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Take them off, please

The state won’t pay $5,000 to castrate a convicted rapist, but they don’t mind paying $120,000 per year for the rest of his life to keep him at ASH

BY DANIEL BLACKBURN

Jeffery Gambord thinks the solution to his compulsion to rape women is simple, and he doesn’t hesitate to articulate it: "Just cut off my nuts."

Gambord was fretting about his expanding girth as he slid into a chair at a small, plastic-topped table in the Atascadero State Hospital visitor’s room. But he quickly re-focused on his actual mission.

He wants to undergo voluntary surgical castration with the hope that he will finally gain relief from the violently sexual fantasies he says haunt his thoughts. He’s been called a "sexual sadist" after twice being convicted of rape with violence.

Voluntary castration is the latest in a long line of efforts by the 41-year-old Gambord to seek therapy and procedures he believes will help prepare him for what he wistfully refers to as "a normal life." That would include being in an environment without bars, one where he was not inclined to hurt and assault women.

And since the state of California is not about to help him achieve either his freedom or his surgery wish, Gambord recently concocted an alternative plan some might call drastic.

Just last month, an hour or so after lockdown when things in the mental facility’s Section 28 had finally quieted, Gambord pulled a string from his prison-issue shoes and knotted it tightly around his testicles.

By 8 the next morning, he thought the deed was done. His testicles had swollen to softball size and had turned a deep purple. The pain had pretty much subsided, and he was convinced that hospital doctors would have to surgically remove the dying organs.

But as soon as medical personnel photographed his groin and snipped the shoestring, his equipment returned to normal.

"Hurt like hell, then," he said, smiling slightly as he recalled the moment.

Gambord may be justified in his frustration. He is one of a relatively small group of men who occupy a very special place in California’s justice system. He has been deemed by the state to be a "sexually violent predator" (SVP), making him one of only about 400 currently in state custody.

California’s SVP law, passed in 1996, allows civil incarceration of mentally disordered people who have been convicted of a sexually violent crime against two or more victims and who have received determinant (set) prison sentences for the offenses.

Prior to a scheduled release, convicted violent predators are examined by two clinical evaluators. If a prospective parolee meets certain criteria, he may face a jury trial and eventual commitment as a SVP.

Once violent predators have been transferred to Atascadero State Hospital–the only state facility allowed to house these men–they receive a variety of treatments and therapies, including one called chemical castration, over their two-year term of incarceration. They are no longer prisoners. They are now "patients."

Another 1996 California law mandates chemical castration for offenders convicted for the second time of rape, oral copulation, sodomy or lewd and lascivious acts with victims 12 and younger. The currently prescribed "cure" is medroxyprogesterone acetate, commonly known as "Lupron."

Patients are re-examined each year, and the civil confinement and treatments can go on indefinitely, as long as two clinicians agree that society still faces danger in the event of an individual’s release.

Without treatment of some kind, the recidivism (re-offending) rate for sex offenders is very high. In child molesters, for example, that level can be as high as 80 percent. For rapists like Gambord, the rate is variable depending on the underlying psychological compulsions of the offender.

He’s been at Atascadero State Hospital since January 2001. From the first moment, he’s been lobbying for his voluntary castration as a means of coping with those persistent fantasies. By doing so, Gambord thrust himself into the middle of a volatile national dispute featuring opposing viewpoints of psychiatrists, social workers, clergy, politicians, and patients.

The theory behind orchiectomy–the medical term for surgically removing the testicles–is that it stops testosterone production and thus reduces sexual impulses. It is a theory that touches nerves in more ways than one: both its effectiveness and its righteousness have become intractable issues.

Texas in 1997 became the first state to make surgical castration available as an alternative to prison time for sex offenders. Other states have variations of the law, all of which so far have survived appeals. California was the first to require chemical castration of repeat child molesters.

The medical procedure, as one might imagine, is not without its critics. One doubter is the state of California itself.

"[Surgical castration] is a procedure with limited potential for benefit in the treatment of sex offenders, and carries the potential for significant detrimental medical and social problems," wrote John Rodriguez, a California Department of Mental Health deputy director, in a 2001 special order establishing state policy.

The Rodriguez order also specifies that surgical castration "for the purpose of reducing sexual drive or reducing the likelihood of sexual re-offense, will not be performed at or paid for by a state hospital."

That policy irritates Gambord, who thinks the more conventional "talk" treatment he’s receiving is not doing the job.

"So that means I either get ‘cured’ by the state-approved methods, or I stay in here ‘til ... when? Forever?" he wonders.

He knows that such an operation will not appreciably affect his future release.

"I want to be free up here"–and taps his head with a finger. "Sure, I’d like to be released. But I don’t want to re-offend, and right now I don’t know if I will or not. I don’t want to be back in prison. Or here. I want to be cured. And cutting is the only solution."

He said he’s given his shortcomings, and his proposed solution, a lot of thought.

"From a practical standpoint, most sex offenders are relieved to finally be free of the compulsive and driving sexual desires which have tormented them for years, ruined their lives, and those of their victims," he wrote in a recent letter to a reporter.

