68
Stevens, J., dissenting
group of sanctions as the punishment to be imposed for the most serious violations of prison rules. Considering these consequences as a whole and comparing the Department's treatment of respondent to the rest of the prison population, it is perfectly clear that the penalty imposed is "constitution-ally indistinguishable from the coercive provisions we struck down in Gardner, Sanitation Men, and Turley." Cunningham, 431 U. S., at 807.11
III
The SATP clearly serves legitimate therapeutic purposes. The goal of the program is to rehabilitate sex offenders, and the requirement that participants complete admission of responsibility and sexual history forms may well be an important component of that process. Mental health professionals seem to agree that accepting responsibility for past sexual misconduct is often essential to successful treatment, and that treatment programs can reduce the risk of recidivism by sex offenders. See Winn, Strategic and Systematic Management of Denial in Cognitive/Behavioral Treatment of Sexual Offenders, 8 Sexual Abuse: J. Research and Treatment 25, 26-27 (1996).
The program's laudable goals, however, do not justify reduced constitutional protection for those ordered to participate. "We have already rejected the notion that citizens may be forced to incriminate themselves because it serves a governmental need." Cunningham, 431 U. S., at 808.
11 Justice O'Connor would distinguish these cases because the penalty involved the loss of one's livelihood, whereas here respondent will be housed, clothed, and fed regardless of whether he is in maximum or medium security. We rejected a similar argument in Turley, when we refused to distinguish Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U. S. 273 (1968), and Uniformed Sanitation Men Assn., Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation of City of New York, 392 U. S. 280 (1968), based on the difference between losing one's job and losing the ability to obtain government contracts. 414 U. S., at 83. We concluded that there was no "difference of constitutional magnitude between the threat of job loss to an employee of the State, and a threat of loss of contracts to a contractor." Ibid.
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