A federal judge ruled Wednesday morning that Minnesota’s controversial system of confining convicted sex offenders violates the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank ruled that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) is unconstitutional because it fails to provide adequate protections for civilly committed offenders, including regular assessments of their risk level and access to less-restrictive treatment alternatives in the community. Full Article
Sure seems like these exoffenders should be able to sue for monetary damages for the state holding them prisoners with a unconstitutional law.
Freedom is priceless for most Americans, however they place nearly a worthless value on it in the case of registrants.
The rules are weirdly slanted as regards to the rights a of registrants..Seems like they’re applied by the use of a different rule book!!! If rights and protections are applied for a registrant somehow it’s seen as a force against protecting children or placing children in harm’s way. That is where the real challenge lies.
SO laws are especially hard on the innocently convicted.l would have been much better off if my children were executed by Suddum’s thugs rather than taken away from me by corrupt court officers.
The MN civil commitment scheme is similar to California’s in most of the ways the Federal Judge deemed caused MN’s scheme to be unconstitutional.
In fact all of the facial faults the judge found likely apply to all SVP schemes in the U.S.
An appeal made by the MN Government would thus likely benefit those throughou the U.S.
Let’s hope the MN Govrnment does appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court so that SVP laws themselves will be deemed unconsitutional for the reasons the MN Federal District Court judge found the MN scheme punitive.
What a relief this would be, to rule the civil commitment laws as unconstitutional. Families in the other nineteen states, who worry about a family member in jail or prison for a sex offense, have to face another fear – their loved one could be sent to a state mental hospital because of a civil commitment law. These civil laws incarcerate them for years as the offender fights to prove they are not a danger to society in order to be released.
As a former offender with a sex offense who served ten years in prison and four years under a civil commitment law in California. I know firsthand what this law does to the person and the family. This is the reason why I help prisoners, civil detainees and SVP’s who are in the California state mental hospital to get released.
The civil commitment law in California gives legal authority to a psychologist to decide if a prisoner will go to a mental hospital or released. The person who must be influenced is not the District Attorney or a judge; it is the state psychologist who holds the key to release. I have been hired by two county agencies to help prisoners prepare before they meet with a state psychologist.
We have thousands of men in state or Federal prisons throughout the country that do not have the information they need to prepare them to interview with a state psychologist. If you have someone who is incarcerated with a sex offense, they need this important information to help them make it home. Anyone who is interested in finding out how I got out and what you can do to help your loved one get out, can contact Janice, she is aware of the work I am doing.