IL- Can sex offenders live in county home? Yes

7-7-2009 Illinois:

The male resident who molested 10 female residents earlier this year at the La Salle County Nursing Home is no longer there, having been taken to an unidentified psychiatric facility.

However, according to records, a registered sex offender lives in the county home.

_____ is listed as living at 1380 N. 27th Road, Apt. 5A, the address for the nursing home. The 74-year-old ____ committed two sex acts in September 1996 against a 12-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty and arrived in prison Jan. 15, 1997, and paroled Oct. 5, 2000, completing parole Oct. 5, 2003. ____ was living in La Salle and working in Ottawa at the time of the offenses. He had no prior criminal record.

There has been no indication that ____ had anything to do with the series of incidents involving a resident molesting several female residents at the home. There are specific guidelines that must be followed, however, involving sex offenders.

Any nursing home in Illinois is required to tell the Illinois Department of Public Health about any resident whose background check shows them to be a sex offender. The state must then do a "risk analysis" of the offender, the results of which are given to the home to help determine whether staff are able to care for the offender and to prepare a care plan.

Sex offenders must also be placed in a private room and staff must meet with police to talk about the need for, and to develop if needed, policies to address the offender's presence in the home. Further, the home is required to tell residents and prospective residents and families they can ask whether an offender lives at the home and how to find information on the state sex offender Web site.

Nursing home administrator Adrienne Erickson is on medical leave and Assistant Administrator Cathy Harvey so far will not comment on the sex abuse incidents or if the sex offender procedures have been followed. ..Source.. by Dan Churney