The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience (33 page)

The question was, Did the MJTC-treated youth commit fewer crimes following release into the community than the non-MJTC youth?

The results were nothing short of staggering.

Nearly all—98 percent—of the non-MJTC youth were arrested for a new crime within four years of being released from juvenile prison. Only 64 percent of the MJTC youth were arrested during the same time window. In other words, the MJTC program had resulted in a 34 percent reduction in recidivism.

But the really exciting results came from the reduction in violent crime. MJTC youth were more than 50 percent less likely to be convicted of a violent crime than non-MJTC youth after two years. At
four years postrelease, MJTC youth were still 45 percent less likely than non-MJTC youth to have been convicted of a new violent felony.

MJTC did not just reduce violent crime by over 50 percent; it also reduced the severity of the type of violent crime committed. The non-MJTC youth killed sixteen people in the four-year period following release from prison. The MJTC youth did not commit a single homicide! That is a remarkable outcome.

The results of this research were submitted to scientific scrutiny and published in top peer-reviewed journals.
⁵

I am more than a little excited about the results of the MJTC program. It is the first time in history that a group of psychologists got together and specifically designed an intensive, one-on-one, cognitive behavioral therapy program for youth with elevated psychopathic traits. And it worked.

The Wisconsin legislature had carved out the budget for the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC) from the state’s allocation to the Department of Corrections. Such political maneuvers can often leave those who have to endure the cut a little jaded. Those who receive the infusion of resources are in the onerous position of justifying the political process that led to the change in budgeting.

The research psychologist was charged with conducting an economic analysis to determine whether the MJTC program was cost-effective or not. He calculated the average cost per day of treatment at MJTC and other juvenile correctional settings in Wisconsin. Then he calculated the costs for criminal justice processing, including arrest, prosecution, and defense. Finally, he calculated the cost of imprisonment for those rearrested following release from prison by identifying the bed cost per day for each prison where those reconvicted were sentenced.

As expected, the state-of-the-art MJTC treatment was more than twice as expensive as the average daily bed cost in the regular juvenile prisons in Wisconsin. However, the research psychologist’s
findings showed that savings in the MJTC program became evident within the first month that youth were sent to the facility.

The rate of institutional infractions dropped dramatically once youth were exposed to the Decompression Model. Because institutional infractions can lead to additional criminal charges and increases in the length of sentences, this saved money, as youth at MJTC were released from prison sooner than youth who accrued new charges and institutional infractions at the regular juvenile justice settings.

Additional significant savings occurred because the MJTC youth did not commit as many crimes upon release from prison as the comparison youth did. Recall that nearly all (98 percent) of the non-MJTC youth were back in prison within four years, whereas only 64 percent of MJTC youth committed new crimes.

Finally, the non-MJTC youth committed more severe violent crime, including those sixteen murders. Economists have estimated that murder is the most expensive crime to investigate, prosecute, and defend. And the individual convicted is likely to be sentenced to a maximum-security prison, which is an expensive type of prison.

Thus, in a detailed economic analysis, the research team at MJTC found that for every $10,000 the State of Wisconsin invested in MJTC treatment, it received over $70,000 in cost savings over a four-year period.
⁶
If the same $10,000 had been invested in the stock market, it would have yielded a return of just over $20,000.

Bottom line:
The MJTC program was extremely cost-effective, largely because it reduced the future costs of incarceration.

Of course, the MJTC economic analysis examined costs only to the State of Wisconsin. It did not include additional costs that many economists believe are relevant to determining cost-benefit ratios. For example, crime has a significant financial impact on the victims, including lost wages and costs for replacing stolen property, victim services, and the medical costs associated with treatment for injuries sustained by victims of crime. We could add these costs to the savings gained by MJTC treatment.

The MJTC economic analysis also did not include the societal cost of the sixteen murders committed by the youth who didn’t get
treatment. Economists generally estimate the average person’s economic contribution to society to be about $1,000,000—so if a person is killed, it costs society a million dollars. The sum of the State of Wisconsin savings plus all the additional costs for victim services and losses due to the sixteen murders suggests the MJTC program saved the State of Wisconsin tens of millions of dollars.

In addition, it is nearly impossible to place a numerical value on the emotional toll that crime has on society in general, particularly on the victims. How can one estimate the loss the sixteen families felt when their loved ones were murdered?

In other words, the MJTC program has been an enormous benefit to the citizens of Wisconsin and a significant windfall for the State of Wisconsin budget. Indeed, I wish Wisconsin would allow me to invest my own money in MJTC! I’d sell my car and walk to work if Wisconsin would give me that kind of return on my investment.

With respect to Eric, he has been crime free and gainfully employed for over five years since being treated and then released from MJTC. He writes the founders of MJTC that he has started to live a better life and he has not fallen back into the criminal lifestyle. He has stopped using drugs. He is seeking to further his education to help him get promoted at work. Eric credits his new outlook on life to the time he spent at MJTC.

Note that upon admission into MJTC, Eric had scored very high on the Youth Psychopathy Checklist. His attitudes and behavior warranted the high score. However, given that he has ceased antisocial behavior and is leading a normal life for a significant period of time, his adult Psychopathy Checklist score has to be adjusted. Indeed, based on all the new details provided by Eric, I would score him in the low range of the test now as an adult. I can’t say for certain if the MJTC program
cured
Eric’s personality, but it certainly demonstrated that Eric had the capacity for change. The amount of change we observed in Eric shows that the MJTC program can alter the life of even the highest-risk youth.

