SCOTUS to mull accepting sex offender lawsuit

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8-9-17 Washington DC:

A case began in December 2011 as a pro se proceeding by patients in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program disputing the conditions including room searches, restrictive telephone and mail policies and bad food, among other things — that’s how the defendant state of Minnesota characterized it, anyway.

When the petitioners got an attorney, it got re-characterized as a matter of substantive due process.

It’s now pending at the United States Supreme Court, where the justices will consider the patients’ petition for certiorari. The briefs are all in now — one from the state, two from petitioners and four from amicus curiae supporting the petitioners. (See sidebar on amicus briefs.)

The constitutional issue presented to the Supreme Court is the standard of review that should apply to substantive due process claims brought by the patients. Strict scrutiny, the highest standard, as employed by Judge Donovan Frank? Or simply a reasonable relation standard, as used by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals? And must one’s conscience be shocked by the actions of the respondents, and if so, at what stage of the review? ..Continued..

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Lawsuit alleges state violated Minnesota sex offender's privacy

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4-13-17 Minnesota:

Moose Lake detainee is alleging that his private medical records were wrongfully released to another detainee.

A detainee in the Minnesota sex offender program at Moose Lake, Minn. is suing the state, alleging that his private medical records were wrongfully released to another detainee.

A detainee in the Minnesota sex offender program at Moose Lake, Minn. is suing the state, alleging that his private medical records were wrongfully released to another detainee.

Shawn M. Jamison filed his suit Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court against Emily Piper, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS).

Jamison alleged that on March 11, 2017, a detainee in a different housing unit at the facility informed him that he had received Jamison’s “Individual Program Plan” in his mailbox. The data are part of Jamison’s treatment information at the facility.

Federal judges: MN sex offender program constitutional

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1-3-17 Minnesota:

A U.S. Court of Appeals panel has reversed a ruling that had declared Minnesota's sex offender confinement program unconstitutional, putting the matter back in the hands of a lower court and easing pressure on lawmakers to make major changes.

Tuesday's ruling overturned an order by federal Judge Donovan Frank that threatened to upend the program.

Minnesota is one of about 20 states where sex offenders can be confined through a civil court order either instead of prison or after an offender's prison sentence is up. It came under scrutiny because offenders had little chance of leaving the secured facilities once committed.

More than 700 civilly committed sex offenders had sued the state claiming it was 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.

State pushes back against reforms of troubled sex offender program

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9-22-15 Minnesota:

Citing concerns about costs, staff shortages and community opposition, officials argued against reforms that could accelerate the release of sex offenders.

State officials are pushing back against a series of proposed reforms to Minnesota’s troubled sex offender program ahead of a high-profile court hearing next week.

Citing concerns about costs, staff shortages and community opposition, administrators of the program argued in court filings this week against reforms that could accelerate the release of sex offenders from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP). The program currently holds about 720 sex offenders indefinitely at secure treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter. In June, U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank declared the program unconstitutional and called on state leaders to propose reforms or face solutions imposed by the court.

Judge gives state deadline to fix unconstitutional sex offender program

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8-13-15 Minnesota:

A federal judge is giving the state until September 21st to file proposals to fix the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program which he ruled unconstitutional.

U-S District Judge Donovan Frank's order came two days after he, Governor Mark Dayton and top state officials met behind closed doors but could not reach a consensus. The judge says if the state is "unwilling or incapable" of remedying the violations it, quote, "may demand a more forceful solution."

Frank did not specifically say whether he would order release of sex offenders held in state security hospitals but did state in his order that “Any delay by the state to prepare for the inevitable relief to be imposed by the court... would only increase the risk to public safety.” ..Source..

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Federal Judge Appears Unhappy with Efforts to Fix Minnesota Sex Offender Program

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8-12-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A federal judge who ruled Minnesota's sex offender program unconstitutional is warning state leaders he may resort to a "more forceful solution" if they don't prove willing to fix the program on their own.

