Wonder what/who got to the Federal judge? I'd like to shake their hand!

I wish I had their pull! Sending kudos to them! My son has never ever been diagnosed with any type of mental disorder. However that is what they are trying to prove so they can say he is "likely to re-offend". Any other offense the ACL would be all over them holding him for over a year beyond his out date. Was a difficult day yesterday trying to be Thankful but we got through it.

Ditto!

The federal district court out of St. Louis, Missouri also sided with those civilly committed in that the state is depriving them statutorily required treatment in violation of their 14th Amendment rights and liberties, though the court did not address the specific issue of whether indefinite civil commitment is unconstitutional.

You know I know this is an entirely different thing but back in the day when they had debtors prison it was a form of civil commitment and many times for life. People were committed for owing debts and put in prison until they paid the debt. Really dumb, huh? Some were lucky and someone on the outside that would eventually pay the debt and then the person could be released but many died in prison. The reason I bring this up is because in those days owing and not paying debt was a shunned thing - you would lose friends and family and of course everything you owned. Many times debtors were the victims of vigilantes and if you were the creditor you could sometimes "take a pound of flesh"

Debtors prison was outlawed and mentioned in the Constitution of the United States. To me this is more a recognition not that not paying your debts is acceptable but that that lifetime civil commitment with no path to achieve freedom is unconstitutional. I do not see how they can alter the law to ever be constitutional.

This of course is different from a felony that results in lifetime imprisonment. That does not fall under the civil umbrella. They would also have a really hard time making the assessment that you MIGHT commit another crime result in a new felony and lifetime imprisonment.

Not that any of this is right, because it is not, but it would be far easier to handle if they treated all people who commit crimes the same way, i.e. have them register as a murderer, thief, and so on, and civilly commit them on some hypothetical claim that they "might" re-offend sometime in the future. Of course, if they did these things, politicians would come under fire and not get re-elected, so they just target a specific class of those who commit criminal acts.

Donna:

May I ask in what state they are keeping your son longer than his sentence? In what places are they doing this? I mean what states? That is absolutely horrible and I really hope that things improve for you soon. My husband was supposed to parole about 1 month ago but the parole restrictions (here in Illinois) basically make it impossible. So he is probably staying another 6 months, but in Illinois I have never heard of them arbitrarily prolonging someones sentence. And I know how painful the prolonging, and adding onto can be.

Anybody else:

Also does anyone have any idea about who actually gets this horrible civil commitment package? I mean is this actually something that is applied to a small number of people? Is it only with many offenses? Or is it, as I fear it is, being applied to many people? This stuff is so scary! It makes me afraid to move to MN and I'm interviewing for a job their in January.

I am not sure about other states, but Missouri is certainly one state that takes someone from prison and puts them in jail to wait their civil commitment hearing, which can take two or more years to occur though state law says it is suppose to occur in ninety days.