THE ROUTE TO SORTS

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8-31-2013 Missouri:

Under Missouri's sexual predator law, thousands of sex offenders have been screened to determine if they should be civilly committed as patients of the Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS, program.

Here's how the process works:

1. Certain convicted sex offenders nearing the end of their prison sentence undergo the screening. A total of 2,017 such screenings have been done since the beginning of 2010.

2. Contracted psychologists working for the Department of Corrections flag offenders who might fit the criteria of a sexually violent predator: In all, 79 such cases, or 3.9 percent of those screened, have been flagged since 2010.

3. Flagged cases are reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team of state mental health professionals. Regardless of conclusion, the decision is only advisory.

4. A Prosecutor Review Committee, comprised of five prosecutors, at least one from the county where the conviction was obtained, considers if the inmate is a sexually violent predator. Almost always the decision is “yes” and the file is turned over to the state attorney general's office.

5. A judge determines if there is probable cause to initially hold the inmate. A state official could only point to nine cases that have been dismissed from the bench at this point in the process.

6. If the case moves forward, the Department of Mental Health does another evaluation. The attorney general can still pursue case at trial regardless of evaluation.

7. Cases usually go to a jury trial and about 85 percent result in civil commitment.

8. The sex offender is admitted into SORTS for an unspecified period of treatment. That has happened 206 times since 1999. Of those, 10 have died. None have been released for completing treatment, though four have been "conditionally" released for a few hours a day. Currently, 192 remain locked away.

SOURCE: Missouri attorney general's office, Department of Corrections, Department of Mental Health.

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