U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank issued a strongly worded order Wednesday, two days after he held a private hearing with top officials about changing the confinement program. He scheduled a public hearing on Sept. 30 and asked parties to the legal case to come with remedy proposals.

More than 700 offenders deemed sexually dangerous are being held indefinitely in secure treatment facilities. Frank ruled in a class-action lawsuit that the program is flawed.

Lawmakers, including Gov. Mark Dayton, maintain it is legal. Frank says continued resistance to change could put the program at risk. ..Source.. by KAALtv.com

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Judge in sex offender case warns of 'forceful solution'

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8-12-15 Minnesota:

A federal judge who ruled that Minnesota's sex offender program is unconstitutional warned state leaders Wednesday that he may resort to a "more forceful solution" if they don't prove willing to fix the program on their own.

U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank issued his strongly worded order two days after a private hearing with top officials about changing the confinement program. As part of Wednesday's order, he scheduled a public court hearing on Sept. 30 and asked parties to the legal case to come with remedy proposals.

"Recognizing the history of the state's failure to meet minimum constitutional requirements, as well as the continuing injury and harm resulting from serious violations, the court notes that, at some point, if the state proves unwilling or incapable of remedying the constitutional violations, to which insufficient funding is not a defense, that failure may demand a more forceful solution," Frank wrote.

More than 700 offenders deemed sexually dangerous are being held indefinitely in secure treatment facilities. Frank ruled in June in a class-action lawsuit that the program is flawed, but stopped short of ordering that offenders be let loose or requiring specific changes, hoping the decision would spur settlement discussions.

Gov. Dayton unveils possible reforms to troubled sex offender program

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In other words, they are going to stall doing anything for 10-20 more years, while soaking taxpayers and denying those committed their constitutional rights. What a joke..

8-11-15 Minnesota:

The changes, to satisfy a federal judge’s order, could cost tens of millions.

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.

Frank has made it clear that he wants legislators to act instead of punting to him on what to do with serious sex offenders who have served their sentence, but are being held in perpetual confinement in a treatment program that boasts few successes.

Dayton insists the program is constitutional. His changes are designed to modify the program, rather than obliterate it.

“We think there are ways that the program can be improved, and I’m prepared to take those steps with the concurrence of the Legislature,” Dayton said after the meeting.

Minnesota Officials Expect Costly Sex Offender Program Fix

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8-11-15 Minnesota:

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and state lawmakers emerged from a private meeting with a federal judge on Monday with little consensus on how and even whether to forge ahead with changes to a state program confining sex offenders that the court has deemed unconstitutional.

Joined by more than a dozen Minnesota lawmakers as well as other state officials to discuss the program's future, Dayton said no decisions were made during the three-hour conference with Judge Donovan Frank. Frank is prodding the state to take action to rework the program, which indefinitely houses more than 700 offenders considered "sexually dangerous" and a threat to reoffend, before he requires action.

The conference, held in private despite media protests, stems from a class-action lawsuit brought by offenders who have been committed to the program by a court apart from any criminal sanctions.

Dayton said he still believes the program is constitutional and is looking for an avenue to appeal Frank's June decision after the judge comes out with a directive telling the state what must be done. That order is expected this fall.

Minnesota officials locked in standoff over sex offender program with costly fixes possible

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8-10-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and state lawmakers emerged from a private meeting with a federal judge on Monday with little consensus on how and even whether to forge ahead with changes to a state program confining sex offenders that the court has deemed unconstitutional.

Joined by more than a dozen Minnesota lawmakers as well as other state officials to discuss the program's future, Dayton said no decisions were made during the three-hour conference with Judge Donovan Frank. Frank is prodding the state to take action to rework the program, which indefinitely houses more than 700 offenders considered "sexually dangerous" and a threat to reoffend, before he requires action.

The conference, held in private despite media protests, stems from a class-action lawsuit brought by offenders who have been committed to the program by a court apart from any criminal sanctions.

