Appeals court: Minnesota sex offender program constitutional
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, reversing a lower-court judge who said it violates offenders’ rights because hardly anyone is ever released.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state, which argued that the program is both constitutional and necessary to protect citizens from dangerous sexual predators who would otherwise go free. The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court.
Seven offenders are currently free on provisional releases from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, and only one has been permanently discharged, even though the program is more than 20 years old. That led U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in 2015 to declare the program unconstitutional and order changes to make it easier for people to get on a pathway for release. As of Tuesday, 721 people were being held under the program.
The appeals court ruled that Frank erred in finding the program unconstitutional, saying he held the state to an overly high standard when he declared the program shocked the conscience. The panel concluded that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that any of the state’s actions or shortcomings in the program “were egregious, malicious, or sadistic as is necessary to meet the conscience-shocking standard.”