These Minnesota mothers came to their views on sex offenders by the most painful route possible:
"I don't have a problem civilly committing anyone after their sentence," said Connie Larson, whose 12-year-old daughter, Cally Jo, was raped and killed by an intruder in their Waseca home in 1999. Lorenzo Sanchez confessed and is serving a life sentence. Connie Larson said he apparently had served a prison term in Mexico.
A social worker with the Minnesota Valley Action Council, Larson emerged from the experience as an activist. She has served on the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission since 2001.
"If they're done with prison or jail and they're assessed as still being dangerous to society, what else are you going to do with them?" Larson said. "If they're psychopathic or sociopathic or whatever, they shouldn't be getting out."
Dru Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, said she'd like to see criminal justice changes that would make civil commitment unnecessary.
"I don't necessarily agree with civil commitment," she said, "but that's the only alternative when sentences are too short and prosecutors do too much plea bargaining."
The 2003 abduction and killing of Sjodin, a college student, by released rapist Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. resulted in a sharp increase in civil commitments.
