Steven Powell wants state to pay for sex offender treatment

TACOMA, Wash. — Steven Powell has filed a motion asking the court to force the Department of Corrections to pay for his mandated sex offender treatment, saying it was not made available to him in prison.

According to the Pierce County court document dated April 2, the DOC is required to provide offenders with a sex offender treatment program while they are incarcerated.

The document said that Powell did not receive the treatment during his 18 months at the Twin Rivers Unit at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

After Powell was released on March 23, he was notified by the DOC that he must begin a sex offender treatment program with a therapist at his own expense, two weeks from his release date.

The motion said Powell’s incarceration from August 2012 to March 2014 was ample time to provide the one-year sex offender program to Powell.  Powell claims he had numerous conversations with Neiland about the treatment program but was told he would not be incarcerated at the facility in Monroe long enough to complete the year-long program because he was eligible for early release.

Powell served the entire 30-month sentence despite qualifying for early release because he could not find a place to live that was approved by the DOC.

Powell is representing himself in court on Friday.

Powell was arrested in 2011 after an investigation uncovered evidence he had been secretly videotaping two young girls who lived near his home in the South Hill area.

Police found video clips and photographs on Powell’s computer showing the two girls bathing and using a bathroom.  He was convicted on 14 counts of voyeurism in May of 2012.

Powell is the father of Josh Powell, who was a suspect in the disappearance of his wife Susan Cox Powell from the couple’s home in Valley City, Utah in December 2009. Powell later killed himself and his two sons in a fiery explosion at his rented home in Graham. Powell had been in a lengthy custody battle with Susan Cox Powell’s parents over custody of the boys and killed them during a supervised visit after a court ordered the children to live with their grandparents.

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