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1/4/2017 Court affirms constitutionality of sex -offender program in Minn. - StarTribune.com reforms designed to put less -dangerous offenders on a clearer path toward release. These included independent risk assessments of the roughly 720 offenders confined at secure treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter, and the development of more options for housing offenders in the community. The Eighth Circuit Court had stayed these reforms while Frank's decision was on appeal. The threat of more radical sanctions, including the possible shutdown of the program and release of hundreds of offenders, acted as a powerful incentive for state officials to make the program less punitive. A record number of detainees at the MSOP have been moved closer toward release, and a total of 89 are now in dormlike settings on the MSOP's St. Peter campus, the final step before release. However, with the ruling Tuesday, the MSOP will no longer be under constant pressure to demonstrate that its program is not just a punitive system for segregating offenders, say legal experts. "This is a train wreck for civil rights," said Warren Maas, an attorney who represents sex offenders. "My concern is that staff at MSOP will ... stop working as hard and just say, `We're going to let these guys sit because it's the easiest thing to do."' But in an interview Tuesday, Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper made it clear that her agency would continue with improvements at the MSOP, including pressing forward with millions of dollars in new infrastructure. In his bonding bill last year, Gov. Mark Dayton sought $12.4 million to build two facilities to house discharged sex offenders in the community, as well as $14.5 million to expand housing at a program at St. Peter designed to reintegrate offenders into the community. Dayton also sought funding to conduct more regular assessments of MSOP clients. For his part, Dayton said Tuesday that the ruling "means we can continue to make the reforms that we have started at our own pace ... rather than having it be done under a federal directive." While the governor's funding proposals failed last spring, Piper said she anticipates renewing them. "The need still exists. Nothing in this ruling will change the way we operate this program." Even so, the ruling may reduce pressure on Minnesota and other states to pursue reforms of civil commitment programs that hold offenders beyond their prison terms, said Eric Janus, a law professor at Mitchell Hamlin School of Law and author of a book on sexual predator laws. "This decision will send a signal to states that they don't have to worry too much about the federal courts looking over their shoulders," Janus said. "Essentially, the Eighth Circuit has said: We are washing our hands of any kind of meaningful oversight of this kind of post -prison confinement." Staff writer Ricardo Lopez contributed to this report. Twitter: @chrisserres chris.serres@startribune.com 612-673-4308 chrisserres http://www.startribune.com/appellate-court-affirms-constitutionality-of-minnesota-s-sex-offender-program/409518625/ 2/2