Neighbors, provider locked in legal battle over nursing home for inmates

9-5-17 Connecticut:

A nursing home for paroled inmates that recently received approval for federal funding is now locked in a legal battle with its neighbors, who argue the facility is hurting their property values and putting their families at risk.

The town of Rocky Hill, CT, argued in court last week that 60 West, which opened in 2013, has resulted in a decline in property values for the homes surrounding it. The facility, which can house up to 95 residents, is currently home to 13 paroled inmates, the Hartford Courant reported.

In addition to property values, the owner of a local appraisal company testified in court that the facility has changed from “a quiet normal nursing home ... to a place with sex offenders, criminals and the smell of marijuana wafting over.”

The median home value of a house in the area is $236,900, and values are expected to increase by 2% over the next year, according to Zillow.

Neighbors also reported that they installed alarm systems and have become more restrictive of their children's' outdoor activities due to the facility's inhabitants. Rocky Hill also claims the facility violates local zoning codes because its residents are not traditional long-term care patients. ..Continued..

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Sex offenders having hard time finding places to live

8-9-15 Kentucky:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Advocates for sex offenders who need medical care say a state law that requires them to have a legal residence to go to before they're released from prison is keeping them behind bars because they can't find places to live.

The Courier-Journal reports (http://cjky.it/1KUu8ni) that Kentucky law requires sex offenders to provide in writing their planned residence during a five-year period of conditional release 180 days before they're released from prison.

But offenders like 40-year-old Michael Blaine Wolfe, who needs nursing care, are having a tough time finding places to stay.

Wolfe, who suffered brain damage in an accident as a teenager and uses a wheelchair, served his eight-year sentence for sexual abuse and should have been released from prison over a year ago. But he's still behind bars and could be for up to four more years.

The Corrections Department said none of the 310 places it has contacted to house Wolfe has been willing to accept him.

Another sex offender, Frank Boswell, who served out his sentence for rape and sexual abuse on May 25 and is "near death," according to his public defender, was able to find an approved placement last month at a nursing home in Henry County.

However, attorney Melanie Lowe said it is unfair to hold inmates after they've done their time solely because they can't find nursing care at a legal address. Sex offenders cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center or publicly owned playground.

"It is so frustrating that they are just stuck," Lowe said.

Finding legal places to live for sex offenders, especially those who require medical treatment, is a growing problem nationally, experts say. Illinois keeps 1,250 parolees behind bars because of a shortage of housing, and most are sex offenders, the Chicago Tribune reported in January.

The MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University law school, which has fought unsuccessfully in court to end the practice, says it is discriminatory because most of the affected offenders are poor.

"If you have money, you rent an apartment where it is legal," said staff attorney Alexa van Brunt.

Kentucky State Sen. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, sponsored a bill creating the conditional release for sex offenders in 1998. It was the year after an inmate who had recently been released from prison after serving time for sexually abusing two young cousins abducted, assaulted, stabbed and drowned a 16-year-old girl who lived in Yonts' district.

Yonts said in an interview that his primary goal was to keep something over the heads of offenders who disputed their crimes and didn't complete sex offender counseling in prison. He said he also wanted to ensure all sex offenders registered at a legal address.

Keeping infirm inmates in prison because they can't find places in nursing homes "is not what I originally contemplated," Yonts said.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said he is pushing for the state to contract with a secure nursing home that would treat sex offenders and other former inmates who require medical care. He believes the state could save as much as $10 million a year in reduced medical costs. ..Source.. by Kentucky.com

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No place to live, sex offenders kept in prison

8-7-15 Kentucky:

Michael Blaine Wolfe III served out every bit of his eight-year sentence for sexual abuse and should have been released from prison more than a year ago.

But he is still behind bars and could be for up to four more years, with state taxpayers footing the bill for his medical expenses and incarceration.

The reason: He was charged with violating the terms of his conditional release from prison before he even got out, because he couldn’t find a legal place to live as a sex offender.

Wolfe, 40, who suffered brain damage in an accident as a teenager and uses a wheelchair, needs nursing care, and the Corrections Department says none of the 310 places it has contacted to house him has been willing to accept him. Only 15 said they would even consider it, the department says.

Wolfe is one of five inmates in Kentucky who have been “violated at the gate” — that is, found to have violated the conditions of their release before they even left the prison gates. One of them died in custody three months later.

