MSOP Program Overview
The Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) provides comprehensive services to individuals who have been court-ordered to receive sex offender treatment.
Most MSOP clients have completed prison sentences and as a public safety measure have been civilly committed by the court for an indefinite period of time. Under state law, the court may civilly commit a person as a “sexual psychopathic personality” or a “sexually dangerous person,” or both. While the facilities are secure and clients are not free to leave, MSOP is a treatment program, not a prison or correctional facility of any kind. Participation in treatment is voluntary.
Treatment
Most clients begin treatment at the MSOP facility in Moose Lake. After making sufficient progress, clients move to the campus in St. Peter to complete treatment and begin working toward provisional discharge and reintegration.
- Clinical services include sex-offender-specific treatment and rehabilitative programming based on individual need.
- Clients acquire skills through active participation in group therapy, individual therapy, psycho-educational modules, and therapeutic community meetings. Clients are provided opportunities to demonstrate meaningful change through participation in rehabilitative services, including education, therapeutic recreational activities and vocational programs.
- Currently, 85 percent of MSOP clients choose to participate in treatment.
Treatment Facilities
MSOP is one program with two campuses and three treatment facilities. The Moose Lake campus is home to a secure facility. The St. Peter campus is home to a secure facility and Community Preparation Services, a less restrictive treatment setting outside the secure perimeter. Each facility specializes in different stages of the treatment process.
Moose Lake Treatment Facility
- Most clients begin their treatment at MSOP’s Moose Lake facility.
- Moose Lake clients include individuals who are the subject of ongoing civil commitment proceedings; clients who have been civilly committed and are participating in initial and primary stages of treatment; and clients who have been civilly committed but have refused to participate in treatment.
- At Moose Lake, clients are housed in two buildings. Main, originally built in 1995, is licensed for 158 clients. Complex One, built in 2009, has 400 licensed beds.
St. Peter Treatment Facility
- Clients who have demonstrated meaningful change and have progressed in treatment move to St. Peter to begin the reintegration process.
- St. Peter also provides alternative treatment for clients for whom conventional programming is not appropriate. These clients require unique treatment due to developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries or severe learning disabilities.
- The program occupies four buildings and has 260 available beds within the secure perimeter on the St. Peter campus.
Community Preparation Services
- Community Preparation Services (CPS) is a less restrictive residential setting outside the secure perimeter on the St. Peter campus for those clients granted transfer by the court. CPS occupies three buildings on the campus. It has capacity for 145 clients.
Reintegration Services
Only a court has the authority to discharge clients from the MSOP. The court may provisionally discharge a client to live and work in the community. While on provisional discharge, clients are supervised and monitored by MSOP Reintegration Agents. Clients must abide by all the terms of a lengthy provisional discharge order, any violation of which could result in the revocation of provisional discharge.
Clients who have been granted a full discharge by the court are no longer under civil commitment or the jurisdiction of the MSOP.