The 109th Congress passed legislation that allows the federal government to civilly commit "sexually dangerous persons". Civil commitment, as it relates to sex offenders, is when a state retains custody of an individual, found by a judge or jury to be a "sexually dangerous person" by involuntarily committing the person to a secure mental health facility after the offender's prison sentence is done. In 1990, the state of Washington passed the first civil commitment law for sexually dangerous persons. Currently, 18 other states and the federal government have similar laws. Moreover, the Supreme Court, in Kansas v. Hendricks and Kansas v. Crane, ruled that current civil commitment laws are constitutional. The civil commitment of sex offenders centres on the belief that sex offenders are more likely than other offenders to re-offend. However, data on sex offender recidivism is varied. Data show that the recidivism risk for sex offenders may be lower than it is typically thought to be; in fact, some studies show that sex offenders recidivate at a lower rate than many other criminals. Other studies show that, given time, almost all sex offenders will commit a new sex crime. Most discussions about recidivism examine ways to decrease it; for example, by providing sex offenders with treatment. Research on the efficacy of sex offender treatment is promising, but it cannot prove that treatment reduces recidivism.

Similarly, the Court found that for purposes of double jeopardy, the application of the Act had none of the attributes of punishment. [...] The program allows the Attorney General (AG), or any individual authorized by the AG, or the Director of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to certify as sexually dangerous a person who is in BOP's custody, under the custody of the AG under current law,50 or whose criminal charges have been dismissed solely for reasons relating to the mental condition of the person. [...] If the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person is a sexually dangerous person, the individual is committed to the custody of the AG. [...] After the individual is committed to the custody of the AG, the AG releases the individual to the appropriate official of the state in which the person was confined or tried, if the state will assume responsibility for the offender's custody, care, and treatment. [...] After the individual is committed to custody, the director of the facility in which the offender is placed may petition the court to release the individual if the director determines that the offender is no longer a sexually dangerous person and would not be a threat to others.