Another, Frank Boswell, who served out his sentence for rape and sexual abuse on May 25 and is “near death,” according to his public defender, Melanie Lowe, found an approved placement on July 29 at a nursing home in Henry County.

Lowe said that as sex offenders age in the system, problems placing them will grow.

Finding legal places to live for sex offenders, especially those who require medical treatment, is a growing problem nationally, experts say. Illinois keeps 1,250 parolees behind bars because of a shortage of housing, and most are sex offenders, the Chicago Tribune reported in January.

The MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University law school, which has fought unsuccessfully in court to end the practice, says it is discriminatory because most of the affected offenders are poor. “If you have money, you rent an apartment where it is legal,” said staff attorney Alexa van Brunt.

Wolfe and other offenders are held after the sentences expire under a Kentucky law that tacks a five-year period of conditional release on sex offenders, during which they can be returned for violating sex offender residency laws or for other violations.

Lowe says that it is unjust to hold inmates after they’ve done their time solely because they can’t find nursing care at a legal address. Sex offenders cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center or publicly owned playground.

Corrections Commmissioner LaDonna Thompson declined to respond to questions about the fairness of the law, but Lowe said some officials in the department aren’t happy with it.

She said those include the supervisor of sex offenders in the Office of Probation and Parole’s La Grange office, Bonnie Rawlings Greer, who Lowe said told her she thinks the practice is “unethical and immoral.”

Greer declined to comment, referring questions to a supervisor, who referred them to a department spokeswoman, who referred them to Mitchell.

Lisa Howard, an administrator with Probation and Parole, testified in a June 26 hearing that nursing homes are reluctant to admit sex offenders because of the potential liability and because it would place the home’s address on the sex offender registry.

On cross-examination, Howard conceded that the department stopped looking for placement for Wolfe after it formally charged him with a violation in July 2014.

Administrative Law Judge Eden Stephens found there was no probable cause that Wolfe violated the terms of his conditional release, according to Lowe, though she said the implications of the ruling are unclear.

Stephens apologized to Wolfe for the delays. “This has gone on far too long,” she said.

Kentucky law says that 180 days before sex offenders are to be released from prison, they must provide in writing their planned residence during their five-year period of conditional release.

Inmates are not told a way to find a residence, and to stop the state from charging them with a violation, it is "Planned Residence = COMMERCIAL PLACEMENT" (term used in Michigan and likely different in other states. States and parole officers are fully aware of this see HERE and this document used in Michigan) CP requires the state to find a place for the inmate. Yes, a in Illinois, its possible they cannot, but at least the inmate cannot be charged with another crime.

State Sen. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, sponsored a bill creating the conditional release for sex offenders — originally for three years and later amended to five — in 1998. It was the year after an inmate who had recently been released from prison after serving time for sexually abusing two young cousins abducted, assaulted, stabbed and drowned 16-year-old Sarah Hansen, who lived in Yonts’ district.

Yonts said in an interview that his primary goal was to keep something over the heads of offenders who disputed their crimes and didn’t complete sex offender counseling in prison. He said he also wanted to ensure all sex offenders registered at a legal address.

Keeping infirm inmates in prison because they can’t find places in nursing homes “is not what I originally contemplated,” Yonts said.

Lowe said that providing medical treatment for prisoners in custody is also far more expensive for the state. Lowe would be eligible for Medicaid, which is paid largely by the federal government, but isn’t available as long as an inmate is locked up.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said that is one of the reasons he is pushing for the state to contract with a secure nursing home that would treat sex offenders and other former inmates who require medical care. He said the state could save as much as $8 million to $10 million a year in reduced medical costs.

Wolfe was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison in two cases, including one in which he improperly touched a 9-year-old girl over her clothes and another in which he had sexual contact with a girl under 12 through forcible compulsion.

He is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, although he had those infirmities when he committed the crimes. Lowe said he has “trouble remembering anything,” and department records show he is unable to move from his bed to the bathroom.

McCracken Commonwealth’s Attorney Dan Boaz, who took office after Wolfe was prosecuted, said there should be somewhere he can go.

But Boaz also said that sex offenses have a profound impact on children, and that there is a “legitimate concern about re-offending.”

Lowe said Wolfe is too ill now to pose a threat and that inmates like him should not remain behind bars.

