I’ve written before about the appalling (and unconstitutional) state of our laws regarding prohibitions and restrictions on the activities of convicted sex offenders — restrictions on where they can live, whom they can associate with, the Internet sites they can visit, the jobs they can hold and the places to which they can travel — to which they are subject after they have served whatever sentences were imposed upon them for their crimes. Commenting recently on a decision by the federal district court in Minnesota striking down Minnesota’s egregious post-conviction…
Read MoreTag: Civil Commitment
Sex Offenders Locked Up on a Hunch [Updated with Responses]
The essence of the American criminal justice system is reactive, not predictive: You are punished for the crime you committed. You can’t be punished simply because you might commit one someday. You certainly can’t be held indefinitely to prevent that possibility. And yet that is exactly what is happening to about 5,000 people convicted of sex crimes around the country. This population, which nearly doubled in the last decade, has completed prison sentences but remains held in what is deceptively called civil commitment — the practice of keeping someone locked…
Read MoreMN: Federal judge demands swift action on reforming Minnesota’s sex offender program
Frustrated by legislative inaction, the federal judge who found Minnesota’s sex offender program unconstitutional has threatened a “more forceful solution” if state leaders fail to implement immediate reforms. In a harshly worded order issued Wednesday, Judge Donovan Frank of the U.S. District Court in St. Paul called on the state to correct systemic problems with the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), which locks up about 720 sex offenders who have completed their prison terms but are deemed unsafe for public release. Frank gave the state until Sept. 21 to file…
Read MoreMN: Gov. Dayton unveils possible reforms to troubled sex offender program
Gov. Mark Dayton spelled out a costly set of changes to Minnesota’s troubled sex offender treatment system on Monday, proposing new community facilities and closer evaluations in an attempt to satisfy a federal judge who says the program is unconstitutional and in need of an overhaul. Dayton and legislative leaders were called to appear in U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank’s court Monday morning for a closed-door hearing designed to hash out a political solution to a thorny legal problem. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Federal judge bans media, public from major sex offender conference
A federal judge has barred the media and other members of the public from attending a legal parley on a case that will determine the future of Minnesota’s sex offender program, a ruling that immediately raised questions about public access and open government. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Sex offender treatment program needs changes
Federal Judge Donovan Frank recently handed down an opinion on a lawsuit challenging the legality of Minnesota’s indefinite confinement of sex offenders after they finish their prison sentences. Full Article
Read MoreThe Hunt for Child Sex Abusers Is Happening in the Wrong Places
It’s late March when Lauren Book and I head into the bowels of the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), armed with loose-leaf paper, pencils and the knowledge that we are about to sit face to face with three of the most dangerous sexually violent predators in the state. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Sex offender program is ruled unconstitutional
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 Ruling
Read MoreMN: Federal judge to rule on future of Sex Offender Program
Minnesotans could see more convicted sex offenders moving into their communities in coming months if a federal judge this week rules, as expected, that the state’s controversial system of confining offenders indefinitely violates the U.S. Constitution. Full Article
Read MoreLet’s Stamp Out Perversion
The civil commitment of sexually violent predators (SVPs) is designed to protect society’s vulnerable from a group of perverts and monsters. What could be wrong with this? Only everything. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex offenders want former Gov. Pataki to pay for illegal confinement program
Syracuse, NY — A federal appeals court is considering whether former Gov. George Pataki should be held responsible for an illegal sex offender confinement program that was disbanded in 2006. Full Article
Read MoreQuestionable Commitments
There is a young man in Virginia sitting behind tall fences and razor wire, guarded by men with guns, and never allowed to leave. According to the state, he isn’t in prison, and he is not being punished for a crime. Instead, he’s being held because the government says he might commit a crime in the future. Full Article
Read MoreIA: Supreme Court rules on sex offender supervision of Waterloo man
The Iowa Supreme Court is questioning whether the supervision of a Waterloo man who was deemed a sexually violent predator is constitutional. ____ ___, 57, was committed to treatment at the Iowa Department of Human Services’ Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders in Cherokee in 2001 after he was released from prison for a 1995 sexual abuse conviction in Dubuque. The state’s sexual predator laws allow for civil confinement for convicted sex offenders who have a mental abnormality that makes them more likely than not to carry out future sex…
Read MoreMN: Sex offender trial highlights differences between Minnesota, Wisconsin
ST. PAUL – The trial in the lawsuit against Minnesota’s program for treating its most dangerous sex offenders opened with contrasts: how two very similar states can have such dramatically different results in treating offenders. About 20 years ago, Minnesota and Wisconsin established programs to treat sex offenders who seemed likely to recommit crimes. But where Minnesota’s program has more than 700 offenders confined to its facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter, Wisconsin’s Sand Ridge facility is home to 362 committed offenders, Deborah McCulloch, head of the Wisconsin program,…
Read MoreMinnesota Sex Offender Program violates human rights (Opinion)
The Associated Press reported this week on the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. This civil commitment program allows the state to place sex-offenders who have finished their prison sentences into high-security custody for an indefinite period. In other words, if sex-offenders meet certain, supposedly objective criteria, Minnesota holds the authority to put them in a penal dungeon, with little hope of release within their lifetime. This is not only a violation of due process, but a complete removal of any of the needed neutral tendencies of law. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreMN: Trial may bring changes to sex offender program
A federal court trial starting today could decide the future of the state’s controversial sex offender treatment program. More than 700 civilly committed sex offenders are suing the state claiming it’s unconstitutional to keep them locked up indefinitely and that they don’t get adequate treatment from the program run by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Does ‘justice for all’ include sex offenders? (Opinion)
“And justice for all.” Boy, did I believe that as a child, when I placed my hand on my chest and recited the Pledge of Allegiance with fellow grade-school classmates. Although I grew up and smelled the coffee, that ideal is still implanted in my psyche. Dan Gustafson also grew up not only believing in it but walking the talk as a trial lawyer. On Monday, the former high school dropout, twice named a “super lawyer” in Minnesota by a prestigious legal magazine, will go to bat in a federal…
Read MoreMN: Judge sides with Minnesota sex offenders
he class-action lawsuit featuring more than 700 civilly committed sex offenders, many from Moose Lake, will go to trial in a St. Paul courtroom beginning Monday after a judge denied the state and its defendants a summary judgment earlier this week. In his ruling filed Monday, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank scolded the state’s legislative and executive branches for having “let politics, rather than the rule of law and the rights of ‘all’ of their citizens, guide their decisions.” Full Article
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