Tag: Minnesota Sex Offender Program

This blog has previously mentioned the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, a program designed to hold former sex offenders after they have finished serving their sentences because the court believes they could be dangerous, and the fact that it has come under scrutiny. Several of the offenders who are trapped in this program have very little hope of getting out and they are arguing that their constitutional rights have been infringed upon.
It was after a class action lawsuit filed by inmates of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program argued that their indefinite civil commitment was a violation of their constitutional rights that a federal judge ordered the state to change the program. It was after a foreign court refused to extradite a man accused of a sex crime to Minnesota, however, that it truly became obvious how horrible the Minnesota civil commitment program truly is. Calling it a “flagrant denial” of the suspect’s human rights, the court would not send the man to Minnesota even though there was only a chance that he would be civilly committed.
For the first time since its inception, the Minnesota Sex Offender Program will release its first patient. According to a report by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a three-judge panel in Ramsey County decided to grant a provisional discharge to a 64-year-old man, after there was no objection from prosecutors or the Department of Human Services.
Recently, a conference was held at William Mitchell College of Law that discussed potential changes to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Commissioner Lucinda Jesson of the Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for carrying out the program, as well as legislators from both parties attended. The state is currently facing serious issues in the treatment of sex offenders.