Sex-offender treatment facility could soon release some offenders

2-16-2010 Minnesota:

Shannon Fiecke of the Shakopee Valley News reports:

As Scott County tries to civilly commit a seventh resident to the state’s sex-offender treatment facility, it is preparing to possibly take one back.

The county has been told it might receive one of the first waves of patients ever to be released from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.

More than 550 Minnesotans are housed at the program’s two facilities — mostly paroled sex offenders who were indefinitely committed for treatment by the courts.

In the 14 years since the program opened a facility in Moose Lake to treat civilly committed sex offenders, none have been released.

This could change soon, as approximately six offenders are expected to be returned to their communities fairly soon, Scott County Human Services Director Tim Walsh told county commissioners last week. One may live in Scott County.

The county is working with its state association to clarify the state law for who will be charged with overseeing the patients upon release.

It is unclear who is required to supervise the patients and plan their aftercare — the state or the counties.

While the issue may seem trivial now, it could become a substantial burden for Scott County as numbers of released patients grow, Walsh said.

“We’re not in a position to provide that kind of supervision,” he explained.

Scott County Administrator Gary Shelton said the first releases could come in 18 to 24 months.

With the sex offender program rapidly outgrowing its facilities and concerns mounting about the constitutionality of a program that is supposed to be treatment-orientated, but some say is more like a prison, county officials believe there could be even more releases.

“They’re going to be pressured to push people out the door,” Walsh said.

HISTORY OF FACILITY

Scott County has civilly committed six people to the state program since 2005 under Minnesota’s Sexually Dangerous Persons or Sexually Psychopathic Personalities laws.

Minnesota has had a civil commitment law for these types of people since the 1930s, but it was not until the 1990s that laws were revised and more widely implemented, according to the Department of Human Services. The population has more than tripled in the past 10 years.

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program opened at Moose Lake in 1995. Prior to that, individuals with a history of sexually offending behavior were committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter under the Psychopathic Personality Law.

The sex-offender program is rapidly running out of room. Although a new complex opened in July, it is expected to reach maximum capacity in 2012. The Department of Human Services is requesting an $89 million expansion to provide 400 more beds.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday proposed more than doubling recommended sentences for first-degree criminal sexual offenders. Minnesota courts typically impose a 12-year sentence, with defendants released for probation after 8 years.

If approved, Pawlenty’s proposal would reduce demand on the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, where civil commitment costs run $325 per day vs. $63 for prison.

RELEASE PROCEDURE

To be discharged from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, a patient must petition and receive approval from the Supreme Court Appeal Panel, said Terry Gunderson, communications director for the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Patients also require court approval to be placed into a program that prepares them for eventual release.

Currently, four sex-offender patients have successfully petitioned the court to move into the transitional service. No one has been approved for total discharge, however. ..Source.. Mathias Baden