MIM Notes 189 July 1 1999

SKYROCKETING PRISON POPULATIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH:
STATES FIND NEW WAYS TO REINCARCERATE PRISONERS AFTER THEIR 
SENTENCES

by a comrade

At the end of May, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of 
the "Sexually Dangerous Persons Act," a legislative amendment 
allowing the state to commit so-called sex offenders in state 
hospitals after their prison sentence ends. It is up to the 
discretion of state-employed "experts" (psychologists and 
caseworkers) to determine whether or not a persyn is dangerous 
enough to warrant gaining what is obviously an extended prison 
sentence by another name.(1) The Minnesota court ruled that the 
act does not violate "due process" under either the United States 
or Minnesota constitutions.

This reactionary decision follows an April move by Missouri's 
house of representatives "to pass a bill that allows the Attorney 
General's office to review the cases of violent sexual offenders 
who have already been freed--and have them recommitted."(2) If 
recommitted, they would be incarcerated within state prisons in 
treatment programs run by the state Department of Mental Health.

Laws surrounding sex offenders are ostensibly based on "evidence" 
of disproportionate recidivism for these crimes, and the 
heinousness of sexually abusing a child. But using "Justice" 
Department statistics, the National Center on Institutions and 
Alternatives (NCIA) points out that persons convicted of sex 
offenses have lower rates of recidivism than other crimes.(4) And 
children (who these laws are supposed to protect) are at much 
greater risk of sexual abuse from family members than from 
strangers in their neighborhoods. The majority of the offenders, 
especially if they are white and protected by middle class, 
unrestrained parental power, are never caught. The patriarchal 
family, and an imperialist culture that sexualizes children and 
eroticizes power, is the real danger the public should be 
notified about!

The first state to enact legislation committing sex offenders 
past their prison sentences was Washington, in 1990. Throughout 
the decade, other states have adopted similar measures. The US 
Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of "indefinite 'civil' 
commitment of sex offenders" in 1997, in Kansas v. Hendricks, if 
it was for the purposes of treatment. Currently at least 18 
states have these laws.(3)

Other state laws literally make it impossible for freed sex 
offenders to leave prison at all. So-called community 
notification laws--which force convicted sex offenders to 
register with the police, have their names publicized in 
neighborhoods, school districts, and increasingly on the 
Internet--make it impossible to find safe housing. If landlords 
will even agree to rent, notified "communities" can quickly 
become lynch mobs. We read recently of a Wisconsin prisoner still 
living in prison after his release date because no landlord would 
rent him an apartment in the area!

Civil libertarians like the ACLU correctly oppose sex offender 
registries and post-incarceration confinement as violations of 
due process of law, and say that they open the door for the state 
to air and publicize all past criminal acts in public. MIM 
further opposes the psychologizing of gender oppression inherent 
in sex offender-specific laws mandating "treatment," and 
empowering psychologists to extend prison sentences in hospitals. 
Such treatment, incorrectly based on the individual and not on 
the social ill of child sexual abuse, is also used a tool of 
lifelong state supervision and surveillance.

In a 1996 MIM Notes article about the proliferation of "Megan's 
Laws" requiring sex offenders to register with the state, we 
wrote: "All of this legislating and posturing will not stop the 
abuse of children, a group highly sexualized in this society. In 
a culture in which power is eroticized, children are common 
victims of sexual violence since they are the most powerless 
group in society. This sexualization of children is obvious in 
pornography and general media representation. The sex offender 
scare-tactics reinforce incorrect analyses of rape, including 
rape of children. This use of gender to beef up the police state 
is a trade mark of pseudo-feminism. Pseudo-feminists make gender 
the principal contradiction and ignore the ramifications the 
legislation they advocate has for oppressed national 
minorities."(5)

Notes:
1. National Crime Victims Center 
(http://www.ncvc.org/flash/in_news.htm)
2. Missouri Digital News (http://mdn.org/1999/STORIES/CIVIL.HTM)
3. Institute for Law and Justice 
(http://www.ilj.org/sa/review_of_state_sexual_assault_l.htm)
4. National Center on Institutions and Alternatives 
(http://www.igc.org/ncia/ cns.html)
6. MIM Notes 116.