[Star Tribune] MN Sex Offender Treatment Program Unconstitutional

Read the Article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

What do you call a forced in-patient treatment program that has never successfully treated and released a patient?  Either it is a complete and utter failure or you call it what it really is, a prison.

That is the problem that Minnesota faces right now.  They have 605 sex offender inmates who have no pending charges or convictions.  They are not on probation.  In fact, all of these people have already been convicted and served their debt to society.  However, some feel that is not enough.

Rather, Minnesota is holding them for what they might do.  While both state and federal courts have called this dubious decision constitutional, they have only done so as “treatment.”  Otherwise, the program would be considered unconstitutional.  Which takes me back to my initial point.  If there has been no successful treatment, then it is nothing but incarceration.  You doubt me?

Minnesota started its Sex Offender Treatment Program in 1994.  While it currently has 605 inmates, it is growing by about 50 a year.  They are held at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter and also at a facility in Moose Lake.  However, both are running out of space.  St. Peter is looking to expand its facility by an additional 55 beds while Moose Lake is seeking to expand by some 400 beds.  At a cost of about $96,000 per inmate per year, this is not a cheap proposition.  The total cost is at least $67 million this year alone.

And how successful has the treatment been?  Not one person forced into the Sex Offender Treatment Program has ever been released.  I repeat, not one!

As we speak, one man is trying to be the first person ever released from the program.  Admittedly, he has done some horrible things but has been held for decades and has done everything, everything, asked of him.  However, while the Special Review Board may go along with the release,  MN Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jenson opposes the release.  Frankly, she is a politician and nobody wants this albatross around their neck if things go south.  

But that is the ultimate problem.  Again, nobody denies what these inmates have been convicted of.  Again, they have done some pretty terrible things.  As a result, the standard refrain seems to be “lock em up and throw away the key” or “shoot them out of a canon.”  Of course, these arguments are irrelevant to the point at hand.  

It is not about what one should do to those who commit these types of crimes in the first place.  If Minnesota thinks they should never see the light of day, the Legislature should consider that issue.  This is about what we as a society should do once they people have fulfilled those obligations.

At the end of the day, if Minnesota continues as they have done for the last 16 years and hold these people forever, the Courts will see this for what it is, a prison.  When that happens, this entire system will, justifiably so, be shut down.

Then what do we do? 

Read the Article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.