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Governor Explains Why the Minnesota Sex Offender Program Is a Crock

Defending the constitutionality of civil confinement, Mark Dayton exposes the fallacy at its core. By Jacob Sullum | 6.25.2015 11:02 AM Last week U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank ruled that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), which civilly confines people after they have completed their criminal sentences, violates the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton disagrees, but his defense of the program exposes the fallacy at its core. “It’s really impossible to predict whether or not [sex offenders] are at risk to reoffend,” Dayton says. “So the more protection you can give to the public, as far as I’m concerned, given their…

“Release American Citizens from Double Jeopardy Punishment”

The following post is from a letter to Virginia State Delegate Jennifer Carroll-Foy from Dr. Bernida Thompson. Dear Delegate Jennifer Carroll-Foy, You were great on the June 3rd Townhall. I appreciate your vigor for justice, especially for people of color. I am an African American citizen, and my family along with countless others that are in your area are crippled by the unjust civil commitment law which keeps our sons, fathers, husbands, and loved ones tied up indefinitely with physical and psychological punishment for imaginary future sex crimes that they might commit. I join the townhalls, and I bring attention…

Shadow Prisoner Stabbed 14 Times at VCBR Facility

By John Powers. Jun 12, 2020 On the day of June 11, 2020 a person being held at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR) stabbed a fellow inmate fourteen times during their line up for their daily pill calls. The victim was stabbed behind the ear and back repeatedly. The victim was soon rushed to a nearby hospital to get stitches. Piedmont Regional Jail has the alleged assailant being held on assault by wounding with stab cut wounds and he is also charged with a misdemeanor according to officer D Wade. The alleged assailant was transferred from VCBR to…

Pre-Crime Preventative Detention Systems in 2018

United States Map Pre-Crime Preventative Detention Systems 2018 SOCCPN Annual Survey Data

Obscure New Jersey “Treatment” Facility Has a Higher COVID-19 Death Rate Than Any Prison in the Country

By: Jordan Michael Smith. Jun 04, 2020 The detainees already completed their criminal sentences—but they are prevented from leaving for years. And with the coronavirus spreading, their lives are at risk. This story was produced in collaboration with Type Investigations. With its innocuous name, the Special Treatment Unit (STU) sounds like a hospital. It’s a building in Avenel, New Jersey, housing 441 “residents,” as it calls them. It has what state officials have described as a “comprehensive treatment program” with cognitive behavioral therapy delivered by mental health experts. But the STU is actually a prison in all but name—it’s run by the…

U.S. sex offense policy: The next “surveiller et punir”

Presentation summary The legacy of the 40-year-long sex panic in the U.S. is a vast regime of draconian penalties and “management” of “sex offenders” – a category including anyone from consensual teen lovers to armed rapists. Along with long prison sentences, the sex offender registry, and restrictions on residency, work, recreation, travel, and family life, a crucial element of the regime is “sex offender treatment.” Based on the notion that “sexual offending” is a unique, incurable disorder, which must be “contained” to protect the community, especially children, from predation, such treatment is anything but therapeutic. It is coercive, moralistic, often…

“Death Sentence” — Across U.S., COVID-19 takes a hidden toll behind bars

COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in U.S. jails and prisons, but testing of inmates and staff remains spotty and many confirmed cases are going unreported. The resulting lack of data has deep implications for the fight against the virus, because prison outbreaks can move easily to surrounding communities. By PETER EISLER, LINDA SO, NED PARKER and BRAD HEATH Filed May 18, 2020, 11 a.m. GMT When COVID-19 began tearing through Detroit’s county jail system in March, authorities had no diagnostic tests to gauge its spread. But the toll became clear as deaths mounted. First, one of the sheriff’s jail commanders died; then, a deputy in a…

Covid-19 Advocacy at ‘gulag:Moose Lake’

Advocates living behind the walls at gulag:Moose Lake have been speaking out about the acute danger to shadow prisoners in Minnesota from the novel coronavirus. Here we have assembled 3 letters to Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minnesota), 1 letter from advocates on the inside to facility staff in gulag:Moose Lake and St. Peter, and 1 memo from the facility administration pretending they’re doing something about the problem. No one deserves to die from Covid-19 behind bars. Sadly, that is already happening because callous administrators and public officials have failed to act to protect this vulnerable population. Jails and prisons have been…

Texas Coronavirus Advocacy Letter to Gov. Abbott

Amid the public health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, Just Future Project united with a broad coalition of civil rights and human rights organizations to call on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to reverse his dangerous reduction of protections for people in the criminal legal system. Read the letter below. Download the PDF file .

Coronavirus kills one, infects another, in Florida sex offender treatment center

Residents of the Arcadia facility are held in confinement under the Jimmy Ryce Act, which forces sex offenders into treatment if experts believe they’re likely to commit another sex crime. The Florida Civil Commitment Center is a treatment center in Arcadia for sex offenders held involuntarily by the Jimmy Ryce Act. [Google Earth] By Kathryn Varn Published Yesterday A resident in a sex offender treatment facility has died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Another resident is sick with the disease. The outbreak is taking place in Florida’s Civil Commitment Center, a privately run treatment facility in DeSoto…

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