A jump in the release of sex offenders held at the site of a Derry Township mental institution is being questioned by local officials.
More than a dozen Pennsylvania sex offenders convicted as juveniles have been released from indefinite detainment at Torrance State Hospital in Derry Township.
Officials believe they are now living mostly unsupervised in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties.
“It’s a sea change,” said state Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield, of the Sexual Responsibility Treatment Program that has operated for the last two decades.
The program was implemented in 2003 by state lawmakers. It authorizes convicted juvenile sex offenders to be indefinitely detained in a secure setting after they age out of the juvenile justice system. Torrance is the lone facility in the state where the program is operated.
It’s designed to hold only those who were convicted of violent criminal sex acts in the juvenile court system. It is implemented in cases where there is no other apparent avenue to ensure suspected re-offenders remain in secure environments after their 21st birthday.
Disclosure of potential changes to the program, known as Act 21, has raised concern among local officials who contend gaps in how it has been administered could result in safety risks for communities.
The released adults, detained for years in secure environments, are now being relocated and placed outside of confinement.
Local officials said an apparent increase in releases has created potential safety concerns for local communities.
“We do our best to work with any population in Westmoreland County. We will continue to talk to the state,” said Rob Hamilton, director of Westmoreland County’s Department of Human Services.
Internal documents obtained this week by TribLive revealed as of mid-May 53 people are enrolled in the program housed at the Derry Township mental institution.
Since the program’s inception two decades ago, 21 participants have been released from supervision and according to the same document and as of last month 14 others have been transitioned to unsecured housing in local communities or are in the process of being discharged from the program.
No public notifications about the releases have been issued, Nelson contends.
Administrators at Torrance did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for the state’s Department of Health, in an emailed response received Wednesday evening, disputed enrollment and discharge numbers cited in the program documents obtained by Triblive, characterizing them as being from a “point in time.”
“They reflect details at numerous points of an individual’s care and work to prepare them for potential transition from inpatient care to outpatient care, and the numbers are subject to change based on judges’ decisions,” said department spokesman Brandon Cwalina.
He said that as of Wednesday 61 adults remain in confinement or are being supervised in the sex offenders treatment program and that since 2012 just 15 people have been discharged.
Those placed in the community continue to be monitored, he said.
“When an individual is to be discharged by a judge from the SRTP, their outpatient treatment plan is approved by the courts, and if the plan is violated at any point, the courts determine if the resident should return to care at Torrance State Hospital,” Cwalina said.
That monitoring includes online cellphone apps, multiple visits each month from Torrance staff to provide transportation, food and medications, multiple meetings each week with therapists and case managers.
“I was told that just five individuals were released over the first 20 years of the program,” Nelson said. “There are currently 14 being released now. That’s a major change to the program.
“It’s a good program, but we need to shore it up.”
Act 21’s origins date to a 1999 criminal case involving a then-17 -year-old who pleaded guilty to raping a child and was sentenced by the juvenile courts to four years’ confinement.
His release from detention was blocked by a judge in 2003 after a therapist testified the offender resisted treatment and threatened to commit another rape.
No additional adult criminal convictions are required for someone to be detained under Act 21.
According to state records, the inpatient program at Torrance can accommodate up to 60 formerly juvenile sex offenders who are deemed likely to re-offend.
The law authorizes court officers and district attorneys to recommend to the state’s Sexual Offenders Reassessment Board that an evaluation of a juvenile suspected as potential sex crime re-offender be conducted. The evaluation would determine if they suffer from a mental abnormality that would make them a danger to the community if released.
It’s up to a judge to issue yearlong civil detainments requiring ongoing sexual offender treatment.
Detainments must be reviewed annually by a judge and can be reissued without limits, potentially for years and decades.
A state Department of Human Services report released last year included data that showed just two new detainees entered the program in 2024, one each from Lancaster and York counties.
Because the program does not include participants prosecuted as adults or anyone who is on probation or parole, there is no mechanism to track their whereabouts. Neither is there a mechanism to notify the public a former juvenile sex offender has been relocated to a community. Court records related to the program remain sealed from public view.
“When an individual is discharged by a judge from SRTP and into a community setting, Torrance State Hospital makes the appropriate Megan’s Law notifications to law enforcement when required, however not every individual in the program meets requirements of Megan’s Law. Because Torrance is a hospital, any additional notifications to members of the community beyond what is statutorily required would violate HIPAA privacy protections,” Cwalina said.
Nelson said new legislation is needed to ensure authorities can better protect communities.
“I have grave concerns over the current process, and I want to see a more structured step-down facility is place rather than just placing these people in communities after 20 years of confinement,” Nelson said.
He suggested strengthening the state’s version of Megan’s Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register their whereabouts with the state police. That law was revised in 2012. As a result, juveniles who entered the Act 21 program prior to 2012 are not required to register with the state police.
According to the state police, more than 25,000 people in Pennsylvania are registered as convicted sex offenders.