The Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law released its report on sex offense civil commitment and MSOP (Minnesota Sex Offender Program):  Sex Offense Civil Commitment – Minnesota’s Failed Investment and the $110 Million Opportunity to Stop Sexual Violence.

 A broad coalition of people and organizations have stepped forward to support the report’s recommendations through a letter being sent to Governor Walz and members of the Minnesota legislature.  This letter is signed by prominent legal scholars and practitioners, mental health providers, policy experts, law enforcement members, human rights and civil rights advocates, criminal justice reform groups, and others committed to reducing sexual violence in Minnesota communities.

The report finds that Minnesota spends over $110 million per year to indefinitely confine many hundreds of people who have already served their criminal sentences.  The program’s massive scale makes it a national outlier.  While most states have no sex offender civil commitment at all, Minnesota commits the most people per capita of those that do.  It does this despite comprehensive evidence showing that such programs have no discernible impact on the incidence of sex crimes.  Minnesota’s lopsided investment thus wastes scarce resources while starving far more effective programs, including those that directly serve victims.  

Florida is one of the states that does have a civil commitment center.

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