Never heard of Involuntary Civil Commitment? A rose by any other name is still a prison

 20 states, the District of Columbia and the Federal System place people accused of sex related crimes in Involuntary Civil Commitment.  (Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia have enacted laws permitting the civil commitment of those forensically evaluated as "dangerous.")

These states get around having to respect peoples rights under the constitution by claiming Involuntary Civil Commitment "Facilities" are not prisons and therefore are not "punishment" for the sex offenders forensically "evaluated" and sent there sometimes before they have even been  actually convicted of any sex related crime. But adjudicated or unadjudicated the legislatures in these 20 states have statutes which allow "Forensic" Psychological evaluators to label inmates of these facilities as SVP (sexually violent predators) and other "diagnosis" which conform to the legislative construct rather than to any actual DSM psychiatric diagnosis (the American Psychiatric Association  has come out against these state sponsored forensic "diagnosis" as Unethical) 

Dennis Doren who, as they say "wrote the bible"  Evaluating Sex Offenders, A Manual for Civil Commitment and Beyond,  admits his made-up diagnostic labels are unethical (because they don't diagnose any real problem. They just claim someone may be "dangerous to themselves or others and may commit unidentified action in future. But, never the less Doren urges more "forensic evaluators" to get on board (it's a very lucrative field) These dangerous faux-evaluations keep/ send people with sex related convictions (or presumed future actions) inside non-prisons even after they've served their prison sentences. For those of us "on the registries" in one of the 20 states, it also means that should your loved one be deemed to have violated the rules and restrictions of the Registry, they might not be sent back to prison, but could be sent to one of these Involuntary Civil Commitment "facilities.  

But these "facilities do not require a conviction or term of incarceration. Simply put, anyone sent to Involuntary Civil Commitment is incarcerated only with a Forensic Label NO life , no life-with-out  sentence required: the forensic evaluations labels mean your loved one has an sentence of "Indefinite Detention. Put plainly, people are more likely to "be set free" in a pine box than to actually live to be set free from one of these involuntary civil commitment "facilities". 

Please download and READ the report : Treatment Industrial Complex: How for profit prison corporations are undermining efforts to treat and rehabilitate Prisoners for corporate gain. (ufsc.org/sites/default/files/documents/TIC-report-online.pdf ) Or for more information please contact American Friends Service Committee ( clsaacs@afc.org.org ) or (520) 623-9141 

I once thought just getting rid of  prejudice against us and our families / finally making it off  parole/ off state Registries was what family and friends on the "outside" needed to strive for but more states than "just" these 20 states have passed legislation enabling the spread of "Involuntary Civil Commitment" so perhaps to your state is next on the for-profit list using incarceration and faux therapy of human beings as a means not to make anyone "safe" but as an ever broadening income stream and a means of pleasing "stockholders" at our expense?  

Isolation kills even years and years later,

Even after you've been "on the registry" with your "significant other" for as long as I have been.
I guess I just forgot how many others are coming up, having to deal with the labeling and the shunning, the prejudice that ignites lynch mobs and makes even family members turn against each other. Today I got an email from a woman whose husband is just starting the (endless) legal process from arrest to conviction to the Registry. I tried to reach out and offer some comfort. I try to provide some help to frightened people just experiencing the "knock on the door." and frightened of what comes next. I try not to be too blunt about the "system." They need encouragement to face what comes next. To face the education they are about to receive about how the "system" really works.

I've (and my husband) have been "on the registry" for years now. My husband was convicted in 1976 just after her returned from Vietnam. When he got out of prison there wasn't even a "Registry." just the usual parole supervision which worked pretty well to protect children and help people change.

But, after all these years of "social isolation" it's still lonely. Oh, I have good friends, some of whom "know" but most I met at work  or in other situations where I was living a sort of  compartmentalized life. "On the registry" friends in  one segment of your life know only your public "self." I have other friends who only know my husband has been in prison (a shaming enough admission for some to decide they didn't want to know me/us)

People you like and trust in one setting may turn against you if they know about  the other "compartment" of your life (most have no idea what it means to "be on the registry." They rely on the prejudices they learned in the middle class society to "judge" people like us.) Even people whom I thought weren't prejudiced look at me differently when they learn my husband's on parole. Taking a chance on losing the few friends you have by "telling" your husband's not just a parolee but a Registrant is pretty scary and often a risk I don't want to take.

My husband is still on the Registry at 76. We still have monthly "visits" from Parole Officers and monthly visits to the Office of Parole and Probation. (He says he's tired of training newby parole officers) He's required to renew his drivers license every year.This year he had to get a "Real ID" / driver's license because the deadline to get a "Real ID "is Oct. 2020.  Luckily, we already had certified copies of most of the paperwork (birth certificates, etc.)  I dread to think what other registrants will go through if they are homeless/ just out of prison etc. or if they have to contact another state for their documents and must do that before some date set by P&P or risk being violated and sent back to prison ( in this state any violation is a felony carrying a 6 year sentence)

Because NV went from a risk based tier system to a system (the Adam Walsh Act) a system that assigns tiers based solely upon original conviction 2 years ago, my 76 year old husband suddenly went from tier 2 up to tier 3. This means he must go to the Sheriffs Dept and check in and give his fingerprints every 90 day (counting from his DOB)

Now that we're both "retired" we manage to get by but our financial situation would be a lot better if he had been allowed to work and earn without all the restrictions imposed  by the Registry.
We manage but we still must live in a parole and probation "approved" location and the rents here, as in most places around the country, are going up and up. If we can't live here, not only will we have to find a place we can afford, but a place they will allow us to live (and  HUD will not allow "offenders" or those with any felony conviction in any senior citizens housing. God help the homeless "registrant" )

You say, So What? He (and YOU) deserve what you get.
You say children's safety matters.
 I agree. No child's safety is expendable.

 But  there has got to be a better way than this endless piling on,  this endless punishing isolation.