Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Lawmakers take hard look at sex offender program

by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio

February 8, 2011

St. Paul, Minn. — Several participants in Minnesota's sex offender treatment program could be freed by Minnesota courts this year. That has lawmakers evaluating the benefits, and costs, of the state's program to keep sex offenders locked up, even after they leave prison.

During a House committee hearing Tuesday at the Capitol, officials said they're concerned about public safety, but also worried about skyrocketing costs.

Right now, the state has about 605 former prisoners locked up in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, which has facilities in St. Peter and Moose Lake. The program is meant to offer treatment to the most dangerous sex offenders -- or at least keep them off the streets.

"They have an average of 16 victims. They aren't one-time offenders," said Dennis Benson, director of the program. "They are people who have long histories, and very complex profiles."

At least seven of those offenders are in the process of being released from the state hospital in St. Peter. Two of them could be released as early as this spring.

"We know how incredibly sensitive this issue is. I think these are part of the population that the public is genuinely afraid of," said Benson. "We want to reassure, to the extent that it is reasonable, that we are going to do everything we can to protect public safety."

But lawmakers reviewing the program during Tuesday's hearing questioned whether more could be done to protect the public.
 
"I am talking about chain gangs, where they do strong, physical labor. Which is one of the best medicines for deviant behavior."
- Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe
"I am talking about chain gangs, where they do strong, physical labor. Which is one of the best medicines for deviant behavior," said Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, who added that the state should even consider castration.
"It sure worked on the farm."

The number of civilly committed sex offenders in Minnesota has tripled since 2003, when North Dakota college student Dru Sjodin, was kidnapped and killed by a recently released Minnesota sex offender.

The program now costs more than $67 million a year. Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, said it's one of the fastest growing expenses in the state.

"Many people like to ignore that fact, like to point to health care and other things. But this is one of the fastest growing areas. It's a very expensive per-person, per-day program," said Berglin.

Total costs run about $328 a day for each person for 2011.

It's also one of the most politically charged issues in state government.

Republicans like House Public Safety Committee chairman Tony Cornish, of Good Thunder, say the long-term solution is to simply extend prison sentences for crimes already on the books, to keep future offenders in prison -- which is cheaper.

"Right now, politicians can't be too hard on sex offenders. It's just a basic fact," said Cornish. "But with the hard way we approach it, we know that we have to pay for it. So we're up against a wall here, because our citizens are saying, 'Are you kidding? You're going to release these two guys?'"

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a similar argument. A report by his administration drew further scrutiny after it was revealed that Pawlenty's Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman removed references to non-custody programs for offenders from the report -- programs that are potential cost savers.
Ludeman, now secretary of the Republican-controlled Senate, said it wasn't a political decision. He said he was managing the expectations for his department.

"When we get into the community supports, and education, and a lot of things that would potentially have a long-term impact on the cost, were not something that DHS alone was able to accomplish. I wanted the report to reflect that nor not say anything about that," said Ludeman.

DFLers, though, said Republicans were simply trying to look tough on crime, at the expense of taxpayers.

Sen. Berglin said there may be ways to keep people safe and save money at the same time.

"I believe that there are some people that should be committed on more of an outpatient basis," said Berglin. 

"I'm not saying for everybody. But some people -- I believe with home monitoring techniques and community-based services, we could protect the public safety at a lower cost."

Officials who run the program told lawmakers today that it in the future, it won't just be a financial problem. The program is projected to run out of space in 2013, and it may eventually run afoul of the courts if no one ever completes treatment and gets released.

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"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
* * * *
“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.


But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?


All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution


Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
* * * *
What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
* * * *
“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
* * * *
I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”