Construction won't get under way until either late this spring or early this summer, but the planned expansion of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) in Moose Lake by 400 beds already seems to be going as well as can be expected. The MSOP services civilly-committed patients who are considered sexual psychopathic personalities (SPP) or sexually dangerous persons (SDP). It operates as one program on two campuses, St. Peter and Moose Lake. Although the MSOP facilities are considered hospitals, the MSOP program provides evaluation and treatment programs - all in secure facilities.
MSOP has been partnering with the The Minnesota Correctional Facility-Willow River/Moose Lake in order to house the recent influx of SPP and SDP patients over the past decade or so. MSOP Director Dean Mooney stated the use of the correctional buildings to house MSOP patients has been going well.
"Currenty, we're using Building 10 at the correctional facility and are also about to start on renovation to Building 8 to house our sex offenders there," said Mooney. "But we're simply waiting to get the new construction under way. Meanwhile, the use of the buildings at corrections has been working well."
The expansion will occur in two phases, which essentially means half the new patients will be able to move in after Phase I is completed in mid-2008, and the rest will move in after the buildings and the entire project is completed in spring of 2009. The project was originally scheduled for completion in October 2008.
Minnesota Correctional Facility-Willow River/Moose Lake Warden Terry Carlson has been working closely with Mooney and the MSOP staff during the temporary move of MSOP's patients. Carlson claims the avenues of communication with the MSOP have been clear and their relationship with MSOP is a good one.
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"The partnership with the Department of Human Services and the Department of Corrections is certainly going well," said Carlson. "We're still working on some construction issues. Overall, it's been a positive experience."
In order to make room for the MSOP patients at the correctional facility, many of the prisoners from the Moose Lake Correctional Facility have been moved to other facilities. Mooney assures prison overcrowding won't be an issue. The prisoners will move to other facilities in Minnesota to make temporary room for the sex offender patients.
"The actual population on the grounds at the prison isn't changing significantly," said Mooney. "On another side of that, the sex offender patients and prisoners will not be co-habitating, even though patients will be technically in the corrections facility."
The buzz going around Carlton County regarding the MSOP expansion is the issue of job creation. Cloquet, Moose Lake and other towns surrounding the facility are already looking into creating additional housing developments and rental properties for potential job seekers. According to Mooney, when completed, the MSOP hospital will create from 1,000-1,300 new jobs. This figure will rival organizations such as Black Bear Casino (700 when the new casino is built), Sappi (850) and USG (500) for sheer number of employees.
"We're estimating that we'll have approximately 1,000 patients when the expansion is complete. It's not set in stone, but we'll be looking in the neighborhood of well in excess of 1,000 jobs," said Mooney. "Our staffing plan is developing. When we finish both phases and both the units are populated, we'll be able to reach a solid number."
The number of civilly-committed sex offenders continues to grow in Minnesota, leaving open the question of future expansions. As of right now, Mooney states whether or not an offender is a candidate for being civilly committed is mostly dependent upon possible changes in legislature.
"It's tough to predict if we'll need to expand again," said Mooney. "We do have a lot of men who could be referred to us, but that depends on a huge variety of factors."
Pine Journal Editor Mat Gilderman can be contacted at: mgilderman@pinejournal.com .
