What the Minnesota Sex Offender Program was meant to be

---

6-30-15 Minnesota:

The purpose was always supposed to be treatment, not imprisonment. Somehow we lost our way.

In August 1994, Gov. Arne Carlson called the Minnesota Legislature into special session to rewrite a 1939 law that allowed civil commitments of “psychopathic personalities.” The special session was called in response to a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that decided that Dennis Linehan should not have been civilly committed as a sex offender. I was designated to present the bill to the Minnesota Senate because of my background as a defense attorney in commitment cases.

Since then, that law has been challenged, unsuccessfully, in hundreds of court cases. Then that law and the sex offender treatment program came before U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank. He decided that the law, as written and as applied, is unconstitutional. I was not surprised by his decision.

The day I presented the bill to the Senate, I stressed that civil commitment was for treatment, not incarceration. I repeated that statement in subsequent years as other legislators tried to make it stronger by claiming that “the worst of the worst need to be locked up!” Gov. Tim Pawlenty once said he’d push for the death penalty for sex offenses. (Never mind that a sex offense, by itself, would not qualify for capital punishment.)

As Judge Frank observed, some sex offenders are very dangerous, and society should be protected from them. But a number of those committed as sex offenders are not now dangerous at all. Some of them are old men in wheelchairs or on walkers.

The state doesn’t know who is really dangerous and who isn’t. As a result, almost everyone remains locked up.

Sexual predator who moved to Walnut Creek violates parole, back in custody

---

6-30-15 California:

WALNUT CREEK -- A sexually violent predator who moved into a Walnut Creek home earlier this year was back in custody for violating the terms of his parole, authorities said Tuesday.

Charles Christman returned last week to Coalinga State Hospital, a maximum-security psychiatric facility, a day after a parole violation notice was filed June 23 with Contra Costa County, Deputy District Attorney Andrea Tavenier said Tuesday.

Liberty Health Care, which oversees the release of the state's sexually violent predators, filed the notice.

Tavenier would not say exactly how Christman, 71, violated terms of his parole, but said his conduct did not involve a minor and it did not occur within Walnut Creek.

"None of the allegations that we are investigating have anything to do with a minor," she said. According to Tavenier, Christman's parole contains "many, many, many conditions" and any report of a violation requires a return to state custody until the matter is investigated and resolved.

Etherington named superintendent of North Dakota State Hospital

---

5-28-15 North Dakota:

North Dakota Department of Human Services Executive Director Maggie Anderson has appointed Rosalie Etherington as North Dakota State Hospital Superintendent. In this role, Etherington is responsible for oversight of business and clinical operations for the hospital.

Etherington brings 22 years of experience in quality management, program development and expertise in operationalizing regulations and requirements in a behavioral health setting. She is currently the clinical director for inpatient services at the North Dakota State Hospital.

“Dr. Etherington’s experience will ensure the State Hospital, as part of the state’s public behavioral health system, continues to partner with stakeholders to improve access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment,” Anderson said.

North Dakota State Hospital faces treatment dilemma

---

Old article provides background info. on co mingling of patients with non civilly committed folks.

1-31-2008 North Dakota:

JAMESTOWN (AP) - The superintendent of the State Hospital says a man who admitted sexually assaulting a patient in 2005 was moved off the patient's ward after the incident was reported.

Rodney Ireland has blamed the hospital for housing the victim with sex offenders and said the 45-year-old patient, described as having the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, still is in danger of being abused.

Hospital Superintendent Alex Schweitzer and other officials say the patient is mentally ill with a tendency toward violent behavior, though he has mellowed with age. He has been a patient at the hospital for more than 30 years, the superintendent said. Officials continue to seek places to treat him without threatening others.

Schweitzer said staff members in 2005 were suspicious of putting the man with Ireland and separated them as soon as Ireland reported the incident last August.

"Our investigation found it was a minor groping incident and nothing more," Schweitzer said. Ireland was charged with gross sexual imposition, a felony, because of his criminal history, he said. Ireland had been civilly committed to the hospital as a sexually dangerous person.

State Hospital employee turnover rate highest in years

---

Note: The Civil Commitment Unit is a small portion of the ND State Hospital (See highlight near end).

6-30-15 North Dakota:

The North Dakota State Hospital is facing the same problem as many employers in Jamestown; finding people able to work.

Gina Guthmiller, a human resources manager at the State Hospital, said in a report to the North Dakota State Hospital Governing Board Monday that 61 employees have quit their position at the hospital between January and June. This is up 32.6 percent when compared to to the same time period in 2014.

Of the 61 people who have left the State Hospital so far this year, 39 were direct care associates, Guthmiller said. A direct care associate performs similar duties at the State Hospital as a certified nursing assistant does at an assisted care facility. Guthmiller said people hired as direct care associates must complete an approved certified nursing assistant training program by the end of his or her probation period.

Guthmiller said exit interviews with employees show that, especially with direct care associates, stress was the main reason these people were looking for other jobs.

