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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for sex offenders (minnesota, u.s.)
3 results foundAuthor: Minnesota Sex Offender Program Title: Options for Managing the Growth and Cost of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program: Facility Study Summary: Throughout Minnesota, managing sexual offenders and combating sexual violence is a complex issue with a wide scope and multi-agency approach. For years, Minnesota has been a leader on many fronts in this area from specialized caseloads for supervision agents, to the development of one of the first actuarial risk tools in the field (MNSOST-R). The Minnesota Legislature has requested several studies related to sexual violence and sexual offenders in the past 15 years which is indicative of its commitment to continue to evaluate and strengthen current practice and to develop strategies consistent with advancements in the field. Many recommendations from these reports have been implemented and have resulted in an improved system. Minnesota is one of 20 states that enacted civil commitment statutes to indeterminately detain individuals for treatment to address their sexual dangerousness and as part of a broader strategy to manage the risks presented across the continuum of sexual offenders. The civil commitment program is expensive to maintain and the program continues to expand because more sexual offenders are entering than are being released. The cost and growth of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) continues to be an area of concern particularly given the current economic issues facing the state. Public safety cannot be compromised yet the growth of this program creates a strain on the state budget as the per diem for MSOP clients is $328 and projections indicate an expected annual growth of at least 50 additional clients. To address future growth and cost, the 2010 Legislature included a subdivision in the capital investment bonding bill requiring the commissioner of the Department of Human Services (DHS) to submit a report to the Legislature by January 15, 2011. The commissioner tasked MSOP with the completion of this study. MSOP then convened four topical teams to provide analysis and recommendations for sex offender treatment, the civil commitment process, sexual abuse perpetration prevention, and bed space options for MSOP clients. These other facets of this issue were incorporated in this study to paint a complete picture of the growth of Minnesota’s civil commitment program for sexual offenders and its subsequent need for expansion. Developing options to manage the growth and decrease the cost of MSOP was the charge for each topical team as they researched and provided analysis of their topic. The treatment topical team found treatment systems in Minnesota have the potential to further reduce the need for civil commitments and to help support the release of some civilly committed individuals if they have made sufficient progress to warrant any court ordered release to society from MSOP. This results in an increased reliance on community-based treatment to manage higher risk sexual offenders. To make this shift responsibly, Minnesota should work to strengthen its community-based treatment options in several ways. These changes will require additional resources but it is likely that these additional costs will be more than offset through reductions in expected future MSOP operating costs and capital costs associated with program expansions. The team that reviewed the current civil commitment process concluded these programs for sexual offenders are an expensive yet necessary tool in an effective, comprehensive statewide management strategy. The challenge for the State of Minnesota is to utilize MSOP efficiently while maintaining public safety in a fiscally responsible manner. Opportunities exist to impact the future cost and growth of MSOP by making modifications and revisions in the current process of civil commitment. Evaluating the application of commitment criteria in the referral process and considering options to indeterminate commitment would impact the number of new clients admitted to MSOP. Enhancing coordinated community-based resources would increase the ability to manage this challenging population at a decreased cost. Once modifications and new policies are in place, an ongoing evaluation of the statewide management system for sex offenders would assist in maintaining efficiency and better ensure public safety. Managing the growth and decreasing the cost of MSOP could be most effectively achieved if sexual abuse was prevented before someone perpetrated sexual harm. Prevention of sexual abuse perpetration was included in this study and report to illuminate the importance of preventing the creation of civilly committed sex offenders as well as preventing recidivism once MSOP clients are reintegrated into the community. By investing in a population-based public health approach to sexual violence prevention, Minnesota will be investing in long-term cost-savings for the state. A complex web of social norms, environmental factors, peer