The Supreme Court earlier this week upheld a Taiwan High Court ruling against a prosecutor’s request that a sex offender be imprisoned so that he could be given compulsory medical treatment.
The man, surnamed Lin (林), was convicted of sexually assaulting his 14-year-old daughter. After judicial proceedings that lasted 10 years, the district court gave Lin a suspended eight-month jail term in 2009.
It also ruled that he had to undergo compulsory medical treatment. To carry out that order, the prosecution sent the man to prison to receive treatment. To protest that decision, his wife appealed the case to the High Court.
The High Court supported the wife’s appeal and revoked the prosecutor’s imprisonment decree. The presiding prosecutor filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which rejected the prosecutor’s request. The ruling is final.
The Supreme Court said that sex offenders must be sent to government-run hospitals rather than incarcerated to receive compulsory treatment, adding that Taiwan is an advanced democratic country that upholds the rule of law.
The ruling also lambasted the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Department of Health (DOH) for procrastinating in setting up facilities to provide proper medical treatment for sex offenders.
According to an amendment to the Criminal Code that took effect on July 1, 2006, sex offenders assessed as very likely to be repeat offenders should receive compulsory treatment after serving their jail terms.
As the amendment is not retroactive, 240 sex offenders who committed sex crimes before that date are now undergoing compulsory treatment at special facilities in three prisons in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung.
Meanwhile, 17 sex offenders who committed their crimes after July 1, 2006, are undergoing treatment at Peiteh Hospital, which is affiliated with Taichung Prison, after serving their prison sentences.
The Supreme Court ruling said sex offenders pose a danger to the public because of the high recidivism rate. As such, they need professional mental and psychological therapy, it said.
Advanced medical techniques and equipment should also be introduced in the treatment. Medical facilities in prisons or affiliated medical institutions tend to be poorly equipped and insufficiently staffed to offer appropriate and effective treatment for inmates, the ruling said.
The Supreme Court said the ministry and the DOH are to blame for failing to set up proper medical institutions for sex offenders.
In response to the criticism, the ministry said it could not help but keep sex offenders in prison or in affiliated medical facilities because no local hospital is willing to accept them after the expiration of their prison terms.
Vice Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) said the ministry is planning to set up a special therapeutic institution adjacent to the Taichung Prison for sex crime convicts to undergo treatment after serving their prison terms.
“The facility is scheduled to be inaugurated in two years,” Chen added.
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