Sex Offender Program May Need Some Rehab

4-20-2011 Minnesota:

ALBERT LEA, MN--As Freeborn County is getting another sex offender, state leaders are hoping the entire system will go under review.

Across Minnesota, mental health experts, prosecutors, and judges say the state may be wasting money by committing everyone as sex offenders, even when five men in the system were convicted of no crime.

The heavy security system costs $120,000 a year for each offender. And local law enforcement say the system, put in place in 1994, could probably stand some changes.

Chief Dwaine Winkels says, "Can it save money? Does it make a lot of sense to incarcerate an 89-year-old man that's not very mobile, or is he that great of a risk that he will harm someone? It only takes one victim to suddenly reverse the tale, 'Oh we need to do this'."

Winkels says this issue will be difficult to redefine at the state level. "The public and the government needs to ask itself, okay this program has been open since '94, not one individual that's been put in there has been cured, yet they keep receiving treatment."

Winkels says not all offenders can be painted with the same brush, but likewise he isn't promoting any of them moving into the Albert Lea area. ..Source.. by KIMT TV.com