Sex offenders at treatment facility OK to marry, state says
A top official at the Department of Human Services now says the department is trying to clear the way for people detained in Minnesota's Sex Offender Treatment Program to marry one another if they choose.
Three couples in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in Moose Lake sought marriage licenses after same-sex marriage became legal last month.
However the only hitch in the men's plan is that at least one license applicant must appear in person at the county recorder's office. Program policy only allows offenders out for court dates, doctor visits and similar appointments.
• Inmates, sex offenders may test same-sex marriage law
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Anne Barry, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Human Services, said in an MPR News interview Monday that officials are reviewing that policy.
"There might be other ways to make court services available to clients if in fact they have the legal right to marry one another," she said. "So we will be working with the county."
However, Barry said marriage won't change life much for the program's clients.
"Allowing clients what is their right to marry one another does not mean that clients are going to be rooming together," she said.
People in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program have served their prison sentences but are indefinitely committed to the program for treatment.
State Department of Corrections officials say prison inmates still may not marry each other.