Gambord has been institutionalized most of his life. He’s destined to stay in lockup until a parade of psychiatrists can agree that he no longer poses a danger to society.

That’s probably a long time in the future, Gambord believes.

Because of a very conservative release policy, offenders can expect to spend decades within those pale green walls before there is even a mathematical chance of their release into society.

Gambord’s road to Atascadero State Hospital and his unique SVP designation was mapped early in life.

He was a handful as a young child, his mother recalled in a 1980 letter to a probation officer.

"His father took severe measures to control Jeffery’s behavior," wrote Trish Gambord. "Jeff was given corporal punishment with a leather belt, locked in his room, and deprived of dinner." That treatment produced mixed results: The boy would behave for a period, and then it would all start over again.

"He was frequently sent home for biting and throwing rocks at other children. By the age of 5 he had shown a fascination with fire."

Gambord’s parents were divorced in 1969 after a rocky relationship, which Trish Gambord said was largely caused "by conflict over the rearing of Jeffery."

She took the boy to Marin, where at age 8 he began to expose himself to other children.

His mother tried Palo Alto Military Academy a year later, but his behavior was too much even for drill sergeants. The same thing happened at a YMCA summer camp.

Gambord then went to live with his father, a land developer, successful Realtor, and soon-to-be local politician. There, the Gambord son was diagnosed by a pediatrician as "hyperkinetic" and soon was gulping down Ritalin and tranquilizers.

After a two-year haze, Gambord was enrolled at New Trails School in Redding, after a psychiatrist recommended a totally controlled environment and behavior modification.

He lasted there until he got his hands on some matches and torched a classroom, burning it to the ground.

At 14, he was introduced to the Juvenile Ranch in Morgan Hill, and the California Youth Authority, where he spent the best of his teen years. He had been sent there for using a knife to rob two young teenagers and forcing them to disrobe. He struck the girl in the head before fleeing.

Released in 1978, Gambord stayed clean for two more years.

Until he raped.

"I grew up with this idea that women wanted to be mistreated, that they liked forced sex," said Gambord. "I really didn’t think beyond that."

That was part of a mental disorder, Gambord now realizes. It’s a phrase that has been drummed into his head by a long string of therapists: cognitive distortion. It means he thinks wrongly and from a totally incorrect perspective, yet believes completely in his faulty logic.

He was caught with two 15-year-old girls handcuffed in his car, so at 19 Gambord faced hard time in prison.

His mother pleaded to the court for her son to be evaluated as a mentally disordered sex offender.

That request was ignored, and Gambord was sent to Folson State Prison to serve his term.

While behind those dreary, gray walls, he wrote a letter to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News: "I am a 21-year-old white male from an upper-middle-class family now serving a term of imprisonment for forcible rape ... I will be released on March 30, 1985. I need help but that help is not available. Will I rape again? Or murder? I can’t say that I won’t."

He wrote to lawmakers. He wrote to other newspapers. And he wrote to 150 unresponsive churches. He begged for help, worrying that he would rape again.

He did. After his release from state prison, during which he received no treatment or therapy for his by-now obvious criminally sexual inclinations, Gambord was quickly back to his old tricks. First he picked up a prostitute and raped her at gunpoint.

"You’re no fun," he later told his victim. "You didn’t even scream."

A month later he went to a bar, where he met a woman. At closing time, they agreed to have breakfast, but instead Gambord forced her into the backseat of his car and demanded oral sex.

This woman screamed, and Gambord choked her.

"I wasn’t choking her in order to get any sexual thrill, you know. I just ... she wouldn’t stop screaming, is all ... ." Gambord expresses this to rebut the allegation that he is a sexual sadist.

"I’ve never enjoyed hurting women. I don’t need that," he said.

Desires notwithstanding, Gambord was back in state prison after less than 24 months of parole.

He immediately began clamoring once more for effective medical treatment.

"I wasn’t going to change. I can learn the right way. But I need something that will work," he said recently.

His campaign earned him a transfer to Northern California’s Pelican Bay State Prison, where the baddest of the bad are sent, and long stretches in isolation.

During one five-month stay in solitary, Gambord tied a string around a toe, and it was subsequently amputated. He wouldn’t forget the event, and years later would give the gambit an intriguing, little twist.

That was the same year Gambord was featured on the "Donahue" television show. In a segment titled "Men Tell Why They Rape," Gambord told the talk show host Phil Donahue, "The treatment that I need and want and the treatment that many doctors say would be of benefit to me is not available. I’ve fought continually for 10 years and I’m continuing that fight now."

Gambord told his enraptured host, "This is a very emotional issue, and my concern is that society take a look at the other side of the coin and understand that offenders have some problems."

Donahue took that opportunity to fawn over Gambord: "You look like a grown-up alter boy, Jeff. You have a very likable face. You have a gentleman’s demeanor, somewhat shy, self-effacing."

Gambord’s efforts to get treatment in prison, this time played out in front of a national audience, would fail yet again, however.

