ST. PAUL, Minn. — A convicted rapist won’t gain more freedom from a Minnesota program that confines more than 600 dangerous sex offenders after they leave prison.

A three-judge panel on Friday denied John Rydberg’s request for a provisional discharge, finding that he remains a threat to public safety.

The 70-year-old repeat sex offender has convictions for rape and other sex offenses going back to the late 1960s.

Rydberg was seeking to move to a Twin Cities halfway house from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program campus in St. Peter.

Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson opposed his request, even though program staffers in her department recommended him for provisional discharge.

No one has been permanently released from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program since it started in 1995.