influence and individual decision-making that precedes an act of sexual violence. Ample opportunities for intervention and prevention exist. After reviewing several options for renovation and expansion, the bed space options topical team concluded that both a short-term and a long-term solution are needed to address the projected growth of MSOP. In the short-term, MSOP should work with the Minnesota Security Hospital to move clients out of the Shantz building on the St. Peter campus. This allows MSOP to request asset preservation funds from the Legislature to complete the infrastructure renovations of the Shantz building. This will increase the capacity of MSOP by 55 additional beds, which will accommodate MSOP’s bed space needs for one more year. This timing allows MSOP to review next year’s projections and develop a bonding request for the 2012-2013 legislative sessions. The low operating costs of this recommendation will assist MSOP in lowering the overall per diem. The long-term solution is the lowest on-going operating cost per client in adding a 400 bed living unit within the original design of the MSOP Moose Lake facility. This allows MSOP to take advantage of existing support infrastructure, security perimeter and administrative staff. The MSOP Moose Lake facility expansion also allows for building only 200 or 100 beds. The 200 bed addition would include adding only two of the five housing wings. The 100 bed option only builds one of the wings. These options will still require building the additional support infrastructure, but require less bonding dollars in the near term and still allow for the additional expansion of the other wings. Minnesota would do well to continue to strengthen its multi-faceted, multi-agency approach to the issue of sex offender management and also, in preventing sexual violence. In moving forward, Minnesota should create and fund an on-going entity to coordinate, assess and improve statewide responses to sex offender management as well as to identify new and emerging issues. As this report demonstrates, the issue of sexual violence is exceedingly complex and thus requires an approach equal in its complexity including prevention, intervention and response. It should be noted that the Office of Legislative Auditor (OLA) is in the process of conducting a program evaluation of MSOP. The OLA report to the Legislature will likely address some of these areas in further detail as well as provide suggestions and or recommendations for future direction. Details: St. Paul: Minnesota Department of Human Services, 2011. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 7, 2012 at: http://archive.leg.state.mn.us/docs/2011/mandated/110064.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://archive.leg.state.mn.us/docs/2011/mandated/110064.pdf Shelf Number: 127187 Keywords: Civil Commitment of Sex OffendersCorrectional SupervisionCosts of Criminal JusticePrisonersRisk AssessmentSex Offenders (Minnesota, U.S.)Sexual Violence |
Author: Minnesota. Department of Corrections Title: Minnesota Sex Offender Management: Final Report Summary: From 1988 through 2005, there were 12,038 convictions for felony-level sex offenses. Of these, 4,016 offenders were sent to prison and the remaining 8,022 were managed in the community. Throughout this period there have also been numerous policy changes, such as increased sentences and supervision requirements, which bring to the forefront a need for continued discussion on how best to manage this sex offender population. This is not the first time that Minnesota has studied and worked on the issue of enhancing management of the sex offender population. Studies since the mid-eighties have covered topics such as recommendations on increased sentencing, risk assessment and release procedures, creation of a civil commitment process for the highest-risk offenders, and enhancements to supervision, to name a few. With each effort, the criminal justice community gains knowledge and implements better management practices. While the Legislature was dealing with civil commitment of sex offenders in the mid-nineties, the issue of sex offender management through enhancements to supervision and treatment really started coming to the forefront in the late-nineties. One example of this was the passage of a pilot program in Dodge/Fillmore/Olmsted Community Corrections to increase supervision of sex offenders by reducing agent caseloads. At this same time, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) was directed to study sex offender supervision issues focusing on ways to improve supervision, increase public safety, reduce recidivism and report back to the Legislature by February of 2000. When Katie’s law passed in 2000, specific funding was allocated to enhance sex offender supervision statewide. Since then, public concern over sex offender issues has increased due to several high-profile sex offender cases. In 2004, Governor Pawlenty appointed a cabinet-level position responsible for heading up the coordination of sex offender management activities across agencies. At the same time, the DOC enhanced the process used for referring sex offenders for civil commitment and reviewed all management policies and procedures, making significant revisions. To help guide these efforts, the department partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Center for Sex Offender Management (CSOM); receiving both technical assistance and information on national best practices for sex offender management. In January of 2005, the Legislative Auditor completed a report reviewing the current state of sex offender management in Minnesota and made recommendations for change. At the time the re-port came out, the Legislature was already in the process of passing significant changes to sex offender sentencing and supervision laws. When the final bill passed in May of 2005, it included the directive to form a work group to study and report on many of the issues raised by the auditor (2005 Laws of Minnesota, Chapter 136, Article 3, Section 28). The Legislature directed the commissioner of corrections to establish a Working Group on Sex Offender Management to develop statewide sex offender management standards and best practices. The commissioner was directed to: Given the breadth of the 12 legislative directives, the commissioner decided early on to create four separate work groups that would address the following areas: • Adult supervision practices; • Juvenile supervision practices; • Assessment and treatment practices; and • Polygraph practices. By routing the 12 legislative directives through four groups, the commissioner was able to have work progress simultaneously on several different sets of standards and was also able to recruit a broader range of participation and expertise. Overall, there were more than 60 professionals with extensive experience in the field of sex offender management who participated in the work groups. The full membership convened periodically in general sessions to coordinate the efforts of the four smaller groups. At these all-day general sessions, the members reviewed the work of their peers and submitted recommendations and requests for further study. In this final report to the Legislature, the work groups have created two documents. The first includes a detailed history of sex offender initiatives, information on supervision, treatment, polygraph efforts, and resources for sex offender management in Minnesota. The second, Appendix H, highlights the efforts to establish standards and guidelines for providing the best services available to manage sex offenders. Details: St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Corrections, 2007. 189p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 10, 2012 at: http://www.doc.state.mn.us/publications/legislativereports/documents/SOreport02-07_000.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.doc.state.mn.us/publications/legislativereports/documents/SOreport02-07_000.pdf Shelf Number: 127192 Keywords: PrisonersSex Offender SupervisionSex Offenders (Minnesota, U.S.) |
Author: Minnesota. Department of Corrections Title: An Outcome Evaluation of Minnesota Circles of Support and Accountability (MnCoSA): Preliminary Results from a Randomized Experiment Summary: In 2008, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) implemented MnCoSA, a sex offender reentry program based on the COSA model developed in Canada during the 1990s. Using a randomized experimental design, the DOC evaluated the effectiveness of MnCoSA by conducting a cost-benefit analysis and comparing recidivism outcomes in the MnCoSA (N = 31) and control groups (N = 31). The average follow-up period for the 62 offenders in this study was nearly two years. KEY FINDINGS • Compared to sex offenders in the control group, MnCoSA participants had lower rates of recidivism for all five measures. o Rearrest: 39% MnCoSA vs. 65% Control No MnCoSA participants were rearrested for a new sex offense compared to one sex offender in the control group o Reconviction: 26% MnCoSA vs. 45% Control o New Offense Reincarceration: 10% MnCoSA vs. 26% Control o Technical Violation Revocation: 48% MnCoSA vs. 68% Control o Any Reincarceration: 48% MnCoSA vs. 61% Control • Participation in MnCoSA significantly decreased three of the five measures of recidivism. The reductions in recidivism risk were: o 62 percent for rearrest o 72 percent for technical violation revocation o 84 percent for any return to prison • Due to less recidivism, MnCoSA has reduced costs to the State of Minnesota. o MnCoSA has produced an estimated $363,211 in costs avoided o The benefit per MnCoSA participant is $11,716 o For every dollar spent on MnCoSA, the program has generated a benefit of $1.82 (an 82 percent return on investment). Details: St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Corrections, 2012. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 10, 2012 at: http://www.doc.state.mn.us/publications/documents/9-12MnCOSAOutcomeEvaluation.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.doc.state.mn.us/publications/documents/9-12MnCOSAOutcomeEvaluation.pdf Shelf Number: 127196 Keywords: Cost-Benefit AnalysisPrisoner ReentryRandomized ExperimentRecidivismSex Offender TreatmentSex Offenders (Minnesota, U.S.) |