MINNEAPOLIS  — The upcoming release of a twice-convicted rapist from Minnesota’s sex offender treatment program to a halfway house reflects a loosening of the state’s process for freeing patients.

Oliver Lenell Dority, 50, was convicted in 1995 of raping two women within three weeks of each other. He’s the latest in a growing number of violent sex offenders who have been approved for conditional release since the Minnesota Sex Offender Program came under federal scrutiny for failing to adequately move people toward release.

The program has a history of confining rapists and other violent offenders indefinitely, sometimes for decades, with little opportunity for release.

But in just over a year, six offenders, including Dority, have been conditionally discharged from the program. All of them are repeat rapists.

The releases indicate state officials and judges are showing more willingness to discharge people with violent histories and some risk factors for reoffending. Legal experts believe the releases show Minnesota Sex Offender Program officials are taking seriously their duty to provide treatment and move people through the program.

Last June, a federal judge ruled that the program is unconstitutional after concluding that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program was detaining untold numbers of offenders who no longer met the state’s criteria for confinement. The ruling is under appeal, but the state has been under increased legal pressure to demonstrate that it provides actual treatment and a clear path toward release to offenders.

The recent releases also are arousing much less political controversy than in years past, which could reflect an easing of attitudes toward offenders, according to experts.

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program currently holds about 720 rapists, child molesters and other offenders, who have already completed their prison terms, at secure treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter.