Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington state’s budget crisis means lower-risk sex offenders in Tacoma’s Pierce County will only be polygraphed once a year - not the four times a year higher risk offenders are truth-tested. That’s according to an internal memo obtained by public radio. Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Low risk offenders will be polygraphed just once a year. Moderate offenders would get the test twice a year. And high risk sex offenders four times a year.

Dr Mark Whitehill is a sex offender treatment provider in Pierce County. He says no matter the risk level, he believes all sex offenders should receive quarterly lie detector tests.

Dr. Mark Whitehill: “The polygraph has – despite its scientific problems – it has great elicitation potential and knowing that an offender is going to take polygraphs regularly generates motivation to be within compliance.”

The Department of Corrections responds that the polygraph is just one of several tools for keeping sex offenders from victimizing again.

The DOC’s Armando Mendoza says even before the memo was written, lower level sex offenders were usually only polygraphed annually.