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Virginia struggle with costs of sex offender civil commitment

By Douglas A. Berman

The Washington Post has this lenthy new article on sex offender civil commitment headlined "Cost to keep sexual offenders in check is escalating for Virginia." Here are excerpts: Virginia launched its program to keep sexual predators locked up once their prison sentences ended after learning that a serial child rapist who had kidnapped and brutalized a boy and then buried him alive might go free. Now, nearly a decade later, state legislators are struggling with the escalating cost of the program that has kept hundreds of dangerous felons detained at the same time the state is facing growing needs in education, health care and transportation. As of January, 252 sexual offenders had been indefinitely committed, costing taxpayers more than $100,000 per felon every year...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 22, 2011 (boomark / email).