MOOSE LAKE, Minn. — Behind razor wire and locked metal doors, hundreds of men waited on a recent morning to be counted, part of the daily routine inside a remote facility here that was built based on a design for a prison.
But this is not a prison, and most of these men — rapists, child abusers and other sex offenders — have completed their sentences. They are being held here indefinitely under a policy known as civil commitment, having been deemed “sexually dangerous” or “sexual psychopathic personalities” by courts. The intent, the authorities say, is to provide treatment to the most dangerous sex offenders until it is safe for the public for them to go home. Full Article
“Sex offenders have a strong incentive to refuse treatment for three reasons: (1) during treatment, participants must confess to additional crimes or admit guilt to sexual transgressions and these admissions may be used against the participant in future court proceedings; (2) failure to complete treatment weighs in favor of commitment; and (3) completion of treatment does not correlate with release from commitment.” (From California Law Review, volume 98, issue 6) http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1064&context=californialawreview
Kind of a summing up of a rather in depth and extensively foot-noted look at what is wrong with the US civil commitment process.
What makes these individuals so high risk?
How did they arrive at the point where they were high risk?
Who let them become high risk?
Why are there no programs to gently guide everyone (EVERYONE) into healthy relationships?
When will society say enough and shift the focus away from after the fact punishment, management, treatment, registration, commitment, probation, parole, supervised release, house arrest, and begin doing as much as humanly possible to insure the fewest number of people ever find themselves in legal trouble over something sexual?
I say fewest because expecting 100% prevention from an imperfect species is not realistic. 95-99% reduction in the commission of sex offenses or for that matter all criminal conduct globally is probably doable if humanity really cared.
What struggle? It would all be cleared up if they read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, then applied what they learned. Problem solved. Justice restored.
Newsflash: There is no right way to do the wrong thing!