Dayton said he still believes the program is constitutional and is looking for an avenue to appeal Frank's June decision after the judge comes out with a directive telling the state what must be done. That order is expected this fall.

Governor: Minnesota sex offender program fixes may be costly

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8-10-15 Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton says fixing the state's program for confining sex offenders may be costly.

The governor and an array of Minnesota officials met privately Monday to discuss potential changes to the program with the federal judge who declared it unconstitutional. More than 700 offenders are held indefinitely in secure treatment hospitals because they're deemed a threat to reoffend.

Dayton said no decisions were made after meeting with Judge Donovan Frank. He says one possible fix is creating an evaluation system with new facilities to house lower-risk patients who need extra medical care. He says it may cost more than $20 million annually.

While he thanked Judge Frank and Eric Magnuson, who has been appointed Special Master of the process to help fix the broken sex offender program, Dayton insisted that the safety of Minnesota's residents is paramount.

How one case — and geography — dramatically affected commitments to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program

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8-7-15 Minnesota:

On Thanksgiving eve 2003, Dru Sjodin disappeared from the Columbia Mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Early evidence didn’t look promising. Investigators found the 22-year-old’s car in a parking lot with a knife sheath beside it. A few days after the disappearance, police found one of her shoes across the Red Lake River in Crookston, Minnesota, under a bypass. Sjodin’s family wasn’t giving up, but by the end of the year, police knew they were most likely looking for a body.

They already had a suspect: Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., a recently released Level-3 sex offender from Crookston. Officers discovered small blood splatters in the back seat of his car and a knife in the trunk matching the sheath found near Sjodin’s vehicle. Then, in early spring, after five months of searching on both sides of the river, a retired cop and police reservist discovered Sjodin’s body in a ravine outside Crookston. She was face down and naked below the waist, hands tied behind her back. Rope and remnants of a plastic bag encircled her neck. She had been sexually assaulted.

TV crews brought in satellite trucks that beamed daily images of Sjodin, who the media dubbed "everyone's daughter, everyone's sister." Outrage for the tragedy was aimed not just at Rodriguez, but at Minnesota officials, who didn’t commit him to a sex offender treatment program after his prison sentence, despite a pre-release evaluation that found him likely to reoffend.

What happened next illustrates the incredible amount of discretion judges and prosecutors hold when it comes to civil commitments of sex offenders in Minnesota, and how the actions of one man could alter the fates of hundreds. Following Sjodin’s case, the number of people committed to Minnesota’s sex offender program skyrocketed, peaking at 88 in 2007, an almost six-fold increase from 2003, according to two decades of commitment records reviewed by MinnPost (data that does not include a small portion of cases that are still pending or have been sealed by a judge). The most dramatic spikes took place in Minnesota’s rural counties, which commit sex offenders at disproportionately high rates relative to their populations, the data show.

News organizations ask judge to open MSOP hearing on Monday

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8-7-15 Minnesota:

Star Tribune, New York Times say public deserves access to discussion of remedies.

Arguing that citizens shouldn’t be locked out of a court hearing that could produce reforms to Minnesota’s troubled sex-offender treatment program, the Star Tribune, New York Times and 13 other news and open-government organizations have asked a federal judge to reverse himself and allow the public to attend the Aug. 10 conference.

In a motion filed Thursday in St. Paul, an attorney for the organizations said, “The future of Minnesota Sex Offender Program is at stake and is of significant public concern — the program and its administration, impact on public safety, public expense and individuals’ constitutional rights.”

The Monday hearing was scheduled by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who concluded in June that the MSOP is unconstitutional and ordered state leaders to produce solutions.

An assistant to Frank said Thursday the judge won’t comment on the request while it is pending.

The MSOP holds about 700 convicted sex offenders, most of whom have completed prison terms but have been deemed too dangerous for release.