“People are looking for new jobs because of the stress (here) due to lack of staff,” she said.

U.K. blocks extradition of accused pedophile Shawn Sullivan to Minnesota

---

6-29-12 United Kingdom, Minnesota:

(AP) MINNEAPOLIS - As prosecutors in Minnesota began preparing to file charges against a man accused of molesting two girls and raping a third in the 1990s, the suspect fled the United States, eventually winding up in London, where authorities caught up to him two years ago.

Minnesota prosecutors' efforts to bring Shawn Sullivan back to face trial for his alleged crimes were thwarted Thursday when Britain's High Court dropped extradition proceedings, saying the U.S. hadn't guaranteed Sullivan would be kept out of a civil commitment program seen by some as draconian.

Judges Alan Moses and David Eady said in a ruling finalized Thursday that if Sullivan, 43, were returned to the U.S., he could face a real risk of being placed in the state's civil commitment program and would suffer "a flagrant denial of his rights."

One of Sullivan's accusers called the decision "a slap in the face."

"That whole argument is just irrational," said Jessica Schaefer, 29. Sullivan allegedly molested her and her cousin when they were both 11. "It's just another loophole in the justice system that caters to the criminals. All they have to do is find a loophole or a technicality and they walk. ... "I feel like I'm just pleading for justice, and I'm not getting anywhere."

Man accused of molesting teen in O.C. is now in England, extradition effort continues

---

6-29-15 California:

Months after an accused child molester was captured in the United Kingdom, local authorities are still working to extradite him to the United States.

Roger Alan Giese, a 40-year-old former Buena Park choir teacher, has been a fugitive since 2007 when he fled shortly before his trial. He is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage choirboy he met while working as a voice coach for the All-American Boys Chorus in Buena Park between 1998 and 2002.

In March, officials announced his capture in the United Kingdom. But in an update on the case last week, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Erin Rowe, who handles extraditions, said Giese is free on bail in the U.K. and is being monitored by British authorities.

Rowe declined to discuss details of the case due to the ongoing extradition effort, but said local authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice are working “very hard” to bring Giese back to Orange County.

Human rights concerns sometimes complicate efforts by the U.S. to extradite suspects.

State hospital civil commitment ordered for molester

---

6-26-15 California:

A man convicted of molesting his girlfriend's children in 1995 was ordered Thursday to be involuntarily and indefinitely committed to a state hospital.

Thomas Daniel Hovanski, 50, is a pedophile with a mental disorder that increases the risk he will engage in sexually violent predatory behavior in the future, Yuba County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Wirtschafter ruled in a court trial for the civil commitment.

"It is essential he remain in custody for the health and safety of others," he said.

The same year Hovanski was found guilty by a jury of molesting his girlfriend's 6- and 9-year-old children, the Legislature determined a small population of sexually violent predators could be diagnosed while they were still incarcerated and be indefinitely committed until they were no longer a threat.

Litigation for the civil commitment has lasted eight years. Hovanski spent most of his time incarcerated at Coalinga State Hospital.

Sex offender ruling won't have immediate local effect

---

6-25-15 Minnesota:

Just a few months before a federal judge declared Minnesota's sex offender program unconstitutional, a sex offender facing commitment in Benton County argued just that.

Kerry Lenz, 56, was convicted of kidnapping and raping two strangers two weeks apart in 1989 in Benton and Stearns counties. The petition seeking to commit him included details of several other sexual offenses he committed, some of which led to criminal convictions in North Dakota.

Lenz's attorney argued that the state statute that allows for civil commitment was unconstitutional as it pertains to Lenz's case. A Benton County judge disagreed and in April committed Lenz to the program that last week was ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank.

It's not the first time that constitutional challenges to the program have been made and have failed. And local attorneys don't believe that Frank's order will change anything immediately when it comes to the criteria for who gets into the program. Prevailing sentiment is that Frank's order recommends the state change the process for how patients can progress out of the program.

Judge orders Minnesota sex offender program fixed or some may be released

---

6-25-15 Minnesota:

A federal judge says sex offenders have rights, too, and told state officials June 17 to either make the Minnesota Sex Offender Program constitutional or he may release some offenders.
Advertisement

It is a debate that began after the kidnapping and killing of Dru Sjodin in 2003, when the number of sex offenders committed to the treatment program began a dramatic increase.

U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank did not order specific changes to the program and said no sex offenders will be released immediately. However, without changes, he indicated that closing the program or releasing sex offenders is possible.

"The stark reality is that there is something very wrong with this state’s method of dealing with sex offenders in a program that has never fully discharged anyone committed to its detention facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter since its inception in 1994," wrote Frank, who as a St. Louis County, Minn., prosecutor and state judge dealt with sex offender cases.

"It is undisputed that there are civilly committed individuals at the MSOP who could be safely placed in the community or in less restrictive facilities," Frank wrote about the program that keeps some sex offenders in prison-like hospitals for years after they finish serving prison terms.

