A convicted sex offender says his prison sentence ultimately helped him, but he believes the prison system needs to improve the mental health and sex offender treatments offered to inmates.
SALT LAKE CITY — Isaac knows that he served time in the Utah State Prison for a reason. He understands the public expects there to be consequences for his actions.
Isaac, who agreed to speak about his experience if his last name was not used for this story, is a registered sex offender in Utah. He has been convicted of sexual solicitation of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor. Isaac was sent to the Utah State Prison in June of 2018, released in 2022 and terminated from his parole earlier this year.
"I just felt like, are we really addressing what people's behaviors are? And I didn't feel like it did. I had to ask myself, 'What led you down this path to get from point A to point C to point F, and so on? I didn't feel like sex offender treatment did that," Isaac said.
Both Parrish and Amanda Alkema, the interim director of the Clinical Services Bureau, say the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of therapists to switch into the private sector. They acknowledge there is currently a shortage of mental health staffing at the prison due to several therapists leaving over the past year and the difficulty of hiring licensed clinicians. Inmates' care requests are currently prioritized based on the level of urgency of each inmate.
"There has to be a strong network of individuals willing to support people on getting back to society," she said. " can't be the only player. We have to get help from community partners and other social services that connect people to jobs."Isaac agrees that being a convicted sex offender presents its own unique set of challenges when reentering the real world.
"I've been off of parole since February. But I would really love to still benefit from finding a therapist to help me continue to deal with whatever I'm dealing with," he said. But ultimately, Isaac says sex offender treatment and mental health therapy will only work if the inmate is ready to change. "Growing up, I just never had self-confidence. I always thought I was the stupid one just because people would tell me that. And they would tell me that so much that I believed it. When I was in prison I was called every name under the sun. I was spit on. I had boogers and snot wiped on me. I had people threaten me, get in my face. And I had to learn how to stand up for myself," he said.
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