NEWS

 Contact Sandy Rozek: communications@narsol.org

Minnesota’s mental disorder: civil commitment

09 August 2024

As well intentioned as state lawmakers are in protecting its citizens from harm, Minnesota fails in providing adequate sexual violence prevention. Rather than invest in proven primary prevention strategies, the state sinks virtually all of its sexual violence prevention capital in a failed civil commitment program.

In April, 2024, the Mitchell Hamline Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law released a report detailing the decades-long failures of the Minnesota Sex Offense Civil Commitment Program.

In response, the Center has issued a letter to the governor and state legislature of Minnesota, a letter signed by more than 50 organizations and individuals, members of the legal, mental health, public policy, law enforcement, human rights, civil rights, and criminal justice reform communities, all concerned about the need to reduce sexual violence. The letter calls for them to eliminate Minnesota’s sex offense civil commitment program and redirect its budget into evidence-based primary prevention programs.

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) fully supports this position and adds its voice to the call for Minnesota’s lawmakers to overturn this failed program.

The report cites research findings showing that the Minnesota Sex Offender Civil Commitment Program (MSOCC) has failed as a viable sexual violence prevention strategy. In spite of its consuming one hundred million ($100, 000, 000) dollars each year, research has found it has ““no discernible impact’ on the incidence of sexual violence” (p. 1).

The report’s findings include decades of deficiency in providing adequate living conditions, medical needs, protection, treatment, or results. It focusses on the prevention of a fraction of recidivist offenses. It fails to address the harm done by sexual violence and does nothing toward the prevention of such violence before it occurs.

The report claims, “Instead of asking ‘How can we best prevent incidences of future harm?’ the state has asked ‘How can we lock up the people we fear the most?’ ”

“I have to agree,” said Paul Shannon, a NARSOL board member who has worked closely with some of the detainees of the Minnesota SOCC. “When a state spends virtually all of its budget allocated for sexual violence prevention on a program shown to be so ineffective in addressing sexual violence prevention, it needs to take a long, hard look at what it is doing. As conscientious as Minnesota’s lawmakers are in fiscal responsibility, this is an area needing their serious attention. It should be disconcerting, also,” Shannon continued, “that more than five times the number of detainees have died while locked up than have been released from the program.”

“By contrast,” he added, “effective evidence-based prevention programs have been identified, programs that address sexual violence before it occurs, before harm occurs. The Minnesota civil commitment program has been plagued with problems and has been shown to be utterly wasteful, ineffective, and harmful from the onset. It is more than time that it is demolished. Today would not be too soon.”

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