Santa Clara County will not house convicted child molester Brian
DeVries
Santa Clara County will not house convicted child molester Brian DeVries when he is released from custody by Saturday. Instead he’ll be 50 miles south in a trailer on the grounds of a state prison in Soledad.
“We’ve found temporary housing for him at the Correctional Training Facility at Soledad,” Nora Romero, spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, said Thursday.
“We are still looking for a more permanent site for him to live,” she said.
The DMH has worked, under court order, since February to find a community that would accept DeVries as he goes into a conditional release program, but twice – once in Morgan Hill and earlier in San Jose – a public outcry derailed possible arrangements.
DeVries was convicted of molesting an 8-year-old boy and has admitted molesting as many as 50 others in several states. He was moved to the Atascadero State Hospital in 1997 after completing his sentence and will be the first inmate to have completed the multi-part program designed to allow sexually violent predators to live independently and not endanger the community.
DeVries underwent voluntary, surgical castration in August 2002, to prepare for the program. Chemical castration is a more usual procedure with CONREP inmates.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Robert Baines ordered the DMH earlier to find a housing site in California or DeVries would be released to live near his father in Washington state. Both Gov. Gray Davis and the governor of Washington balked at this, saying neither state would have jurisdiction. Instead, Romero said, the DMH is continuing to look for a permanent site.
The trailer, Romero said, is on state-owned land but not inside the prison itself.
“It is 27-30-feet in length,” Romero said, “and very basic – it’s a place for him to sleep and cook for himself.”
DeVries’ father will be visiting him for about a week after the release, Romero said.
DeVries will be traveling from Soledad, located 20 miles south of Salinas on Hwy 101, to his treatment services in San Jose.
“Those contracts were made when we first found housing (for DeVries) in San Jose,” Romero said. DeVries will not have a car so his case manager will be driving him, beginning the week of Aug. 11, to his treatment sessions.
The conditional release program involves intense supervision and monitoring include wearing a Global Positioning System ankle bracelet, keeping a curfew and undergoing unannounced home visits and searches by his case manager.
At the end of one year, Romero said, DeVries will be re-evaluated to see if he has violated any terms or conditions of the program. Baines will then determine whether he should stay in the program for another year or be released unconditionally into the community.
“The court ordered him into conditional release,” Romero said. “Our role is to craft a community safety plan to ensure the public’s safety as best we can and, at the same time, continue his treatment.”