As of 2013, the State of Wisconsin continues to invest in the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC) although the program was recently cut from forty-five to thirty beds. The founders of MJTC continue to refine the Decompression Model to suit the needs of the highest-risk youth offenders. New studies continue to show the program is working.

In 2012, my laboratory established a collaboration with the founders of MJTC. We deployed the mobile MRI to the grounds of the Mendota Hospital to study how the brains of youth participating in decompression therapy change over time. We want to know if decompression therapy changes the function and structure of the paralimbic system. The project is just getting started, and we are writing new proposals to funding agencies and potential donors who share our interest in understanding if decompression therapy offers a path to eventually cure psychopathy.

On average I receive about three e-mails a day from
someone who is interested in learning more about psychopaths. I try to reply to all the e-mails and point people in the right direction to get answers to their questions. In the summer of 2009, I received an e-mail that was particularly intriguing. It turned out to be an e-mail that would change my life.

Dr. Jim Cavanaugh, the director of the Isaac Ray Center in Chicago, Illinois, wanted to discuss a case with me that he was working on. I suggested a phone call, but he volunteered to fly to Albuquerque to meet me in person. I replied with some dates a couple of weeks out; he quickly wrote back that he wanted to see me the next day. I agreed, wondering what all the rush could be about.

We met for breakfast at my favorite coffee shop.

After some introductions, Jim got quickly to the point.

“I’m a forensic psychiatrist. I mostly work for the prosecution doing competency-to-stand-trial evaluations, psychiatric workups, and the like,” he started.

“But in the case I want to talk to you about, I’ve agreed to work on the defense side.”

“The client is named Mr. Dugan. He is a serial killer. Perhaps you have heard of him?”

I searched my memory and then slowly shook my head as I exhausted my knowledge of serial killers. “No, I don’t know a serial killer named Dugan.”

“Then let me tell you a story.” Jim leaned back in his chair and looked around to make sure nobody was within earshot.

“In the early 1980s, Dugan sexually assaulted and killed at least three females—one adult and two girls. He was arrested in 1984 as a suspect in one of the murders and then he pleaded guilty to all three of them.

“Well”—Jim hesitated—“the prosecutors let him plead guilty to two of the murders and he got two consecutive life sentences. But the last one … the last one is where the story gets a bit complicated.”

He took a drink from his coffee and looked at me intently. “In 1983, a ten-year-old girl was taken from her home in the middle of the day, sexually assaulted, and murdered. The crime occurred in the town of Naperville, DuPage County, an affluent suburb just outside of Chicago. It was a horrific crime, and there was a massive manhunt to find the killer. The police were unable to find a suspect for several months. The public and media pressure on the police and the prosecutors to find the killer or killers was intense.

“Several months later, the police arrested three men for the murder. Two were found guilty and sentenced to death; the trial of the other ended in a hung jury.

“The verdict for the two convicted men was subsequently overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court because the prosecution had failed to turn over potentially exculpatory information.” Jim paused and took another sip of his coffee.

“The two men were retried, reconvicted, and resentenced to death again. Actually, I think one got a death sentence and the other life. The details don’t really matter,” he said as he waved his hands.

It was clear he was trying to get through the story as fast as he could.

“And then, for the first time in the history of Illinois, the state Supreme Court overturned the death verdict, again.” He shook his head at the craziness of the case.

“But there was so much invested in convicting these two men that the prosecutors decided to charge them with capital murder for a third time. It was a big deal in the Chicago area.”

I tried to absorb the gravity of what he was telling me. This wasn’t some Hollywood movie script—it was a true-crime story.

“The judge in the third trial said that the prosecution failed to prove its case and he dismissed the charges without the defense even having to put on its case. Many careers ended based on this case. It has been going on for over twenty years.

“Some have estimated that when you consider all the legal costs, it’s the most expensive single case in US history.”

I interrupted. “I’m confused, if they had Dugan’s confession, why did they keep retrying the other guys?”

It made no sense in my mind. Crimes like this were nearly always committed by a sole perpetrator. I’d interviewed many men convicted of such crimes. Plus, Dugan had admitted to committing similar crimes, and he volunteered to confess to this crime. Certainly, he must have provided details about the crime that only the killer would know. The facts did not add up.

“I’ll get to that. But it’s at this point that the case gets interesting,” he added.

As if I wasn’t already interested. He had me hooked at
serial killer
.

“Following the third trial, a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate the police officers and the prosecutors in the case. He conducted a year-long investigation, and as a result a grand jury indicted seven policemen and prosecutors on over forty counts of perjury, manipulating witnesses, and falsifying evidence. It was known as the DuPage 7 trial.”

“Holy shit,” I blurted out and then immediately apologized for my profanity. I have four cousins who are police officers in Phoenix, Arizona, and knew the stress that crimes like these can place on police departments. It can be very intense.

“The DuPage County board of directors voted to pay for the criminal defense of the policemen and prosecutors. But the people indicted were not allowed to plead guilty or plea-bargain. Apparently, it is against state law for county funds to be used for a criminal
defense of its employees. The seven men went to trial, at a cost of millions of dollars to the county, and eventually they were all found not guilty. The jury went out and had beers with the defendants at a local bar following the verdict.”

“This story is just too impossible to believe.” I expected Aston Kutcher to jump out from behind the cashier and say I had just been
punked
.

Jim smiled. “It is, isn’t it?”

“The two men originally convicted of the crime spent ten years on death row as child rapist murders,” Jim stated.

We both knew what that meant. The two men would have been viewed by the other inmates as the lowest of the low in prison society. Other prisoners consider sex offenders, particularly those who committed sex crimes against children, to be beneath contempt. Those men, wrongly accused, must have been through hell on earth.