CALGARY – Criminal trial lawyers in Alberta are worried the public could be at risk if a treatment program for sex offenders is shut down.

The Criminal Trial Lawyers Association in Edmonton and the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association in Calgary say they’ve been told the Alberta government will end the Phoenix program by next March.

The program is offered in a secure, 19-bed facility operated out of Alberta Hospital Edmonton and provides intensive therapy to convicted sex offenders serving provincial jail sentences.

Ian Savage with the Calgary lawyers association said the treatment involves 35 hours of therapy a week, while a potential replacement program operated by Alberta Health Services would offer six hours.

“It’s essentially world-renowned and quite successful, particularly with the numbers that matter. The recidivism rate is extremely low compared to other similar programs,” said Savage.

The lawyers say the program has reported recidivism rates as low as 3.3 per cent in 120 offenders who received treatment and were tracked over a three-year period.

“If you can have a program that reduces the risk of a certain subset of criminal sexual behaviour and reduces the risk of that repeating, then obviously the public is saved that additional harm,” said Savage.

“If you don’t treat these individuals, they’ll be struggling without the appropriate support in the community and, more importantly, the self-taught tools from the programming to deal with their urges.”

Savage said Phoenix is to be replaced by a different program under Alberta Health Services and is to be based at the Calgary Correctional Centre.

Health Minister Sarah Hoffman wouldn’t say whether the program is ending. She said it sounds like it has been successful and Alberta Health Services should be given a chance to build on that success if it can.

“I don’t make decisions about specific programs,” she said Tuesday. “Public safety is a very high priority. I won’t support anything that compromises that.”

Chris Hay, Alberta director of the John Howard Society, said he heard suggestions of a closure last year and thought the Phoenix program had already been cancelled.

He said the reviews were positive.

“I’ve heard anecdotally through people who work in the business over the years that the Phoenix program has been quite successful. Everyone has said it’s a shame because it has really good success rates,” said Hay.

He also said less preparation for sex offenders before they are released into the general public could be problematic.

“It’s probably not going to be enough relative to what we had before,” Hay said.

“I get that it’s money. I get that it’s political. I get that there’s a lot of reasons why we start and stop programs. But my gut, and just even logic, would kind of dictate to me that probably won’t be successful.”

Savage said the two criminal lawyer associations expressed their concerns in a recent meeting with the justice minister but, instead of expanding Phoenix, he said the government is “penny pinching.”

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