Local media challenge closed meeting on Minnesota sex offender program

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8-6-15 Minnesota:

Media outlets in Minnesota are challenging a federal judge's decision to close to the public and the media a court meeting with state officials on the state's sex offender program.

They say that the Aug. 10 legal conference, which may be attended by more than two dozen state officials, may influence the future of the sex offender program and the public deserves to see what happens.

Judge Donovan Frank ruled in June that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program is unconstitutional because it keeps about 700 offenders confined for long periods without determining whether they continue to pose a threat to the community.

Frank then called an Aug. 10 conference with state officials to consider the future of the program, but said it was a pre-hearing conference and that the public and media will be barred.

Gov. Mark Dayton and high-ranking legislators are among the two dozen or more public officials expected.

Federal judge bans media, public from major sex offender conference

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7-31-2015 Minnesota:

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.

The ruling, issued Thursday, drew instant criticism from prominent lawmakers, the Star Tribune and advocates for open government, all of whom questioned why a meeting of such importance would be held in secret. Gov. Mark Dayton, who is expected to attend, said he thought it should be public. More than two dozen public officials, including Dayton and leaders from both legislative chambers, have been invited to attend the Aug. 10 conference and bring ideas for reforming the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP).

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who last month declared that MSOP violates the U.S. Constitution by detaining hundreds of sex offenders with little prospect of release, offered no explanation in his ruling for closing the conference.

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

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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

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Minnesota signals intent to appeal landmark sex-offender ruling

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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.

Minnesota Sex Offender Program: Public safety or public policy?

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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.”

Rape survivor recounts night of horror, warns against release of offenders

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3-19-15 Minnesota:

Tom McCartney, who survived a horrific double rape, says the state should lock away offenders forever — or execute them

om McCartney suspects it was the children’s toys on the front lawn that explain why a serial rapist chose to terrorize his family on a stormy June night in 1975.

McCartney and his wife, Janet, were watching TV when they turned to see a man with a sawed-off shotgun and a mask standing in their living room. The man, John Rydberg, ordered the newlyweds to bind each other’s hands and feet; he then pulled pillow cases over their heads and raped them while their 3-year-old son slept upstairs.

In emotional testimony Thursday, Tom McCartney recounted the chilling incident in vivid detail before pleading with a federal judge to consider the plight of rape survivors before reaching a verdict in a trial that could decide the constitutionality of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP).

At one point, McCartney swiveled in his witness chair and asked U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, “If you’re really convinced that you want to let these people out, then why don’t you take them home with you? Why should we be the guinea pigs?”

Reforms are taking hold in Minnesota's sex offender program, officials testify

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3-5-15 Minnesota:

She says a record number of sex offenders are at the final phase of treatment before release.

Minnesota’s sex offender program is moving a record number of rapists, pedophiles and other convicted offenders through treatment and toward supervised release into the community, a top official testified Thursday as the state presented its side in a landmark trial challenging the program’s constitutionality.

In seven hours of testimony, the top clinician of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) disputed allegations that the state is failing a legal obligation to provide adequate treatment and a clear path for release to more than 700 offenders housed at high-security treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter.

A record 57 offenders have reached the third and final phase of treatment, which focuses on integrating offenders back into the community — a reflection, say state officials, that recent reforms have taken hold and offenders are responding to treatment. The share of offenders in the initial stage of treatment has fallen from 65 percent in early 2012 to 39 percent at the end of 2014, as more offenders progress in treatment.

Jannine Hebert, MSOP executive clinical director, attributed the sharp rise in offenders moving through treatment to better training and more frequent evaluations of offenders, among other changes. She also responded to criticism that some of the program’s treatment methods, including the use of a penile sensory device for measuring deviant sexual arousal, are not effective and impede offenders’ progress toward release.

“I would argue vehemently that MSOP is working constantly to move people and provide them with the tools to be successful …” Hebert said in her testimony. “Clients are changing and moving through the program.”