Americans can now be locked away on the basis of fear

The fact that something is traditional does not keep it from being immoral. That's a logical fallacy ("appeal to tradition").

Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Civil Commitment Laws

In the early 1990s, states began to enact a specialized form of the traditional civil commitment statutes as a sex offender management strategy. Generally speaking, traditional civil commitment statutes are designed for individuals with disabling psychiatric difficulties who pose a significant threat of harm to themselves or others.

Through civil proceedings, these individuals can be placed in psychiatric/mental health facilities for safety and treatment purposes until such time that they are stabilized and able to be safely transitioned to the community.

Lawmakers later modified commitment laws in order to incapacitate a very narrow " and presumably highly dangerous " class of sex offenders commonly known as “sexually violent predators” (SVPs).3 The SVP civil commitment laws, however, differ from the more traditional provisions with respect to the criteria that are considered as sufficient for commitment and in terms of the point at which persons are subject to commitment.
For the purpose of the SVP proceedings, the commitment criteria commonly include the following4:

The commission of a qualifying sexually violent offense (e.g., aggravated sexual assault, first degree sexual abuse of a child, forcible rape);
• Diagnosis of a mental abnormality or personality disorder (e.g., pedophilia, antisocial personality disorder) that predisposes the individual to engage in sexually violent behavior;
• The predisposing mental abnormality or personality disorder causes the person to have significant difficulties controlling such behavior; and
• The individual is consequently likely to commit additional sexually violent acts if not confined to a secure mental health facility.

The SVP commitment process is generally triggered for convicted sex offenders who are approaching release from prison. Those offenders who are believed to pose a high risk to reoffend and who may meet the criteria for commitment are screened and referred for eligibility consideration. If, during the civil proceedings, offenders are determined to meet the prescribed set of criteria, they are designated as SVPs and committed indefinitely to a secure mental health treatment facility until deemed suitable for release to the community.

Currently, approximately 20 states have specialized commitment laws, and over 4,500 sex offenders are placed in secure civil commitment facilities nationwide (Gookin, 2007).

not at all sure i understand this. Have these offenders been convicted of a felon and served their time and then not released? or or these offenders transferred to a mental health hearing where they are deemed by psychiatric professionals to be unsafe to themselves or others and "held/treated" in a forensic facility with court reviews?

"We're working with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to see how we implement" the plan, Gonzales says.

So far, officials have referred 11 federal inmates for possible commitment after their time is served, the BOP says. The offenders would be treated at a prison in Butner, N.C

well Joe, that throws a different light on the subject

A 2005 report by the Vermont Legislative Council concluded that Minnesota "is essentially warehousing sex offenders in mental health facilities at a cost far higher than that to incarcerate them in prison."

In most ways the MSOP is indistinguishable from prison, with cell blocks and lockdowns for searches. Residents earn modest wages cleaning bathrooms or making signs for state office buildings. They can also work out in the gym, read in the library and visit a computer room, though it lacks Internet access.

The MSOP counts work, classes and exercise as treatment because each is therapeutic, said assistant commissioner Kooistra, who added that the number of breaks is something "we're going to look at." But he said that the breaks are more than the term implies.

"What's going on during that time is a lot of assessment, a lot of team meetings," Kooistra said. "There's an increase in patient activities," such as work and recreation. "It's not like everybody's watching TV."

Administrators say that constant supervision also is part of their treatment, done mostly by "security counselors" trained to guard patients and document day-to-day behavior.

False, the Feds always planned to keep these people in prison. They are currently moved full time to a prison hospital. This is not a dedicated mental health facility.

The Federal Medical Center (FMC) is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, in Butner, North Carolina. FMC Butner is an administrative facility that houses male inmates of all security levels. An adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum security male inmates

It's a medical center. It houses people who have been declared unfit for trial for reasons of insanity, like John Hinckley, Jr., or who have been otherwise deemed a threat to the public's safety. What more do you want?

when a person is locked into a Department of Corrections building which is surrounded by barbed wire, administered by DOC staff, they are a prisoner.

Your attempt to rationalize your way out of the obvious is humorous.

It's a mental hospital and it's part of a correctional facility. What's the problem?

Let's face it: you don't have any problem with locking up violent criminals in jails on the suspicion that they may commit more violent crimes in the future. You just don't like this particular statute because it applies to sex offenders, and you don't think that there's anything wrong with committing sex offenses.