The ruling gives state officials one last chance, after several warnings, to change the program before the judge makes the decisions for them.

Dayton vows to attend hearing for sex offender program

---

6-24-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Gov. Mark Dayton says he is willing to postpone his trade mission to Mexico to appear in a federal court over the state's embattled sex offender treatment program.

A federal judge last week ruled the secure civil confinement program for more than 700 offenders was unconstitutional. Judge Donovan Frank summoned Dayton and other state leaders to his courtroom in mid-August to begin fashioning a remedy.

Dayton said Wednesday if the court date isn't moved he will attend rather than go on the trade trip. Dayton says he believes the program is constitutional and favors an appeal if one is allowed.

The sex offender program involves people who are indefinitely detained in a medical setting once their prison sentences are complete. ..Source.. by Kare11.com

---

Dayton pursues appeal of sex offender ruling

---

6-24-15 Minnesota:

Gov. Mark Dayton confirmed today that the state will try to appeal a federal judge’s ruling against Minnesota’s Sex Offender Program — but he also plans to cooperate with the judge’s attempts to resolve the problem.

Dayton had suggested he’d appeal last week, and confirmed that in a Wednesday news conference.

“We are appealing the ruling,” Dayton told reporters Wednesday. He said he had discussed the decision with Attorney General Lori Swanson, and “we’re in agreement on that.”

The first step is establishing whether the judge’s ruling last week is in fact appealable, Dayton said.

But the governor plans to attend a meeting called by Judge Donovan Frank, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 10, with other top Minnesota political leaders.

Dayton is planning to attend a trade mission to Mexico that day with other leaders including House Speaker Kurt Daudt, and has asked Frank to reschedule. But the governor said he’ll prioritize the MSOP meeting over the trade mission if the judge holds firm.

Frank blasted the sex offender program for locking up sex offenders indefinitely even after they finish their prison sentences. This “civil commitment” program, Frank said, amounted to an effective and unconstitutional life sentence.

How many folks are in civil commitment across the U.S.

---

   Fact Sheet: 
   Folks Civilly Committed Nationally   

---

Unfortunately there aren't any mandatory reporting requirements as to how many folks are civilly committed, but there is one organization that does a very good job of consolidating various facts and figures from all civil commitment centers, annually generally in October, that organization is "Sex Offender Civil Commitment Programs Network (SOCCPN)." Below are pics of their CC Census numbers for the years shown copied from their annual reports.

In addition, frequently in various news articles there is mention of how many folks are in a specific CC program, when we find articles with that info we tag them "Stats-Commit" (see left side of blog to access those articles). As you review them watch for the state you want info for, that is the best we can do for updated numbers, except what is shown below.

---

--- To Enlarge a Pic, Click On It ---

---

--- October 2014 ---

---

--- October 2013 ---

---

--- October 2012 ---

---

Our View: Don't put off sex-offender program any longer

---

6-24-15 Minnesota:

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank is a patient man.

For more than three years, Frank foreshadowed he was going to rule that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program was unconstitutional. The program, which civilly commits inmates after they completed their sentence, has kept more than 700 sex offenders at treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter with little hope of release. Just two clients have been provisionally released in the 20-year history of the program.

This includes offenders who committed their crimes as juveniles with no adult criminal history, the elderly (the program has clients in their 90s) and the developmentally disabled. Critics of the program say those clients shouldn't be committed to the program alongside serial rapists and child molesters.

In a February 2014 court order that outlined the issues, Frank called it "one of the most draconian sex offender programs in existence." With the system "clearly broken," he wrote in the court order, "the time for legislative action is now."

Frank, a Spring Valley native, issued that order after a 2011 Legislative Auditors' report and the work of a 2013 Minnesota Sex Offender Civil Commitment Advisory Task Force, which included Rep. Tina Liebling, a Democrat from Rochester. Both reports recommended overhauling the system. So what happened?

The Hunt For Child Sex Abusers is Happening in the Wrong Places

---

6-23-15 Florida:

This is a very long article (which also addresses the Florida Civil Commitment Center) and has many good cites of research, but it is written from the "victim's side" of a sex offense.

One should remember you will hear angry comments about crimes committed which is understandable, but as they cover the life after the crimes, now in civil commitment, untold horrors and construction of laws that clearly are cruel and unusual, but in civil commitment -legalized-; states get away with it.

In Minnesota a federal judge has just declared their civil commitment program unconstitutional because they are doing the same things we see in Florida and other states within civil commitment. Be forewarned:

---

Article begins:

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. “This is the most manipulative crowd on the planet,” says Kristin Kanner, director of the Florida Department of Children and Families’ Sexually Violent Predator Program. And one of the men we’re seeing today has been sending Book and her father angry letters for the past few years.

The FCCC is surrounded by seemingly endless stretches of sugar fields, cow pastures and orange groves. Wrapped in 12-foot barbed wire fences and guarded with more than 200 cameras, it is where Florida keeps 640 of its worst sexually violent offenders. About half have committed crimes against just children, a third against just adults.