But Gambord was finally headed for some of that understanding he sought, because before he could be released from prison he was designated a sexually violent predator, a "6660" under a new state law, and got a ticket to ride to Atascadero State Hospital’s brand-new SVP ward.

In his current regimen, Gambord undergoes regular counseling and "talk therapy." He has started a series of tests that puts him briefly in front of varied pornographic films. His sexual response is measured, and a clinician supposedly can gauge the direction of his fantasies. Prior to that first experience three weeks ago, said Gambord, he had never even seen an adult film.

Until recently, Gambord had steadfastly declined to take part in the chemical castration process used by state institutions. He cannot be forced to take part in treatments, but any such refusals are duly noted on the official hospital record and have a huge impact when release time approaches. With the wrong attitude, a patient could be a patient forever.

Gambord said he tries to conform.

"I’ve always struggled to be a normal person," he said. "Obviously I’ve had disorders and problems, and never got the right help. Now, people just want to punish me."

Grudgingly, he has started taking two chemicals for treatment: injections of Deproprovera, and Lupron, a female hormone derivative that has the effect of lowering testosterone levels and is one of only a few drugs approved by the state for use in these kinds of cases.

If he can’t secure the surgical castration, he will have to endure the chemicals if he even dreams of an eventual release.

Lupron’s side effects are legendary. The list includes nausea, cerebral damage, skin and hair changes, deep body pains, bleeding, fatigue, severe headaches, and, perhaps most worrisome, bone mass loss.

But worst of all, said Gambord, is the fact that consumption of Lupron can be stopped at the whim of the user, at which time testosterone manufacture commences. That makes it much more difficult for an offender to make a convincing case for parole. Regular examinations, including lie detector use and blood testing, is required by parole authorities, but some parolees just stop taking their medications and flee. So trust, rather than certainty, readily enters into the parole equation.

And there isn’t much room for trust in institutions like Atascadero State Hospital. No one wants to be known as the guy who authorized release of a SVP patient who repeats his dastardly deeds on an innocent and unsuspecting society.

It’s easier, albeit quite expensive, to keep these violent men behind high walls as long as possible, constitutionally fair or not. (Current estimates are that tuition at the exclusive Atascadero State Hospital SVP ward is a cool $120,000 a year, per guest.)

In the interim, treatment is the last rites, patients like to say, and release is in the form of a pine box.

Rodriguez of the state health department reflects the official drill on orchiectomy when he writes: "(Surgical castration) has been advocated by some as a major, sole, or essential component in the prevention of recidivism of sex offenders. Although there are some studies which appear to support a beneficial effect, these studies are very dated, were conducted under unknown standards, and were uncontrolled."

Calling the SVP population "a unique group of individuals," Rodriguez said their behavior "has many and varied determinants. It is incorrect to attribute it solely, or largely, to testosterone. Sexual predatory behavior involves ... elements of physiological drive, cognitive distortion, and psychological drive."

Surgical castration, he wrote, affects only the physiological drive.

Gambord’s fellow patient Bruce Clotfelter, however, swears by the surgical procedure, which he had last year.

Clotfelter is 41, incarcerated more than two decades for child molestation. Clotfelter said he was plagued by "relentless fantasies about children" from the age of 20 until he convinced his parents to foot the $5,000 bill for the procedure and associated expenses.

Patients can have the surgery, provided that they pay up-front to a private physician, and cover the cost of private security to and from the operating room.

"It was like a miracle," Clotfelter said of the routine procedure. "The next morning, I realized I had gone through the night without those horrible sexual dreams for the first time in years."

There were some recurring fantasies shortly thereafter because of what doctors termed "serum testosterone," traces of the hormone still in his body at the time of the operation.

But today, said Clotfelter, he never entertains an aberrant thought.

"I can finally look at children and think only normal thoughts, like ... who wants to even be around the noisy things." He smiled wanly.

Then Clotfelter stared intently at an interviewer: "I’m free now. If I never get out of here ... I’m free."

That’s what Gambord wants, too.

"I tried to get my father to pay for the operation, but I guess that’s not going to happen soon," said Gambord, noting he would be hard-pressed to ever come up with that amount.

He’s filed a lawsuit against his father, a Pebble Beach millionaire and former council member in the Bay Area city of Monte Sereno, a man who once owned and lived in the house where John Steinbeck wrote "Grapes of Wrath." The lawsuit seeks a resumption of financing for private therapy classes the elder Gambord once supported, as well as the cost of surgical castration.

"I have a lot of anger for my father," said Gambord. But he’s got other things on his mind right now.

"I’d like to think that someone out there would be happy to pay to have me cut," said Gambord. "Maybe a rape crisis center could have a fundraiser. Or a kind-hearted urologist might volunteer. Or just some mean redneck who’d say, ‘Hell, here’s a check, have that sum’bitch snipped.’

"Otherwise I’m going to be picking up torn paper and cigarette butts in the yard for a long, long time. And you don’t make much money that way." Æ

‘New Times’ contributing writer Daniel Blackburn can be reached for comments or story ideas at [email protected].




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