Just before ____ ____ was scheduled to get out of prison, Los Angeles County prosecutors made a plea to the court: Don’t let him free — he’s too dangerous to live in public. While in his early 20s, ____ had lured young boys who lived in his South L.A. neighborhood to a spot near an alleyway with the promise of candy. He was convicted of molesting several children, ages 6 to 8, court records show. Prosecutors argued that ____ needed to be confined within the walls of a state hospital,…
Read MoreTag: Civil Commitment
NY: Justice Department probes state’s civil confinement of sex offenders
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is examining New York’s controversial system of civil confinement for sex offenders. The probe was revealed when an attorney with the Justice Department’s special litigation office recently interviewed a sex offender confined at the Central New York Psychiatric Center in Oneida County. Under New York’s decade-old Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act, convicted sex offenders can be kept in secure psychiatric hospitals indefinitely after their prison terms expire. If an offender is found to have a mental abnormality that makes the person…
Read MoreCA: City sues over election partly decided by sex offenders at state hospital
Coalinga City Council is suing Fresno County to overturn an election decided partly by the sex offenders in a state hospital. Voters rejected a penny sales tax increase by just 37 votes in November. 127 of those ‘no’ votes came from inside the walls of Coalinga State Hospital, where some of the state’s sex offenders are actually legal voters. Full Article Related http://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/political-notebook/article184847643.html
Read MoreMN: Supreme Court Won’t Hear Minnesota Sex Offender Case
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that it won’t hear a challenge to Minnesota’s sex offender civil commitment system (Karsjens v Piper), which allows people who have been deemed sexually dangerous to be committed to a treatment facility for an indefinite period of time. Full Article Order List
Read MoreMN: The legal fight over Minnesota’s sex offender program could have ramifications throughout the country
A battle started by a handful of sex offenders in Minnesota has mounted into a constitutional debate that could set a new precedent for civil commitment programs across the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court could decide early next week if it plans to dive in and hear a case arguing that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) is unconstitutional. Whether or not they decide to take on the case, the justices’ decision will have ramifications for the 19 states that have similar programs, some of which are dealing with…
Read MoreWill SCOTUS Let Fear of Sex Offenders Trump Justice?
Two cases give the Court a chance to reconsider its counterintuitive conclusions about commitment and registration. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, locking up sex offenders after they have completed their sentences is not punishment, and neither is branding them as dangerous outcasts for the rest of their lives. Two cases the Court could soon agree to hear give it an opportunity to reconsider, or at least qualify, those counterintuitive conclusions. Full Article Also see Snyder vs Doe Karsjens v Piper
Read MoreWA: Water at sex offender center violates health standards, state records show
Water at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island has repeatedly exceeded standards for various chlorine-related chemicals and been cited for violations dating back to 2006, according to an Associated Press review of state Department of Health records. Full Article Related APNewsBreak: Sex offenders blame island’s water for deaths
Read MoreWA: Juvenile sex crimes can be basis of civil commitment
Civil commitment of offenders who have been designated as sexually violent predators can be indefinitely extended for those whose crimes occurred when they were juveniles, the Washington Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Order reveals ongoing confinement of sex offender
Saratoga County’s first civilly confined sex offender remains in custody nearly a decade after his original release date, according to an appeals ruling issued Thursday. Full Article
Read MoreKS: Judge tosses lawsuit brought by Kansas sex offenders against the sexual predator program
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Kansas sex offenders who are confined indefinitely in a state program for post-prison mental health treatment, saying they didn’t do enough to substantiate their claims. Full Article
Read MoreWA: He spent 9 years on McNeil Island without his day in court
____ had spent more than a year in the Yakima County Jail when he filed an Alford plea — not admitting the crime but conceding he likely would be convicted — on a second-degree attempted kidnapping charge. “I was told that I was going to be released the day I was processed,” he said. Instead, he spent the next nine years at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, without ever having a civil commitment trial or being convicted of a violent sexual offense. Full Article
Read MoreCanada: Court blocks extradition of Nova Scotia man accused of sex crimes in U.S.
Nova Scotia’s highest court is ordering Canada’s justice minister to take another look at her decision to allow the extradition of a Nova Scotia man accused of sex crimes in Minnesota. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Even Sex Offenders Have Constitutional Rights
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that a North Carolina preventing sex offenders from accessing social media and other websites – without any attempt to tailor restrictions to potential contact with minors – violated the First Amendment. But restrictions on the freedom of speech aren’t the only unconstitutional deprivations sex offenders face. Full Article
Read MoreMN: sex offenders seek to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court
A group of Minnesota sex offenders has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to examine whether the state is violating the Constitution by confining people indefinitely in prison-like treatment centers after they have already completed their criminal sentences. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Judge Stays Further Action in Minnesota Sex Offenders Case
A federal judge has stayed further proceedings in a class-action lawsuit over Minnesota’s sex offender treatment program while lawyers for the offenders ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court finding that the program is constitutional. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Lawyers want high court to take Minnesota sex offenders case
Lawyers for sex offenders confined indefinitely to Minnesota’s secure treatment program have asked a judge to stay all further proceedings while they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court finding that the program is constitutional. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Fate of MSOP Now Rests With the Supreme Court
In June, 2015, the US District Court for Minnesota determined that the 700+ clients at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program were being unconstitutionally confined. In January, 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said they’re not. What explains the conflicting opinions? A three-judge Appeals Panel said District Court Judge Donovan Frank did not apply the proper standard: to be unconstitutional, civil rights violations for SVPs must “shock the conscience.” What’s wrong with the “shocks the conscience” standard? If, until the Supreme Court intervened in 2008, executing sex…
Read MoreJudge sides with Placer County, rejects placement of sex predator near Lincoln
SAN JOSE – A Santa Clara Superior Court judge on Tuesday rejected the state’s plan to locate a sexually violent predator near Lincoln after Placer County officials and residents argued the placement would pose a danger to children in the area. Full Article
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