Judge orders risk review of sex offenders in civil program

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A federal judge ordered a risk assessment Thursday of all sex offenders in Minnesota's restrictive civil confinement program to determine which can be put on a pathway for release.

Judge Donovan Frank laid out what he says must be done to fix problems with indefinite detentions that he earlier ruled unconstitutional.

His decision undoubtedly sets the stage for an appeal by state officials and lawyers, who argue they are properly holding more than 700 offenders they consider too risky to free.

Frank's ruling sets a swift timetable for state officials to carry out the review and start transferring lower-risk offenders. He says he could order further changes later. Frank also said if the state doesn't comply, he reserves the right to stop new commitments and hold the state in contempt.

"Given the (program's) decades-long history of operating an unconstitutional civil commitment program, the deeply systemic nature of the problems plaguing this state's sex offender civil commitment scheme, and the minimal progress made toward remedying any constitutional infirmities since the start of this litigation four years ago, the court concludes that it must exercise its broad remedial power," Frank said.

When he ruled the civil confinement program unconstitutional this spring, Frank stopped short of requiring the state to step in or shutting it down altogether, opting to lay out several options to bring the program into good standing. But those changes didn't come, as lawmakers fearful of appearing soft on crime declined to put up money for less-restrictive facilities.

Minnesota's treatment of sex offenders stands out among the 20 such programs across the nation. The state has the highest per capita lockup rate, and just a handful of offenders have been provisionally released to community-based settings in its 20-plus-year history. While offenders in California, Wisconsin, New Jersey and other states are allowed to re-enter society after completing treatment, no one has been fully discharged in Minnesota.

That's created an expensive program - $120,000 annually per detainee - and a constitutional problem of effectively creating life sentences for people who have fulfilled their criminal punishment.

"The state of Minnesota is not obligated to operate a civil commitment program for sex offenders," Frank said. "However, because this state has chosen to operate this system, it must do so in a constitutional manner and it must provide appropriate funding to support the program's constitutional operation."

In their class-action lawsuit filed more than four years ago, offenders likened their time at the two Minnesota facilities to a second prison sentence rather than the treatment programs they were designed to be.

The more than 700 offenders confined by court order in secure hospitals in Moose Lake and St. Peter that are ringed by razor wire. Each was deemed a "sexually dangerous person" prone to committing new offenses. In the program's 21-year history, just four people have been granted provisional release, according to the Department of Human Services.

Dan Gustafson, the lead attorney for the offenders, has urged Frank to require more-frequent risk evaluations and less-restrictive settings for offenders showing progress in controlling sexual impulses, including treatment outside of the razor wire ringing the Moose Lake and St. Peter facilities.

Sex offender programs in Missouri and Washington have also come under federal court scrutiny for failing to adequately move people toward release.