Minnesota’s $100 Million-Per-Year Civil Commitment Program Has No “Discernible Impact” on Sex Crimes
A report released on April 16, 2024, concluded that Minnesota’s Sex Offense Civil Commitment (SOCC) program, which is operated by the state Department of Human Services at a cost of over $100 million per year, has “no discernible impact” on reducing sexual violence. Released by the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center (SOLPRC) at Mitchell Hamline University School of Law, the report concludes that Minnesota is wasting huge sums of money annually locking up a handful of people for political gain, rather than expending resources on methods proven to reduce incidences of sexual violence before they happen.
Minnesota is one of a handful of states that detains a small group of convicted sex offenders after their criminal sentences are completed. Under that state’s Sexually Dangerous Persons Act, a court may determine that the offender is likely to commit another sex offense if released due to a mental disorder or dysfunction—at which point he or she is transferred to SOCC after release from prison. These commitments are reserved for a small fraction of sex offenders deemed the “worst of the worst.” In fact, only 747 people are confined within secure facilities.
Unlike other states that permit civil commitment of sex offenders, Minnesota’s SOCC program does not regularly review detainee risk levels to assess the feasibility of transfer to less restrictive confinement. Even when a detainee is lucky enough to obtain the rare court order authorizing a less restrictive placement, it often takes years for a transfer from the secure facility to community-based detention. These factors combine to ensure that the state continues to spend large sums of money detaining a small group of offenders on the most restrictive, and therefore, most expensive prevention resource—total and indefinite confinement.
But sex offenders have an extremely low overall rate of recidivism. According to a 2019 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, only 7.7% of sex offenders committed another sex offense within nine years of release from prison. Minnesota’s recidivism rate is even lower—only 2.8% percent reoffend within four years of release. Other studies have found similarly low rates for both “low risk” and “high risk” offenders, meaning civil commitment provides only small reductions in already low recidivism rates.
In a 2013 study, Grant Duwe, Director of Research at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, estimated that civil commitment of sex offenders reduced the four-year sex offense recidivism rate from 3.2 to 2.8%. Thus, Minnesota spends $100 million per year to achieve a reduction in sexual offense recidivism of less than one-half of one percent.
The vast majority of sex offenses are committed by offenders without criminal records, at least for such conduct. Minnesota would do far better diverting money spent on SOCC to “more effective evidence-based sexual violence interventions,” the report declared, “such as primary prevention, adequate services for victims of sexual violence, and practices that improve perpetrator accountability.” The report concluded with a recommendation for Minnesota lawmakers to repeal SOCC and implement procedures to safely sunset all indefinite civil detention of sex offenders. However, the report authors acknowledged that this type of reform is extremely unlikely because lawmakers are unwilling to touch “a political third rail.” See: Sex Offense Civil Commitment, Minnesota’s Failed Investment and the $100 Million Opportunity to Stop Sexual Violence, SOLPRC (April 2024).
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login