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Minnesota considering returning to indefinite prison over civil commitment for some sex offenders

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this local Minnesota article, which is headlined "Bill seeks to keep sex offenders jailed," a state that pioneered determinate sentencing is thinking about a return to indeterminate sentencing for a notable class of offenders.  Here are the particulars: Minnesota's most predatory sex offenders, repeatedly branded "the worst of the worst," would be kept behind bars indefinitely under a bill moving through the Legislature.  Members of the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee unanimously approved a bill Tuesday to keep those offenders in prison instead of diverting them to a costly and controversial state program that has civilly committed hundreds of offenders in state treatment centers. Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, the bill's sponsor, said that asking Minnesotans what the state should do with sex offenders would produce three answers: "life without parole, castration or the death penalty...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 16, 2011 (boomark / email).