FW: NEW: Wall Street Journal article on Moose Lake and Civil Commitment laws
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From: William Dobbs <duc...@mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 9, 2023 at 1:15 PM
Subject: NEW: Wall Street Journal article on Moose Lake and Civil Commitment laws
To: Eldon Dillingham <eldoncdi...@gmail.com>
Wall Street Journal | Sep. 9, 2023
Some Question Laws That Allow Sex Offenders to Be Locked Up After Time Served
Proponents say civil-commitment programs protect the public; detractors argue they violate civil liberties
By Joe Barrett
Minnesota has 747 men in its sex-offender program, with most housed at this facility in Moose Lake, Minn. Photo: Martiga Lohn/Associated Press
A 27-year-old man was recently ordered to report to a remote, barbed-wire-encircled facility in Minnesota under a law that allows judges to lock sex offenders away to prevent crimes they have yet to commit.
Alec Ross Cook has never been convicted of a crime in Minnesota, but authorities determined he is a sexually dangerous person based on the record of crimes he was convicted of in Wisconsin, where 11 women accused him of stalking, strangulation and sexual assault.
Minnesota and 18 other states as well as Washington, D.C., have similar so-called civil-commitment laws that can effectively extend sex offenders’ time in state custody for decades—or even life—after they have served their sentences in prison.
Advocates say the laws protect the public from dangerous sexual predators and provide appropriate treatment. Opponents say the laws violate the basic legal principles of double jeopardy, are costly to administer and are aimed at people responsible for a tiny fraction of sex crimes. There is an effort by people in and outside the Minnesota program to end it.
“It is a definite balance between civil liberties and public safety,” said Shoba Sreenivasan, an adjunct clinical professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, who has been assessing sexual offenders for commitment to the California program for 27 years. She called such indefinite commitments “a very weighty thing.”
Cook was arrested in 2016 while he was a college student at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree sexual assault and one count each of stalking and strangulation. Prosecutors sought 19 years, but in 2018 a judge sentenced him to three years, drawing harsh criticism from several Wisconsin lawmakers.
Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections found that Cook didn’t qualify for its sex-offender program because the charges he pleaded guilty to don’t meet that state’s definition of a sexually violent person, so he was released from prison in 2021, said his Wisconsin lawyer, Jessa Nicholson Goetz. Cook was allowed to move back to Minnesota to be closer to his parents and serve out his probation there, said Bill Lubov, his Minnesota lawyer. He also signed himself into a residential sex-offender treatment program.
Once Cook was back in his home state, the Minnesota Department of Corrections launched its own review and recommended that prosecutors begin civil proceedings to have him declared a sexually dangerous person, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s office. During a three-week bench trial earlier this year, a district judge heard testimony from three experts, two of whom said he didn’t need to be committed and one of whom said he did, according to court records. Despite the trappings of a criminal trial, the civil-commitment proceedings have a lower burden of proof than criminal court.
Lubov said it is unusual for a person who isn’t in jail and has shown signs of an ability to avoid repeat offenses to be civilly committed.
When Alec Ross Cook moved back to Minnesota, the state Department of Corrections launched a review that recommended prosecutors begin proceedings to have him declared a sexually dangerous person. Photo: Ed Treleven/Associated Press
The judge saw it differently, citing the violent nature of his attacks—some of which lasted hours and left his victims with deep physical and emotional scars, according to their victim-impact statements. The judge also indicated that Cook wasn’t always honest with therapists and in court proceedings.
About 1,100 registered sex offenders are released from incarceration every year in Minnesota, and around 4% of those are ultimately committed to the program, said Nancy Johnston, executive director of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. “The program’s mandate is that we provide sex-offender-specific treatment to a pretty complex group of individuals that have quite a history of anti-sociality and pattern of sexual deviance,” she said. “They’re pretty high risk to reoffend for the most part, usually have multiple victims.”
Minnesota has 747 men in its sex-offender program, with most housed at a facility in Moose Lake, Minn. The budget for the program is $112 million for fiscal year 2024, according to its website.
Since its inception, the program has had 946 participants, including 94 who died in the program, officials say. There was only one provisional discharge before 2012. Since then, 21 have been fully discharged, 52 are living outside a facility under supervision and around 10 are waiting for housing under provisional discharge.
Critics say previously convicted sex offenders account for between 4% and 7% of people charged or convicted of sexual violence, citing various state-level studies.
In two cases in the 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld civil-commitment laws for sex offenders diagnosed with psychological abnormalities that pose a threat of future offenses, as long as the programs are therapeutic, not punitive, said Eric Janus, director of the sex offense litigation and policy resource center at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn.
“There’s so much manipulation of this idea of a mental abnormality,” Janus said. “It’s a very loosey-goosey standard, and almost anything goes.”
