Frannie... exactly. I just read this the other day, in a Slate article:
A recent study by Human Rights Watch concluded that as many as one in five of the 2.1 million Americans in jail and prison are seriously mentally ill. That's roughly five times the number of people in mental hospitals.
1 in 5... that's 400,000 people. And the vast majority of those 400,000 people are going to be considerably worse in emotional health after getting out of prison, that's for sure. Which means that they will be more of a threat to society. This is not only a monstrous from a humanitarian perspective, it is essentially shooting ourselves in the foot. But it's just one symptom of the sadly inadequate approach to mental health in our society.
SFJim... thanks a lot for bringing this into perspective. Not all sexual offenders are equal, not by a long shot.
The constitution guarantees due process of law to everybody. Even murderers, terrorists, cannibalistic serial killers. There's certainly no excuse for denying it to sex offenders.
I think that SFJim's idea of indefinite probation (in cases where recidivism seems likely) is a good idea. But this should be part of the sentence, issued in open court, with all proper rights of counsel, appeal, and public scrutiny. Creating a kangaroo court to keep individuals indefinitely locked up after they have served their sentence is against all the basic rights that this country was founded on.