Representative Wants Convicted Predators Moved

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) –“Move them, I want them gone,” says Richland County Representative Joe McEachern, D- Richland. Representative McEachern isn’t happy about forty-four convicted violent sex offenders living within miles of where children play. “It’s horrifying to even think, you’ve got a child development center across the street,” says Rep. McEachern. He’s talking about previously convicted predators being housed at the Crafts-Farrow State Hospital on Farrow Road. But it isn’t new, they’ve been here since 2008. What’s even more disturbing, some residents living in the area don’t even know the the convicted predators are there. “I never knew it was sex offenders, I knew they were prisons up there, but I didn’t know what their crimes were,” says one resident. A resident we spoke to on Monday has lived in the area for forty years. She did not want to go on camera or be identified, but she says she is shocked by the news. “I thought they were just regular inmates that had did a crime, but I didn’t know they were sex offenders,” says the resident. So why are they here? We went to officials to find out. “Prior to their release from serving a sentence for sexually violent offenses, they have to be further evaluated as to whether they have a personality disorder or mental abnormality that makes them likely to re-offend,” says Department of Mental Health Spokesperson, Mark Binkley. Crandall Sims reporting, “Once released from prison, the residence come here to the facility behind me where they are held on civil charges. They also undergo treatment here, now according to state health officials that treatment on average lasts about 2 years, but for some more than 10.” “In order to be civily committed to this program they had to have committed what the law terms a sexually violent crime,” says Binkley. State officials say they’ve never had an inmate escape here and guards are on both the inside and outside. “This particular facility is the most secure facility that the Department of Mental Health operates,” says Binkley. But area residents are still concerned. “They could easily just break out and walk here and knock on my door and break in my house or something,” says one resident. The same worry that has Representative McEachern wanting them moved. “It’s a tremendous risk to have them there. They say oh we don’t have an escape, but I don’t need but one, one can terrorize, one can terrorize a community, one,” says McEachern.