Nicholas Kimball, spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney’s office, said civil commitment is distinct from the regular legal process. “There are people who present a very clear and significant risk to the public and we have to take that seriously and do everything in our power to get them the treatment they need,” he said.
Eliseo Padron, 48, said he has been living in the Moose Lake facility since 2012. He says he was convicted of first-degree sexual assault against a 21-year-old woman and served six years in prison before being committed to the program as a sexually psychopathic personality and a sexually dangerous person after several parole violations. Court records indicate the attack was extremely violent and followed another assault by Padron when he was a minor.
He said he participated in the programs at the facility for about two years until, he said, he realized he would likely never get out of the facility.
“The reality is that only 20 people have gone home in 30 years and that’s not the greatest statistic in the world,” he said.
Johnston said that judges make the ultimate decision about who is committed and who is released from the program.
Padron is part of the group of people working to try to end the program through legislation they are drafting and hope to get introduced next year.
Steve Sandell, a former state representative who served two terms, said it could be an uphill battle. He tried to introduce a modest reform bill in 2022 that would reorient the program toward sexual-assault prevention, support and treatment, among other things, but was quickly shot down.
“The institution needs reform. The institution needs leadership. And it is a political football that nobody wants to pay attention to,” he said.
Write to Joe Barrett at Joseph....@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
Eliseo Padron has been living at the Moose Lake, Minn., facility for sexual offenders since 2012. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said he has been at the facility for 18 years. (Corrected on Sept. 9).
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS; Should states like Minnesota rethink civil commitment laws for sex offenders? If so, how? Join the conversation below.
Reader comments:
James Crawson 2 hours ago
The level of abuse and injustice that can come from civil confinement is head spinning. If you have issue with your local judicial process, bring it to your legislature. Empowering the judicial body with powers like these is two wrongs trying to make a right.
Daniel Fasulo 2 hours ago
Civil confinement seems unconstitutional. If the crimes warranted it, make the legal penalties harsher. The problem is that the label “sex offender” is so toxic that nobody will stand up on behalf of an individual who bears it.
Chris DiPetta 2 hours ago
I'm as in favor as you can be for severely punishing violent criminals.
However, we should all be very afraid if civil confinement is allowed to stand.
The next step in the logic of civil confinement could be confining "dangerous spreaders of misinformation" , to, you know protect the public.
The USSR had, and Russia still does to a smaller extent, an impressive number of mental institutions for their massive "civil confinement" program. .
Fred Lascom 2 hours ago
This sounds like a good method of confining the mentally ill homeless who refuse to continue taking meds. Right now, cops can only take them in if they are a danger to themselves or others (ie: wait until something really bad happens to someone), they go in for 72 hours, long enough to get back on meds, then release until the next time. In two cases in the 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld civil-commitment laws for sex offenders diagnosed with psychological abnormalities that pose a threat of future offenses, as long as the programs are therapeutic, not punitive.
Alan Brooks 2 hours ago
If it is couched as 'sexual assault' there isn't a politician in the country that will touch it. These men's only recourse is judicial and they won't get much help from elected DA's either.
Paul McMurry 1 hour ago
I'm all in favor of strong law enforcement - especially for violent crimes - but this seems unconstitutional and like a very slippery slope.
Wallace Schwam 1 hour ago
Some sexual predators feel that their confinement is necessary and have warned judges that they will become active again if they're ever released. Some will agree to take medicines to diminish their sex drive. There is no "one size fits all" solution to this problem.
James H 56 minutes ago
Yes there is. Keep them locked up.
David O’Flynn 1 hour ago
Let's just make them public school teachers. That'll fix it.
Roy Beatty 1 hour ago
As a 2A kind of guy, this article scares me because we also need to address mental illess and access to guns. I ask: once a fellow crosses the line, is there is no way to uncross it ?
Mental illness is ill-defined, with experts unable to agree on criteria, risks or likelihoods. These midwestern states show a disturbing willingness to stamp some offenders with a permanent mark of Cain. Many civil liberties live under the shadow of that axe.
James H 57 minutes ago
Child molesters and violent sex offenders are literally impossible to treat.
James H 58 minutes ago
Oh cool.
Since Soros prosecutors and defund the police have worked out so well, lets start letting out child molestors and violent sex offenders. Two of the crimes that have the highest rates of recidivism.
John Miller 40 minutes ago
I nominate that headline as the worst WSJ headline of the year and perhaps of all time. It doesn’t bode well for the paper or it’s readers.
William Burpitt 15 minutes ago
First, if recidivism was justification for continued incarceration, half of the prison population would be in the same boat.
Second, regarding the headline, starting with the all purpose "Some......" Somewhere there are "some" people who think and say very nearly everything. Generally, the term can be translated as "It is the position of this paper that....."
James H 8 minutes ago
Taking the risk on recidivism for a burglary charge is one thing.
For child rapists who are almost impossible to treat, it’s quite another.
