RONNIE GREENE, Associated Press
EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Sean Hosman is a leading voice in the national push to transform the justice system by predicting which criminals will commit crimes again. He also is a repeat offender himself, whose trips in and out of jail provide a striking case study of the movement he helps lead.
Hosman is CEO of Assessments.com, a Utah company with about 100 contracts with state and county governments from Florida to California. An early advocate and true believer in the industry, Hosman has spoken at justice forums in Texas, Idaho and Washington state.
He also has been a frequent visitor to county jails in his home state of Utah and other states in the West. Since 2010, Hosman has been arrested at least nine times, four for DUI and one for cocaine possession. Just like tens of thousands of defendants undergoing this expanding process known as risk assessment, he has been booked, assessed, jailed and sent to rehab.
Hosman’s company is a player in a movement that has received little public attention. Most states now use some form of risk assessment, which includes questionnaires that explore issues beyond criminal history, to help set treatment or sentencing conditions. Advocates said the tools replace gut instincts with hard data, saving the public money by routing low-risk offenders away from prison.
Yet an Associated Press examination discovered significant problems. Assessments work only if every other piece of the system does, too.
If defendants fudge the truth, or probation officials do not diligently check the facts, the tools can prove meaningless. Critics complain the assessments can punish people for poverty, taking into account factors such as work history and family background.
The AP found instances when inmates were released from prisons in Arkansas and Texas and deemed low-risk but later charged in separate crimes of raping an elderly woman and being a serial killer.
Hosman’s company has developed tools for the juvenile and adult systems.
Of his own legal problems, Hosman said he has been clean since July 5, 2012, the date of his last DUI.
“It has changed my perspective on a number of things,” Hosman, 48, said from Salt Lake City, where his company is based. “But in some ways it has strengthened my belief that the work I’ve been doing is even more necessary than it was. If anything it underscores the need for individuals to be treated like individuals, and not like the crime they committed.”
As he spun through the justice system, his company kept winning government contracts.
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Hosman said he had a full assessment after he completed rehab, and was deemed a low risk to reoffend. “I have been assessed a number of different times but not a full risk-and-needs assessment until the end,” he said, “and I haven’t offended since that time.”
He said he came clean with the realization he would stand in court and appear before a judge for sentencing.
“That was a life changing day for me,” he said.
Though his last DUI came in 2012, legal issues continued. In December 2013, Utah elevated his January 2012 charge, initially a misdemeanor, to a felony — citing his subsequent DUIs in Salt Lake and the alcohol-related driving charge in California.
Hosman was booked by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office in January 2014 and released eight days later on time served for the DUI charge, jail records show.
In Washington state, he told his audience that relapse is part of recovery. He called his speech, “Ready, Willing and Enabled.” Offenders must be ready and willing to turn the corner but often need help, as he did. “I want to get rid of the negative connotation of enabling,” he said, drawing applause.
After opening by saying he was an addict, Hosman took a breath, and gave a second opening.
“Hello, my name is Sean Hosman, and I am the president and owner of a company that works closely with criminal justice.”
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Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst, Don Thompson in Sacramento, California, and Alex Sanz in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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