In a 54 decision, the United States Supreme Court has decided that a convicted sex offender's Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory selfincrimination is not violated by a treatment program that requires admitting to all past sexual behavior. In a plurality opinion, Justices Kennedy, Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas found that the program and its consequences for nonparticipation do not combine to create a compulsion to self incrimination. Justice O'Connor, although troubled by the Court's failure to reach a comprehensive theory of the selfincrimination privilege, nevertheless agreed with the decision. Dissenting Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer declared this a watershed case in that a person who has asserted the Fifth Amendment privilege may now be sanctioned for disobeying an order to selfincriminate.
Although maintaining that the sex was consensual, Robert G. Lile, a Kansas state prisoner, was convicted in 1982 of raping a high school student. He was ordered in 1994 to participate in the Kansas Department of Corrections Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (SATP). Participation requires signing an Admission of Responsibility form accepting responsibility for the crime for which the prisoner was convicted. An additional form with a detailed sexual history including illegal sexual conduct is also required. To verify both the accuracy and completeness of the prisoner's sexual history, a polygraph examination is used. None of this information is privileged and may thus be used in subsequent criminal proceedings. Refusal to participate in the SATP results in a transfer from a twoman cell in medium security to a fourman cell in a potentially more dangerous maximum security facility as well as a reduction in privileges including "visitation rights, earnings, work opportunities, ability to send money to family, canteen expenditures, access to personal television, and other privileges, including recreation."