MIKE MASTERSON: Light punishment

Chaplain’s shame

In a travesty, former prison chaplain Kenneth Dewitt will spend five whole years in prison after admittedly using his position to repeatedly abuse three female inmates confined in the state's McPherson Women's Unit in Newport.

The travesty part for me comes when I realize the 67-year-old former clergyman was initially charged with 50 counts amounting to a possible 500 years behind bars.

Instead, this man of the cloth who ran the Principles and Applications for Life (PAL) program he initiated in 1998 for qualified female inmates was sentenced to 10 years each on three counts of third-degree felony sexual assault, to be served concurrently. Yet the Sharp County circuit judge, in accepting a plea agreement, suspended five years of each sentence, which meant Dewitt serves a whopping five years in the Department of Correction.

I can only imagine how Wendy Kelley, Dewitt's former boss and director of the Arkansas Department of Correction, must have seethed while staring Dewitt down as he walked to the front of Judge Harold Erwin's courtroom at Ash Flat.

I also can't help but wonder, since Dewitt's felonies occurred while he was a deeply trusted spiritual adviser and mentor, why his sentence wouldn't have been more harshly realistic to his confessed crimes.

After all, this man, who spent 14 years with the department, abused his sacred trust in the worst possible way. And his crimes can't help but unfairly raise questions about others who perform pastoral care in women's prisons everywhere.

Prosecutor Henry Boyce explained his willingness to accept the meager five-year sentence: "The average life expectancy of a man today is 77. He's 67. A five-year sentence is half of his life expectancy."

I also find it embarrassing that in 2013 the Department of Correction honored Dewitt at the Governor's Mansion with its annual Pinnacle Award as its "Employee of the Year." He was nominated by the department staff and voted upon by the agency's management team as he was secretly preying on helpless inmates. I do believe I'd be wanting my trophy back.

The three female inmates Dewitt admitted to abusing told their stories after he was forced to resign last fall. His sexcapades began unraveling after a former employee admitted to a "moral failure" with Dewitt, a news story by Jeannie Roberts said. Stacey Smith, a former McPherson inmate, told authorities that a relationship with Dewitt began in 2010, six years after she was paroled. She continued working alongside Dewitt--first as a volunteer, then a chaplain with inmates in the PAL program.

That violated department rules which prohibit managers from having sexual relationships with subordinates.

As the PAL program's founder and leader, Dewitt had the authority to recommend inmates to the Classification Committee for admittance into PAL, a privilege that strikes me as similar to earning a merit badge, since the Parole Board views membership as positive.

After the sentencing, Kelley told a reporter, "[Dewitt] was paid a salary and he was paid to develop that program. And he was being paid when he took advantage of these women. As taxpayers, everyone should be appalled."

Once he'd departed the chaplain's role, Kelley said, victims were no longer afraid to come forward.

A 35-year-old inmate told investigators Dewitt said he'd train her to become a mentor for the PAL program. On her first training morning in 2011, she said Dewitt told her she "wanted to touch" and "be with" him, according to affidavits; he then stepped from behind the desk and began touching her.

The inmate said she and Dewitt afterwards had sexual contact. In 2013, following a hysterectomy, the inmate said she wanted to end the relationship, but Dewitt told her "she didn't have a choice." He threatened her with disciplinary action and that she "would not ever go home," the affidavits say. The inmate considered suicide.

A 40-year-old inmate clerk with PAL told investigators Dewitt repeatedly forced her from 2010 until 2014 to perform sexual favors. He ordered her to tell no one, and said "no one would believe her" over him.

The inmate said Dewitt would have sex with a prisoner on Sunday, another on Monday, and yet another on Wednesday, the news story also reported.

A third inmate, another clerk in the program, said her sexual relationship with Dewitt began in 2010, lasting until his resignation. She said Dewitt began calling her to his office at 6 a.m. on Sundays. He'd have her sit in a chair and perform a sex act as he stood at the door watching for anyone approaching, according to the news story.

Charges against Dewitt, the story said, came just after a June 2015 announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that it was investigating the McPherson Unit after receiving "numerous allegations" of sexual abuse and harassment, and mistreatment of transgender women.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.

Editorial on 07/19/2016

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