Visits like ours are rare. Aside from prosecutors, defense attorneys and legislators, the last time anyone from the general public was granted this kind of FCCC access was in 2013, Book’s first visit. Her father, Ron Book, routinely referred to as one of the most powerful lobbyists in Florida, was not happy about that trip. “I just don’t like exposing her to the population,” he explains. “These are people one step away from killing a kid. People who stole children’s childhoods.” ..Continued.. by Abigail Jones

---

Federal court ruling expected to affect pending Minnesota sex offender civil commitment cases

---

6-22-15 Minnesota:

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge's declaration that Minnesota's civil commitment setup for sex offenders is unconstitutional has raised serious questions about whether prosecutors can continue asking courts to send more offenders into the program as they approach release from prison.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank last week ruled the Minnesota Sex Offender Program and the law behind it are unconstitutional.

Experts agree his ruling will affect commitment cases that are already in the legal pipeline — and that it raises new opportunities for defense lawyers to try to keep their clients out of a program that hasn't fully released anyone in more than 20 years.

Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem says he received a motion Monday seeking dismissal of a commitment petition that he filed just last week. Frank's order was attached. ..Source.. by STEVE KARNOWSKI

---

Minnesota Law Found Unfair to Sex Offenders

---

6-22-15 Minnesota:

Though Minnesota has the power to detain mentally ill citizens who pose a danger to the public, its civil-commitment laws and sex-offender programs are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled.

Kevin Scott Karsjens led the challenge as a class action in 2011 against seven senior managers of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP).

They are among 714 sex offenders whom the state has detained indefinitely under the program, and the number is expected to rise to 1,215 by 2022.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank concluded last week after a six-week trial that "Minnesota's civil commitment scheme is a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system."

"The stark reality is that there is something very wrong with this state's method of dealing with sex offenders in a program that has never fully discharged anyone committed to its detention facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter since its inception in 1994," the June 17 decision states.

Capitol Chatter: Minnesota politicians avoided sex offender decision

---

6-20-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL -- Put yourself in a politician's shoes: There is no way you would want to cast a vote to release sex offenders from a prison-like facility.
Advertisement

But if a federal judge ordered you to do it, that could be a different story. Someone else is to blame.

U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank, a former St. Louis County, Minn., prosecutor who has dealt with sex offender cases, gave politicians a scapegoat and way out of a constitutional conflict when he handed down a ruling saying the Minnesota Sex Offender Program violates the U.S. Constitution.

The only order contained in Wednesday's ruling was for some people involved in the sex offender treatment program to attend an Aug. 10 meeting. Frank could not order Gov. Mark Dayton, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and House Speaker Kurt Daudt to attend, but he urged them to. He apparently expects officials to come with ideas so a new treatment program can be created, one that he thinks meets constitutional muster.

Judgment Day for MSOP

---

6-19-15 Minnesota:

A few minutes after U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank released his long-awaited ruling on the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, Dan Gustafson was asked whether he was surprised by anything in Frank’s 76-page order.

No, said Gustafson, the lead attorney in the class-action suit that successfully challenged the constitutionality of both the MSOP and its statutory underpinning, the Minnesota Civil Commitment and Treatment Act.

Nothing?

“I thought perhaps he would deal with some more specifics about the treatment,” Gustafson finally added.

Of course, Frank had tipped his hand well in advance of the six-week trial that was the basis for the determination that the MSOP and the MCTA are unconstitutional. His prior characterizations of the troubled program as “clearly broken” and “draconian” made that seem like a foregone conclusion.

And as Gustafson observed, the problems with the MSOP — most notably, its glaring failure to unconditionally discharge a single client in more than two decades of operations — are hardly breaking news. From special task force appointed by then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2005 to the 2011 report from the Legislative Auditor, warning flags about the MSOP have been hoisted time and again.

Minnesota signals intent to appeal landmark sex-offender ruling

---

6-19-15 Minnesota:

Gov. Dayton opposes landmark ruling, defends constitutionality of long-term detainment.

Attorneys for the state of Minnesota have signaled that they intend to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that declared the Minnesota Sex Offender Program unconstitutional and in need of systemic reform.

Citing public safety concerns, the state attorney general’s office requested in a letter that U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank amend his order to allow for “an immediate right to appeal.” The letter, made public Thursday, is a clear signal that the administration of Gov. Mark Dayton intends to resist fundamental reforms to a sex offender program that Frank denounced in a Wednesday ruling.

An appeal could mean several months of delay, or more, for a series of changes suggested by Frank and endorsed by some state legislators. These include requiring the state to conduct regular assessments proving that the 700 men detained at secure treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter are still dangerous enough to meet the legal standard for confinement, and to develop less-restrictive treatment alternatives in the community.

