Uncivil Commitment
One of the foundations of a civilized society is the concept that people who do wrong need to be held accountable for their crimes. What naturally follows from that precept is that once a person has successfully paid society back by serving their prison sentence, they have earned the right to be free and return home.
What would you think about a slick scam that legally circumvented such justice? A system where, after serving years in prison and mere days before being released, the state went back to a new court and a different judge to seek an additional sentence that would keep that individual incarcerated for the rest of their life? This is what the criminal justice system calls “civil commitment” and it is quietly still occurring in over 20 states.
If the moral injustice of this doesn’t upset you, maybe this will help: Civil commitment costs state taxpayers between $100,000.00 – $268,000.00. Per year. Every year. Per person. For the rest of the inmate’s natural life. In Minnesota, more people have died in civil commitment then been released. There are nearly 7,000 souls being held captive under civil commitment sentences in the 20 states that still have these laws, and because so few ever get released, this number only increases.
Civil commitment is additional incarceration, often for an “indeterminate” period of time, after a person has served their entire prison sentence for a sex offense. People are housed in a prison-like facility with chain-link fences topped by razor wire and patrolled by uniformed armed guards, background checks for visitors, monitored phone calls & mail and numerous other restrictions. The only difference between a prison and a commitment facility is a prisoner has a scheduled release date.
For additional information on civil commitment, please visit www.cure-sort.org or www.aiustfuture.org. For specific information about stopping Minnesota’s civil commitment program, visit endMSOP at Facebook, or email [email protected].
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Decades ago, there was a movie, Midnight Express, about the true story of Billy Hayes who was caught smuggling drugs out of turkey. He was sentenced very harshly and had a corrupt attorney. After serving many years, his sentence was increased. Somehow, he escaped and the movie audience applauded. We all considered it to be a happy ending. Can you see the parallel to the U.S.’s justice system? I pled guilty to some charges that I did not know about and were false. My attorney should have told me of those charges. He also claimed to have never lost a case, one of many lies. He demanded the equivalent of $37,000 (today’s money) and spent less than 8 hours on my case. He refused to return any funds.
We need to understand that in today’s world, justice and restoration is primarily a thing of the past. Some may knock me for my reliance on God’s Word which is where both justice and restoration reside. After grappling with my faith after my wife’s death, I was able to recover…not in a church…but while incarcerated where we…all the ‘bad guys’ got together to pray daily, and a group of real Christian men came to us through the Kairos program and restored me to the knowledge of the blessings I had received throughout my life. My children and their families now live in Brevard County and one of my aims is to be a good father, neighbor, and church member in the eyes of God and my dearly departed wife. If we rely on the justice and restoration of man, we lose. If we put God and His people into the equation, we win. I now live the life of a winner thanks to God and the people he has put into my life. Florida Action Committee is one of those blessings.
This offender was just released from prison in June 2022. His arrest was for failure to update his drivers license within 48 hours, per the registry statute. However, since COVID, the DMV has not accepted walk-ins and instead requires an appointment. These appointments are taking months to obtain. Certainly no one is obtaining one within 48 hours. So isn’t impossibility a defense to this bogus hold-over charge while they “look for actual victims”?
Yes, your right on the money! Bogus charges just to lock him up.