by Lori
After reading our initial post on the Koystya Thyssen parental imprisonment case out of Dripping Springs, Texas, in which Koystya’s parents imprisoned the 22-year-old youth in a garage/shack for 4 years, ostensibly to protect the Thyssens’ other children and the community from the sexual threat he allegedly posed, our dedicated child advocate and foster parent Lori was kind enough to elaborate on how this troubled young man should have been handled.
I agree completely with Dr. Starks, the way this young man has been treated is just so wrong and has undoubtedly further damaged him. There is no way he seeing the type of “counselor” he needed (or even a licensed one).
There just isn’t enough information here to even venture a guess as to what happened. Was he a sex offender? Juvenile or adult? Adjudicated or not? How significant are the cognitive impairments? What age is he currently functioning at, both emotionally and intellectually? How old are the other children in the family? Had they been victimized? At what age were problematic behaviors first observed? What resources did the family try to utilize before they locked him up in a SHED? And a million more questions….
What I can say is that there is a right way to handle this. I have taken kids (both adjudicated and not) that are sex offenders. Very difficult population. But deserving of the same dignity and respect as all other human beings. There are programs that provide offense specific treatment and are individualized to meet the needs of the client while keeping community safety and victim 
protection as paramount. My state has a SOMB (Sex Offender Management Board) and all programs that work with sex offenders have to be SOMB certified. This is legislated. This also provides standardized assessment and risk evaluation criteria for both juvenile and adult offenders. Juveniles are fundamentally different from adults and should never be treated the same (for any crime but that’s just my opinion).
I don’t trust the system either. Who does? It really is going to take their help, though, if you have a child that is a sex offender. I can only speak about the juvenile offenders as that is all I have experience with. In my situation, I have the luxury of not having to decide to turn my kids in as the behavior was probably known before they arrived on my doorstep. The supervision required is intense. The child has a treatment plan as well as a safety plan. They have individual, family and group therapy with therapists that are SOMB certified. Risk factors are constantly being reassessed. There is no way to predict if a sex offender will re-offend. Treatment has better outcomes for juveniles than adults. I don’t personally know of a single sex offender that wasn’t first a victim.
This is what it looks like to have a known juvenile sex offender in your home: Constant supervision and cameras in common areas. Lots of therapy appointments. Possibility of not being able to have younger children in the home (depending on the treatment plan). An alarm on the kid’s door so you know if he is leaving his room at night if you have other kids in the home. A safety plan for EVERYTHING. (OMG, it’s so much work…) Your kid has a field trip with school? Write a safety plan. Trip to the mall? Safety plan. Public bathroom? Go in and check that no one is in there and then stand outside and don’t let anyone in until the kid comes out. Exhausted yet? Don’t even bother trying to take him to a public pool. The safety plan you write will never get approved. Oh yeah, the plans have to be written and then approved by whoever has been deemed in charge of them, therapist, probation officer, caseworker… some activities even have to have a judge sign off for permission.
The important thing is to hold this person accountable for their own behavior. They have to contribute to their own treatment, write safety plans (if capable), be involved in all decision making regarding their treatment. Education about their offense is necessary. Above all they must be treated as a whole person, their self-esteem, school and social functioning have to be promoted and improved if they are to be able to make the changes necessary to never re-offend.
Please click here to view our post on the Koystya Thyssen wrongful imprisonment case:
Adoptive Texas Parents Allegedly Keep Sex-Offending Child Locked Up to Protect the Community