I can see why Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is busy figuratively pulling the plug on the "...two dozen 50-inch flat-screen TVs from a Moose Lake sex offender treatment program...", 25 TVs for $1,500 apiece, $700 for each individual mounting bracket.
This program is costing Minnesota taxpayers 67 million dollars annually.
I'm certain the resale of the televisions in question will recoup some of the costs accrued back in 2008.
• Taxpayers have spent at least a half-billion dollars on the MSOP and the commitment system feeding it, but the program can't point to the successful treatment of a single offender.
• Each "patient" costs taxpayers $134,000 a year -- three times the amount state prisons spend to treat sex offenders. Yet the state has only about 300 adult treatment beds in prison, while the MSOP has plans to double its 400-bed capacity.
• The MSOP deals with less than 3 percent of Minnesota's 20,000 predatory offenders but consumes more than half of what the state spends yearly to control and track them.
• The MSOP's budget, which has tripled since 2004, is more than seven times the amount the state spends to monitor the 3,500 sex offenders on probation. The state spends less to keep 31 offenders on electronic home monitoring each year than it does to keep just one offender in the MSOP.
"It's just an awful lot of taxpayer money for what we're getting,'' said Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, chair of the budget division of the Health and Human Services Committee, which oversees the program's funding. "We've cut everything else in God's green Earth, but we've spent a lot of new resources on this group. They go in but they don't come out."
Ratcheting up
The MSOP was created to treat small numbers of the state's worst sex criminals. But the killing of Sjodin prompted officials to begin committing soon-to-be-released prisoners at a much higher rate, from an average of 15 per year before 2003 to 50 per year since.
That same year, Gov. Tim Pawlenty prohibited releases not required by law or court order. His order came after then-Attorney General and eventual gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch accused the administration of planning releases to save money.
(...)
Pawlenty declined to discuss the program with the Star Tribune. The governor's order barring releases remains in effect, Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said late last month.
(...)Locked in Limbo, The Star-Tribune (9/16/2008)
The ban is still in effect and the costs continue to rise. Read more about Difficult Decisions over at Change Happens: the SAFER Blog.
4 comments:
If they have so much extra money to spend they sure can send it here to Florida. The new facility GEO built here only cost a
fraction of that amount and the money spent by the state per resident is the least of just about every state. The conditions at FCCC are horrible, the animals at the zoo have more natural habitat than these guys have. Geo is a for profit company and they seem to be squeezing out every penny of profit they can. At least they have started to let a few of the guys out now tho. Thats mainly due to the financial woes of Florida. You would not believe the conditions these guys here live in. Yea, its clean, cuz its new. But the floors where the residents are is plain cement. The open bay pods, the guys eat, sleep, poop and shower in the same large room. No kidding, about 50 men to a pod. These guys have no idea when or if they are getting out. The management changes its mind what these guys can have as personal property seemingly at a whim and some guys have things that other guys cant have, and it has nothing to do with safety or behavior.
There are as many different kinds of offenders at FCCC as there are on the streets. Quite a few do NOT belong there, quite a few probably should never get out.
Our State does nothing about the Facility because these guys are "monsters" and "the worst of the worst", which we all know is bull hockey. I can't even get DOC, who is in charge of FCCC to answer me back. The state of Florida has 20% of the Nations comitted offenders...it is far to easy to place people there and forget about them...much more oversite needs to be done.
hell you could build a NICE bridge to live under with that ! good find, sunny.
I was thinking today that his post is a perfect example of a politician who painted himself into a corner with his decision to prohibit releases back in 2003....remember, Pawlenty was on McCain's VP short list, before Palin somehow negotiated herself onto the ticket...my guess is, Pawlenty will run for the GOP nod in 2012....so my second guess these guys will continue to be confined until the courts rule as TP would never risk what would look like support for SO's.... Pawlenty can then blame any possible future "incident" on the courts and avoid taking the political heat himself.
Pretty sad.
Sad, yes....but true none the less.
The marjority of politician's are straight up cowards!
They all know the truth about the low recidivism rates. They know they have violated constitutional rights as well as violated human rights.
But..for the sake of THEIR JOB...they will not stop with this insane push to be "TOUGH ON CRIME".
It get's them votes, so who cares if it takes away someone's rights. Who cares if it hurts innocent family members of RSO's. Who cares if it makes our streets unsafe.
As long as they get to keep their precious jobs....they could give a damn about any of us!
Yep....the majority of politician's are cowards!
Post a Comment