probation. “If he’s on probation, we can’t have a 24-hour guard to keep him away from young girls.”
Spadea expressed no objection to Whittick’s serving out his time in state prison.
“I know I did wrong,” Whittick told the judge yesterday. He said the offenses occurred in a troubled time in his life. Since then, he said, he has talked to friends and family and married “a wonderful woman.”
“All I need is a chance,” Whittick said, smiling. He then kissed his attorney when the judge sentenced him to state prison.
Recently, Bigley said in court, a Sussex County judge ordered a sex offender, 56th on the waiting list, to be admitted immediately to Avenel. But an appellate court told the judge that the offender would have to wait his turn.
And two months ago, another Camden judge, Superior Court Judge Rudolph Rossetti, sparked controversy when he allowed a man convicted of molesting his daughter to be released on bail until he could begin his stay at Avenel.
The man’s daughter, still angry and bitter after the years of fondling and sexual abuse, tacked up signs in his neighborhood that read: “WATCH YOUR CHILDREN! A convicted sex offender lives in your neighborhood. ARE YOUR CHILDREN SAFE?”
Rossetti, who ordered the man to see a psychiatrist as a bail condition, would not comment on his ruling at the time. But as he looked at a copy of the handwritten sign, he said, “They’re all first offenders, and they need treatment. Sure it’s frustrating.”
Stabile said the Department of Corrections was working on plans to add 270 beds to Avenel. The center was designed to house 180 offenders and now houses about 360. Avenel also is beginning satellite counseling programs in county jails in Burlington and Middlesex Counties, he said.
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