Sex Offender Reentry Program to be held in Oklahoma City and Tulsa

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OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- A first-of-its-kind symposium titled “Sex Offender Reentry” will be held in Oklahoma City and Tulsa September 11 and 12, respectively. The symposium is part of the Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) conference series that addresses various aspects of prisoner reentry in Oklahoma. The theme of the event is: “Critical Answers to Challenging Needs.”

The Oklahoma City event will be held Tuesday, September 11 at Crossings Community Center, 2208 West Hefner Road.  Tulsa’s event will be Wednesday, September 12 at God’s Shining Light Church, 9897 East 11th Street.  Both events will be from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

“We are not aware of this topic being addressed anywhere else in the United States, ever,” said Steve Gordon, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Partnership for Successful Reentry. “We did a conference on ‘Managing Sex Offenders in the Community’ in 2010. It was so well-received that we are doing this PRI due to several requests for a repeat performance. We have a great set of speakers lined up and a buffet lunch for all the attendees.”

The keynote speaker of the symposium is Dr. Robert Powitzky, Chief Mental Health Officer for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. He was previously a psychologist in Dallas specializing in the treatment of violent behavior and sexual abusers, and also worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Other speakers include: Dr. Richard Kishur, Ph.D.; Randy Lopp, LPC, LADC; Pastor Jon Cordeiro, New Name Ministries, Ft. Worth, Texas, and Wayne Bowers, National Director of CURE-SORT, Sex Abuse Treatment Alliance.

Topics include “Who is a Sex Offender?,” “Understanding Sex Offenders,” “Transitioning Sex Offenders Back Into Society,” “Housing Needs of Sex Offenders,” “Supervising RSO’s During Reentry and Beyond,” and a detailed legislative update.

The event is sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (www.faithlinksok.org), the Oklahoma Partnership for Successful Reentry (http://www.okreentry.org) and the newly formed-group Reform Sex Offender Laws – Oklahoma (www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org). Registration for the event is required, and a registration fee of $25 includes a buffet lunch. Online registration is available at www.okreentry.org.

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