Texas Law To Update Sex Offender-Civil Commitment Program

---

6-18-15 Texas:

Governor Greg Abbott has signed into law a bill to update the Texas sex offender civil-commitment program and clarify when offenders face return to prison.

According to a Texas newspaper, Abbott signed the measure Wednesday.

A federal judge hours earlier declared Minnesota’s sex offender treatment program unconstitutional, amid concerns about the rights of people locked up indefinitely.

The Texas program, started in 1999, also faces challenges to the continued confinement of repeat sex offenders, such as in halfway houses, after they complete prison terms.

Supporters say the new Texas law could help resolve legal and administrative issues.

Offenders will no longer would be criminally punished for minor violations, such as being late for treatment meetings, which landed some back in prison. The offenders would instead face sanctions such as increased confinement.

There are currently some 375 sex offenders in the Texas program, with more than half being kept in county jails and halfway houses in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso and Houston. ..Source.. by CBS DFW.com

---

Judge suggests remedies for Minnesota Sex Offender Program

---

6-17-15 Minnesota:

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, ruling on a federal class-action lawsuit Wednesday, called the Minnesota Sex Offender Program unconstitutional.

He ordered the parties to confer Aug. 10 to flesh out needed remedies. He also urged state lawmakers and others not involved in the lawsuit to participate in the process.

The judge's 76-page order included several suggestions:

-- Require re-evaluation of all patients, starting with the elderly, those with substantive physical or intellectual disabilities, and juveniles.

Texas eyes ruling after judge calls Minn. sex offender program unconstitutional

---

6-17-15 Texas:

USTIN – A federal court decision declaring Minnesota's civil commitment program for sex offenders unconsitutional could affect the future look of Texas' troubled program, even as reforms await Gov. Greg Abbott's signature.

Texas officials on Wednesday were reviewing the decision saying Minnesota cannot keep civilly committed sex offenders locked up indefinitely, much the way Texas has since 1999. Only one person in Texas' program has been allowed to leave secure lockups in 16 years, and that was not until earlier this year.

In his ruling, closely watched by officials in Texas and other states because of the effect it could have on their civil-commitment programs, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank gave Minnesota officials until Aug. 10 to begin negotiations "to fashion suitable remedies."

The Latest on Minnesota sex offender ruling: Agency head says no immediate changes to program

---

6-17-15 Minnesota:

The head of the state agency that runs the Minnesota Sex Offender Program says there won't be any immediate releases or changes in how it operates as a result of a federal judge's declaration that it's unconstitutional.

Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson said in a statement Wednesday that her agency's focus continues to be effective operation of the program, as well as defending the constitutionality of it and the state's civil commitment law for sex offenders.

___12:10 p.m.

The lead attorney who successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program says fixing it will require a combination of legislation and executive action.

Judge rules Minnesota sex offender program unconstitutional

---

6-17-15 Minnesota:

MINNEAPOLIS - A federal judge has ruled that Minnesota's sex offender treatment program is unconstitutional, but has deferred any immediate action to await further proceedings on a remedy.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank largely sided with the more than 700 residents who were civilly committed to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program after they completed their prison sentences.

Their lawyers argued during a nearly six-week bench trial in February and March that the program is unconstitutional because nobody has ever been fully discharged from it, even those thought to be at low risk of committing new crimes.

The state says it has improved the program, including moving more patients through treatment and perhaps toward provisional release.

Frank is calling on Minnesota government's top leaders to personally appear in court to help come up with an alternative structure to a sex offender confinement program.

Civil Commitment Suicide

---

Illinois:

From Carpenter v Clayton court case:

Plaintiff proceeds pro se on this civil rights case regarding Plaintiff's access to mental health treatment and sex offender treatment at the Rushville Treatment and Detention Center. His claims are:

(1) Defendants refused or delayed in providing sex offender treatment to Plaintiff after he consented to that treatment;

(2) Defendants refused to assign Plaintiff a therapist; and,

(3) Defendants failed to have an adequate procedure for Plaintiff to obtain help during a mental health crisis Plaintiff allegedly experienced when a resident on his unit committed suicide. (Judge Myerscough's 2/29/13 order, d/e 7.)

The defendants are involved in Plaintiff's mental health treatment. This case is not about retaliation against Plaintiff for Plaintiff's exercise of his First Amendment rights: that claim proceeds in another pending case before Judge Myerscough. Carpenter v. Clayton, et al., 13-CV-3073.

...

---

Suit: Patients, not prisoners

---

6-17-15 Illinois:

Sex treatment facility harming, not healing, fed action claims

What’s in a name?

Everything, according to a federal lawsuit against a Rushville facility for dangerous sexual offenders.

About 500 men are housed in the Schuyler County facility. After they serve time in prison, those still considered a danger to the community can be committed to the Treatment and Detention Facility in Rushville. It is the only facility in the state that houses sexually violent people.

“The plaintiffs assert that the Treatment and Detention Facility administration who are in direct control of the day-to-day operations of the Sexually Violent Persons program operate a ‘lock them up for life’ mentality and throw a little bit of treatment in for ‘cosmetic’ reasons so the [program] will pass constitutional challenges,” according to the lawsuit, which presents only one side of a case.

