Pataki Pushes To Keep Sex Criminals in Jail
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Unable to get the state Assembly’s ruling Democrats to approve civil confinement legislation, Governor Pataki, a Republican, has ordered state officials to begin keeping some sexual predators locked up after their prison sentences have been completed. “The governor can’t wait any longer for the Assembly leadership to pass his proposal,” a Mr. Pataki spokesman, Kevin Quinn, said yesterday.
“He has reassessed our abilities under current law and asked the [state] Office of Mental Health and Department of Correctional Services to push the envelope with the application of existing law, knowing that this aggressive interpretation might open us up to lawsuits,” the Pataki aide said. “The Assembly leadership has given us no choice.”
Mr. Quinn said that on September 12, Mr. Pataki, who is eyeing a run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, ordered state authorities to begin evaluating every sexually violent predator in state prison before their release to determine if they should be civilly confined.
The executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union said Mr. Pataki’s action “reeks of political exploitation.”
“There’s a grave risk of abuse whenever a governor engages in official lawlessness because he doesn’t like the law and is running for president,” Donna Lieberman said. “And there’s a grave risk of abuse when the governor allocates to himself the role of judge and legislature by directing who should be incarcerated and for how long.” She said the NYCLU was “actively monitoring the situation” and would evaluate any complaints it receives before deciding about a possible lawsuit challenging the policy.
As of the end of last week, 32 inmates had been evaluated and five sent to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center under the governor’s new program, Mr. Quinn said. The other 27 have been released.