Tag: Civil Commitment

[yahoo.com – 2/24/21] A protracted case challenging the constitutionality of Minnesota’s system for treating sex offenders outside prison has gained new life after a federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled that claims contesting the program’s unusual conditions of confinement can move forward. In a decision released Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit determined that allegations that clients of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) were subjected to improper punishment and inadequate treatment should proceed. The decision sets the stage for another…

[bringmethenews.com – 2/5/21] A group of men at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program’s Moose Lake facility have ended their hunger strike after nearly two weeks. The group went on strike Jan. 21, demanding a “clear path” for release from the program, which has facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter, where “treatment is a death sentence” because despite serving their prison sentences, they’re remanded to the facilities for an unspecified amount of time, a news release says. The group of about a dozen men called off their hunger strike Wednesday…

[startribune.com – 1/18/21] Outbreak fuels long-simmering tensions over civil commitment after sentences. A group of sex offenders at a northern Minnesota treatment center is refusing to attend therapy sessions, while others are wearing black clothing as a show of solidarity, amid growing unrest after three men housed there died and scores more were sickened by the novel coronavirus. The acts of defiance were organized to call attention to what offenders see as poor infection-control practices and the historically low rate of release from the state’s prisonlike treatment centers in Moose…