Although the facility is overseen by the state Department of Human Services instead of the Department of Corrections, the facility’s past as a youth prison is evident in the battleship gray colors and sparse cells that house those sent there.

The Source: Civil Commitment In Texas Changes, But Does It Go Far Enough?

---

6-17-15 Texas:

In Texas and many other states, violent sexual predators are civilly committed, They are held to a strict degree of participation in treatment programs, and housed in state-contracted halfway houses or jails. All of this after a person has served their sentence.

The straight-forward sounding program has proved to have a lot of problems in execution here in Texas. As Nancy Bunin, a Houston attorney who has worked on civil commitment and advocates for reform, points out in a blog post no one who had been considered for civil commitment has ever not been committed, and more importantly no one who has ever been civilly committed has ever been released from the program. According to Texas officials, the numbers that have been released from civil commitment is actually three, but only on judicial reversals. No one has successfully completed the program.

Minnesota Sex Offender Program: Public safety or public policy?

---

6-16-15 Minnesota:

Ten factors in favor of federal court intervention. (A decision is imminent.)

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank is expected to issue a decision on the constitutionality of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP). It is likely that the federal court is going to rule that Minnesota has failed to achieve a constitutional balance among public safety, effective treatment and the civil rights of MSOP clients. There is, understandably, public angst about the uncertain future of the MSOP, and the likelihood of the federal court ordering releases. However, mounting evidence indicates that the MSOP is less about veritable public safety and more about misguided public policy. Here are 10 reasons why Minnesotans should welcome, and not fear, federal court intervention.

1) The MSOP was created in 1994 to identify certain sexual offenders who might be at high-risk for reoffending and lock them up to prevent future crimes. The courts have ruled that sexual offender civil commitment (SOCC) is constitutional only if clients have a mental disorder that contributes to them being “highly likely” to reoffend, and if the goal of incarceration is treatment. After 20 years, and about 740 clients, no one has completed treatment and been fully released, resulting in constitutional concerns that treatment is disingenuous and that the MSOP is really “preventive detention.”

Sweeping reform of sex offender program leaves unresolved issues

---

6-16-15 Texas:

AUSTIN — A little more than a year after Texas’ civil-commitment program for violent sex offenders exploded in scandal over inept administration, questionable treatment and a host of legal issues, sweeping reforms designed to keep the troubled program from being declared unconstitutional by federal courts could take effect as soon as today.

While the changes are expected to correct many chronic problems, other critical issues — including how the law affects the men court-ordered into the previous “outpatient” treatment — remain unresolved. The program is designed to keep the state’s most dangerous sex predators under close supervision even after they finish their prison sentences.

Officials concede the reforms expected to be signed into law today by Gov. Greg Abbott will not solve a shortage of housing for the 193 men now in the program, plus another dozen who are slated to arrive by the end of August.

Nor, in approving the new law, did the Legislature provide funding for health care for those in the program, meaning that jurisdictions where the offenders are kept will continue to have to pick up the multimillion-dollar tab.

Additionally, how mentally challenged offenders who stand almost no chance of successfully completing the program can be diverted to hospitals or properly accommodated remains unresolved, as does the question of how courts across Texas will handle the cases that previously had been heard by a single judge in Montgomery County.

Local officials concerned about sex offender release funding

---

6-16-15 Minnesota:

There are two things that are largely undisputed about the Minnesota Sex Offender Program: It's necessary, and it needs to change.

That will likely happen with a case ruling Wednesday from U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank. Of course, what the changes will be is "the million dollar question."

That's how Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem sees it.

"The reality is, there's probably going to be some changes," he said Monday. "How deep they go and how swift they come is what we'll find out."

Under current state law, a person found to be sexually dangerous or to have a sexual psychopathic personality can be civilly committed through the court system, to the MSOP.

The issue at hand: In the program's 21-year-history, 715 people have been indefinitely committed to high-security facilities in Moose Lake or St. Peter, and no one has been fully released. Two people are currently on provisional discharge under intense supervision.

Reform of Texas' sex offender program comes up short

---

6-15-15 Texas:

Constitutionality, housing questions still not resolved

AUSTIN - A little more than a year after Texas' civil-commitment program for violent sex offenders exploded in scandal over inept administration, questionable treatment and a host of legal issues, sweeping reforms designed to keep the troubled program from being declared unconstitutional by federal courts could take effect as soon as Monday.

While the changes are expected to correct many chronic problems, other critical issues - including how the law affects the men court-ordered into the previous "outpatient" treatment - remain unresolved. The program is designed to keep the state's most dangerous sex predators under close supervision even after they finish their prison sentences.

Officials concede the reforms expected to be signed into law on Monday by Gov. Greg Abbott will not solve a shortage of housing for the 193 men now in the program, plus a dozen more who are slated to arrive by the end of August.

