STATE WRONGLY HELD SEX OFFENDERS, COURT FINDS

PFMLIT ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS, ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, CIVIL CONFINEMENT COMMITTMENT, General

New York's highest court ruled yesterday that the state, acting under an order from Governor George Pataki, wrongly confined convicted sex offenders in psychiatric facilities after their prison sentences ended.  In a 7-0 decision, the court of appeals reversed a midlevel court decision allowing 12 men to be held without hearings as psychiatric patients and ordered their cases back to a lower court.  The men are still confined.

(Albany, New York)