B330 Fence off sex offenders who prey on kids 330. Civil libertarians abhor these statutes because they amount to an additional punishment for those who have completed their sentences. They violate the offenders' privacy and stigmatize them. In a few cases, communities have even resorted to vigilantism to drive these people out of town. As I see it, community notification is of little use from a public-safety viewpoint unless adults accompany children at all times while they are outside or visiting friends.
Most parents find such a requirement onerous.
So it is not surprising that some states are following a rather different approach that has attracted surprisingly little attention despite its extreme nature. This approach takes hard-core sexual offenders and sticks them indefinitely into state mental hospitals the day they complete their jail sentences. While theoretically an annual review of such cases by a board could release these special kinds of offenders, this happens rarely. But in 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that keeping violent sex offenders in commitment centers was constitutional if the offenders are given treatment. Then, in 1999, U.S. District Judge William Dwyer in Seattle found Washington state in contempt for not fixing problems at the Special Commitment Center for the treatment of sexual predators, where next to no one has been cured or released.