Proposed Guidelines for Civil Commitment Research Paper

Proposed Guidelines for Civil Commitment - Research Paper Example The police run criminal background records of that particular individual and also collaborate with prison warders to establish the conduct of the person while they had been confined. This information together with that of mental health workers is presented in front of the judge or jury as evidence against the release of the sex offender and if the evidence is substantial, the person is incarcerated once again in order to protect the human rights of the society at the expense of that of an individual person. The evidence is usually based on the level of danger the person poses to the society and to himself or herself once released, if it is more on the society (which is usually the case), then the sex offender is incarcerated (Melton et al. 2007). Washington Law which was passed several decades ago allowed for release of dangerous sex offenders. Following cases of violent attacks in the 1980s, this law was changed and a community protection Act of the 1990 was passed. This act provided provisions for formation of civil commitment laws in the states which allowed incarceration of a person previously determined as a sex offender based on the reasons of mental abnormality (Leon 2011). In 1997, the Kansas v. Hendricks case further acted to cement the civil commitment. In this case, the Supreme Court used civil commitment to continue to incarcerate a sex offender who was found to have mental abnormalities which was said to pose a danger to the community. The court acted according to the constitution and hence protected the society whose rights and interests are deemed more important than individual interests (Mears 2010). Following this policy set by statutes, other states have come up with state-specific laws that are connected with the civil commitment and which serve to strengthen the evidence of incarcerating a sex offender for the interests of the society. The mental health civil commitment act of Minnesota is one such example and which defines sex offenders