Nor, in approving the new law, did the Legislature provide funding for health care for those in the program, meaning that Harris County and other jurisdictions where the offenders are kept will continue to have to pick up the multimillion-dollar tab.

Additionally, how mentally challenged offenders who stand almost no chance of successfully completing the program can be diverted to hospitals or properly accommodated remains unresolved, as does the question of how courts across Texas will handle the cases that previously had been heard by a single judge in Montgomery County.

Adding to the issues are two convicted sex offenders freed without supervision in recent weeks because courts have been unable to schedule trials to put them into the program, one in Houston and the other in the San Antonio area.

'In-patient' model

With the law slated to take effect immediately upon the governor's signature, officials on Friday said they still were working out the details of the treatment-oriented program, which was originally designed to operate as outpatient. However, over the years those offenders in civil commitment were quietly ordered to live in halfway houses and other jail-like facilities throughout the state, with no one ever being released. In an effort to make the program more constitutionally sound, the state is officially moving to an "in-patient" model in which offenders will be placed in one facility and eventually work their way to freedom.

Judge could force Minnesota lawmakers to overhaul sex offender program

---

6-14-15 Minnesota:

A highly anticipated federal court ruling expected this week will likely have a major impact on the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, which has been challenged as unconstitutional.

There was hope the Legislature would tackle the issue before the end of the regular session, but lawmakers made no progress.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who said he'll issue his order Wednesday, fired a warning shot last year. He called the sex offender program "one of the most draconian sex offender programs in existence" and said, "The time for legislative action is now."

The program allows the state to civilly commit offenders for an indeterminate amount of time after their prison sentences are served.

Frank's call for action came on the heels of a Legislative Auditor's report and a review by a court-ordered task force, both of which offered myriad improvement suggestions.

Legal pressure failed to stir even small action by Minnesota lawmakers on sex offender program

---

6-14-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota lawmakers have been on notice for 16 months: Fix what a federal judge called a "draconian" and "clearly broken" sex offender treatment program or risk seeing it thrown out entirely.

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program's day of reckoning comes Wednesday when U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank rules in a class-action lawsuit over the constitutionality of a program that has 715 offenders locked up for treatment. An adverse ruling could even force lawmakers into another special session.

"Depending on what the judge orders, it's just something we're going to have to face up to," Gov. Mark Dayton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

That's because another legislative session passed without action. A last-ditch proposal to explore "less-restrictive methods" sought by the Democratic governor's administration — designed partly as a token message to Frank that his warnings had gotten through — was abruptly sidetracked late in private negotiations, according to documents obtained by The AP through an open records request.

Court Case: Interferences with Treatment By Application of Prison Policies

---

6-12-15 New Jersey:

What follows is an excerpt from a NJ case showing RIGHT to TREATMENT is a substantive due process right:

The New Jersey SVPA has a dual purpose, and one of those purposes is to provide treatment designed to prevent an SVPA from committing a future sexual offense, and thereby obtain his/her release from confinement. Thus, civilly committed SVPs have a substantive due process right to treatment. Leamer v. Fauver, 288 F.3d 532, 545 (3d Cir. 2002); Deavers v. Santiago, 243 F. App'x 719, 772 (3d Cir. 2007).

---

e-Clips are more fully explained under Blog Tips

---

CATO Institute, CATO Unbound, Civil Commitment and Civil Liberties

---

6-11-15 National:

---

A CATO Unbound Project
Civil Commitment and Civil Liberties

Cato Unbound is a virtual trading floor in the intellectual marketplace, specializing in the exchange of big ideas. To be sure, there is no shortage these days of online forums for hashing out the issues of the day. All too often, however, the advantages of instant analysis and communication are compromised by obsession with the trivial and ephemeral. Here at Cato Unbound we try to step back, take a deep breath, and focus on the larger picture.

Each month, Cato Unbound will present an essay on a big-picture topic by an important thinker. The ideas in that essay will then be tested by the comments and criticism of equally eminent thinkers, each of whom will respond to the month’s lead essay ..Continued..

---

June 2015

---

June's Lead Essay "Questionable Commitments" by Galen Baughman

Response "Our Deeply Flawed Civil Commitment System" by David Prescott

Response "The Rise of the Preventive State" by Eric Janus,


Response "Let’s Stamp Out Perversion" by Amanda Pustilnik,


All responses are now written and published.
eAdvocate

Note: Eric Janus's response describes "We the People" and how Civil Commitment laws create a group of people (SVPs) who are believed to be outside of the "We the People" group; this response is a MUST read.

---

Kansas governor signs bill limiting sex predator appeals

---

6-10-15 Kansas:

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill putting new limits on appeals by sex offenders committed indefinitely to a state treatment program.

The measure was passed overwhelmingly by both chambers and Brownback signed it Tuesday. The new law takes effect July 1.

Offenders determined by a court to be sexual predators are committed to a treatment program after serving their criminal sentences. The bill would remove the right of confined offenders to request a jury trial when petitioning for release. It also would limit their right to file.

