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He?s a Real Nowhere Man

By Eric L. Lipman

In an interesting unpublished opinion issued on Tuesday of this week, a unanimous panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a lower court?s dismissal of the habeas petition of one Jeffrey Alan Truelson and remanded his case for further proceedings.

Truelson, a Level III sex offender, had been detained in state prison during his supervised release period because serial attempts to find appropriate housing for him in the community had failed.

While current regulations provide for the detention of offenders who fail to ?cooperate? with official efforts to develop a housing plan (see here), the cases of offenders who are cooperative, but feared and without other apparent supports in the community, are more problematic.

Of particular concern to the appellate panel was the absence of a record ?that the department of corrections has considered whether Truelson should be placed in a residential treatment facility rather than continue with the so-far futile efforts to find housing for a level III sex offender in the Meeker County area.?

The panel?s analysis of these difficult problems is accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on April 12, 2008 (boomark / email).