MI- Kuipers wants sex offender answers

Apparently Kuipers has forgotten what political speeches have done to sex offenders in the public eye.. Time for lawmakers to wake up and take ownership of the problem....

8-8-2009 Michigan:

Parolees living in state-paid motels

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Why is the state paying for 60 paroled sex offenders to live in a motel that welcomes families and children?

That's one of the questions state Sen. Wayne Kuipers wants answered.

"Any rational person looking at this goes, what are you guys thinking?" said Kuipers, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Target 8 investigators found three West Michigan motels housing paroled sex offenders on the state's tab. Sixty are living at the Grand Rapids Inn, and more than a third of them are there for crimes involving children. There are 17 at the Grand Inn on Plainfield Avenue, and another 17 at the Airport Inn in Portage.

These sex offenders are staying there -- at a cost to the state of $550 each a month -- through the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Program, which is meant to return them to society.

At the same time, the Pure Michigan travel web site links to the Grand Rapids Inn, where children stay free.

To be sure, Kuipers, a Holland Republican, voted for the law that keeps sex offenders 1,000 feet from school property. That gives the state few choices when looking for a place to keep paroled sex offenders.

"I understand the situation that the Department of Corrections is in, I do," Kuipers told Target 8 investigators, "but I think if they spend a little bit of time exploring different housing options, they could come up with something a little more appropriate than a hotel where on the other side of a locked door, you have families and kids."

Kuipers heads the committee that has oversight of the prison system. He says DOC officials assured him they wouldn't be quick to parole sex offenders through the re-entry program.

Prison officials, he says, haven't returned his phone calls. He wants answers, he says, before calling for a hearing.

"We've been trying to get some information out of the department. They have not been very quick in responding to our calls."

Kuipers says he expects answers from prison officials by next week. Depending on what they tell him, he may call for hearings. ..Source.. by WOOD TV