COSA Oregon

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (AWA) (Pub. L. 109-248, 42 U.S.C. § 16901, et seq) authorizes the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) to administer sex offender management grants. Section 637 of the Act authorizes the Department of Justice to conduct sex offender risk assessment studies, including analysis of assessment tools.

The Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) model is a supervision strategy involving the use of community volunteers to provide support to an individual sex offender. COSA assists offenders with garnering community resources, while holding them accountable to their self-monitoring plan, typically following completion of legal supervision. This program was first developed in Canada and has since been implemented in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. Research studies of COSA, thus far, have demonstrated positive results in Canada and the UK.

The Oregon Department of Corrections plans to expand on Oregon's re-entry strategy by using a faith-based re-entry program called Home for Good in Oregon (HGO) to recruit and train 40 special volunteers, and form and operate 6 COSA models over the two year grant period. The program will: (1) use objective and validated assessments of the criminogenic risks and needs of the participants including the Static 99 Sex Offender Assessment; (2) use staff and volunteers who are highly trained to provide support and accountability for high risk sex offenders; (3) target high-risk sex offenders, some of whom will have predatory status; (4) foster the transition from anti-social to pro-social attitudes, beliefs, values, friends, and associates; and (5) give hundreds of hours of community support to these risk participants.

ca/ncf