Brownback also signed a bill helping victims of human trafficking by allowing them to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators and collect damages. The new law also takes effect July 1. ..Source.. by SFGate.com

---

Violent sexual predators held indefinitely - for a profit

---

6-10-15 Florida:

ARCADIA, FLa. -- There's only one place in the entire country where violent sexual predators are committed indefinitely that is run by a for-profit company.

It's in Arcadia, Florida - on the outskirts of town, past historic buildings and rows of antique stores that tourists often visit.

Despite receiving a state award for cost effectiveness, some national civil liberties groups say the Florida Civil Commitment Center is on their radar because it's being run under a $272 million contract by a for-profit company - one with a criticized performance record and a purported conflict of incentives.

Records from the state show the facility has been understaffed, with undertrained staff, running the program where most detainees are released before completing the full treatment regimen.

Judge To Rule June 17 On Minnesota Sex Offender Program

---

6-9-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A federal judge plans to rule next week on a constitutional challenge to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.

A filing Tuesday says U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank will issue his findings and order “on or around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 17.”

The class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 700 people committed to the program says it’s unconstitutional because hardly anyone ever gets out, even if they do well in treatment and could safely be freed or released into less-restrictive facilities.

Sex offenders want former Gov. Pataki to pay for illegal confinement program

---

6-7-15 New York:

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.

Pataki was sued in 2013 for the botched program, the Sexually Violent Predator Initiative, which was rushed into existence after a Westchester County woman was stabbed to death by a paroled sex offender.

State mental health officials were pressured by Pataki into finding a way to confine sex offenders without state Legislature approval, according to a court recap of the events.

Pataki's program was ruled unconstitutional within a year. But a Legislature-approved alternative replaced it, allowing the state to keep dangerous sex offenders locked up indefinitely. That program, known as civil confinement, remains to this day with more than 300 men being held indefinitely in state mental hospitals.

The lawsuit against Pataki did not produce punishment, with a jury awarding only $1 to the sex offenders confined under the illegal program.

Morel v State

---

5-14-14 Florida:

Morel v State

Ronald Morel ("Defendant") appeals the denial of his motion to dismiss the State's petition for civil commitment as a sexually violent predator ("SVP") for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Based on the Florida Supreme Court's decisions in State v. Phillips, 119 So.3d 1233 (Fla.2013), Larimore v. State, 2 So.3d 101 (Fla.2008), and State v. Atkinson, 831 So.2d 172 (Fla. 2002), the trial court did not have jurisdiction over Defendant at the time of his civil commitment.

Accordingly, we reverse, and grant Defendant's motion.

---

Sex predator with history in Walla Walla ordered released

---

6-3-15 Washington:

A sexually violent predator who was detained more than a decade ago under a civil commitment stemming from a series of local sex crimes in the 1990s has been ordered released from confinement.

John W.J. Keeney, 40, was to be released today, according to the order signed Monday by Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge John Lohrmann.

The state Attorney General’s Office submitted an agreement to Keeney’s release and dismissal of the sex-predator petition against him.

Keeney was detained for sex-offender treatment at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island in 2004. He reportedly made enough progress in treatment that in 2012, the AG’s Office agreed to allow him to live with close monitoring at a secure transition facility in King County.

Last year, a further less-restrictive alternative was ordered. It called for Keeney to be released today if he had not committed any major violations.

State found not liable for releasing rapist who then killed teenager

---

6-1-15 California:

State mental-health authorities are not liable for determining that a convicted rapist — who raped and killed a teenager four days after leaving prison — was suitable for release, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday.

Elaina Novoa sued the Department of Mental Health, charging that her sister’s death was caused by the government’s failure to fulfill its duties under the Sexually Violent Predators Act. That law permits dangerous sex offenders to be confined in a mental institution after their prison terms end.

In a ruling written by Justice Carol A. Corrigan, the state high court agreed that the mental health department failed to follow the law in evaluating Gilton Pitre, who was in prison for raping a female roommate in 1996.

But the court said the victim’s sister could not prove that the government’s inadequate evaluation caused the 2007 rape and strangulation of Alyssa Gomez, 15, a runaway who lived on the streets of Hollywood.

House passes bill limiting legal rights for sex predators

---

6-1-15 Kansas:

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has approved a bill (SB 149) that would create new limits on appeals by sex offenders committed to a state treatment program.

The chamber voted 111-0 Monday to approve the bill, which will now go to the Senate for consideration.

Sex offenders determined by a court to be sexual predators are currently committed to a treatment program after they serve their criminal penalties. The bill would remove the right of confined offenders to request a jury trial when petitioning for release. It would also limit offenders' right to file grievances on a number of issues.

Democratic Rep. John Carmichael from Wichita said that he continues to have concerns with the bill. But he said some provisions that he believed unconstitutional were removed in negotiations between lawmakers from both chambers. ..Source.. by SFGate

---