Judge orders change, Minn. sex offender program remains same

By Don Davis
Forum News Service
ST. PAUL - A federal judge’s pressure on Minnesota officials to change how the state deals with sex offenders does not appear to be producing results.
Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday that he does not expect this year’s Legislature to act on the situation, and legislative leaders Friday showed no indication the governor is wrong.
That comes after Judge Donovan Frank wrote in a court order: “The time for legislative action is now.”
If state leaders do not take action, Frank could take control of the Minnesota sex offender treatment program, where serious sex offenders are kept in prison-like settings after serving their prison sentences. Former Minnesota Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and others who are urging lawmakers to act say Frank could order changes in the program - changes that could result in much higher costs to the state - or he could order the release of at least some sex offenders.
Just one sex offender has graduated from the program, leading to a lawsuit by others who say the program is more prison than treatment.
House Speaker Paul Thissen, D-Minneapolis, downplayed the possibility that Frank will take over the program. He said that Frank’s order for the state to fund four experts’ study of the program should take some time, and lawmakers may not need to act right away.
However, he and House Majority Leader Erin Murphy, D-St. Paul, said they hope for a bipartisan agreement on the issue.
That does not appear close. House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said he thinks the current program is constitutional, although he could support some changes.
Since Democrats control the House, Senate and governor’s office, Daudt said, they are the ones who should lead on the issue.
Murphy said that state leaders not agreeing on the solution hurts their efforts.
“When people chose to politicize this issue, it tends to confuse Minnesotans,” she said.
Dayton blamed House Republicans for failure to come together, adding, “I don’t think anything else is going to happen this session.”
“It is not going to proceed without broad bipartisan support,” Dayton told reporters Thursday. “It is just not going to happen now. ... We will come back next session, if I am still around.”
However, he added, Frank could take away Minnesota’s options before next year.
Daudt said Democrats may not have come up with a plan, but he thinks he knows their desire: “They seem set on letting these people out.”
Frank issued his latest order five days before the Legislature convened last month.
“If the evidence requires it, the court will act,” Frank wrote. “But it is the Minnesota Legislature that is best equipped to develop policies and pass laws - within the limits of the Constitution - that both protect public safety and preserve the rights of the class.”
How to deal with sex offenders has been a major state Capitol issue since University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin was kidnapped from a Grand Forks, N.D., mall on Nov. 22, 2003. The next April, her body was found near Crookston, Minn. A sex offender who had served his prison time was convicted of her kidnapping and murder.
The crime set Minnesota politicians on a quest to find ways to keep sex offenders behind bars longer. One of the ways was to make more use of an existing program that allows county prosecutors to ask judges to put offenders into the treatment program. The program is housed at state hospitals in Moose Lake and St. Peter.