Law on Sex Predator Sentencing Is Rejected

The nation’s first state law aimed at confining sex predators after their sentences are up is unconstitutional, partly because it punishes them twice for a single crime, a federal judge ruled.

Public defenders quickly asked for the release of nine inmates at the Special Commitment Center in Monroe, Wash.

Prisoners sent to the center are confined for indefinite periods, referred to as patients and given counseling and therapy in an effort to rid them of their behaviors.

The law was the linchpin of a legislative measure intended to get sex offenders off the streets. It permits a civil jury to indefinitely commit violent sex offenders who have served their sentences.