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"Locked in Limbo" series keeps readers in limbo

By Mark Obbie

Larry Oakes takes a skeptical look at a newsworthy topic: the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, an unusually extensive and long-running system of civil commitments of sex offenders to prison-like treatment centers. The three-part Star-Tribune series ends today after casting light on the problem but with more he said/she said than clear insight into the problems and potential solutions. The stories raise important questions of efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness about a costly system that has yet to release anyone. The questions -- including, do the rules establish a logical system of selecting detainees? what will it take for offenders to get released? how can we tell if the program protects the public and reforms the inmates? -- cut more broadly than deeply, achieving a sense of balance but no real understanding about whether the problems demand solutions, and what those solutions might be. (Via Crime and Justice News)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).