Sex Predators To Stay In Prison

Andre Brigham Young and 30 other men considered dangerous sex offenders will remain behind bars while attorneys wage a legal fight over whether the law under which they’re confined is constitutional.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour refused Monday to release Young while the state appeals the judge’s ruling last month that the unique law violated Young’s right to due process and punished him twice for the same crime. The law permits civil commitment of sex predators after they have finished their criminal sentences if they are deemed likely to reoffend.

The state is appealing Coughenour’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Young and the 30 other men are held at the Special Commitment Center at the state prison in Monroe. Young, like all inmates at the center, is confined for an indefinite period.

Young’s attorney, Robert Boruchowitz, said his client probably will appeal.