“It is so frustrating that they are just stuck,” she said. ..Source.. by Andrew Wolfson

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Bills would ban sex offenders from Massachusetts public housing

7-17-15 Massachusetts:

BOSTON - A state representative has sponsored bills that would ban sex offenders from living in public housing.

State Rep. Bradley Jones, R-North Reading, the House Republican leader, proposed two bills that would ban level two and three sex offenders from public housing and from state-subsidized housing in hotels and motels.

Level two and three sex offenders are those who are considered to have a moderate or high risk of reoffending respectively and whose convictions are included in a public database.

Supporters of the proposal say it would protect people living in public housing. "Public subsidized housing is paid for by the taxpayers," said state Rep. Todd Smola, R-Warren, a bill co-sponsor. "To guarantee we protect the public safety of individuals in the program is extremely important."

But opponents say the bills would put the public at risk. Larni Levy, an attorney and director of the alternative commitment and registration support unit of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which represents indigent clients accused of sex offenses, said the move would increase homelessness among sex offenders.

"The legislation is ill advised and comes under the rubric of legislation that sounds good but actually jeopardizes public safety," Levy told the Legislature's Joint Committee on Housing, which is considering the bill.

Similar bills have been proposed in the past, but they have never passed the Legislature.

The federal government in 1998 instituted a ban on certain sex offenders living in federally subsidized public housing. This bill would extend the ban to any state-subsidized public housing.

Under current law, state housing authorities have the discretion to ban a sex offender from public housing, but they can also use that discretion to allow a sex offender into housing. The law is also not specific to sex offenders - it applies to anyone who has engaged in criminal activity which, if repeated, would threaten other tenants.

Smola, in an interview, called the bills a "reasonable proposal." He said he understands the need to balance the rights of sex offenders with other public housing residents, but he said the state should "err on the side of public safety."

Levy countered that if sex offenders are barred from public housing, many will become homeless and be separated from support networks of family, doctors or therapists. They will become harder for probation and parole officers to track. They will also lose their stability, which can be a factor in recidivism. "Frankly, no one wants sex offenders to be homeless," Levy said.

The Committee for Public Counsel Services also raised questions about whether the bill would be unconstitutional. Attorneys pointed to a 2011 case in which a sex offender challenged a law banning him from a nursing home. The Supreme Judicial Court found that without an individualized finding that the man constituted a danger to public safety, banning him from a nursing home unconstitutionally infringed on his rights to liberty and property and his right to due process.

A separate court case is currently pending before the Supreme Judicial Court over whether the city of Lynn can legally restrict where sex offenders can live.

Dr. Laurie Guidry, a clinical forensic psychologist and president of Massachusetts Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, said she understands why people have concerns about where registered sex offenders are living. But she thinks any policy needs to take account the fact that sex offenders are less likely to reoffend if they have stable housing.

"When we look at the research, we learn that stable housing, which goes hand in hand with employment, helps support positive outcomes with regards to reducing recidivism," Guidry said.

Guidry said she believes it would be more effective to have policies that allow housing decisions to be made on a case by case basis, looking at someone's criminal history but also at whether they are in treatment, are being supervised on probation, are connected with appropriate services and other factors.

"The idea would be to find a way to recognize the concerns that people have and also see if there are more effective ways we can keep the community safe while housing individuals who have these kind of histories," Guidry said. "Because doing so tends to keep the public safer than not doing so."

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's administration has not yet taken a position on the bills. "The safety of families and children everywhere in Massachusetts – including in public housing – is hugely important to the Baker Administration, and the Governor will carefully review this proposal if it reaches his desk," said Felix Browne, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety.

Paul Bailey, executive director of the social service agency Springfield Partners for Community Action, who previously worked for the state overseeing housing authorities, said he sees both sides of the issue. "I certainly wouldn't want anyone to be harmed," Bailey said.

But Bailey said he recalls when criminal records first became available to housing authorities, and some authorities would deny a person housing solely because he had a criminal record, without looking at the details of the record. "You've got to look into it a little deeper," Bailey said. "You have to be careful, take every case individually. " ..Source.. by Shira Schoenberg

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OK Senate considering nursing home for sex offenders

Bledsoe's idea is absolutely bad! Consider, how many aging sex offenders will need such a facility on a regular basis? Which means the staff -paid by the state- would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs most of the time, all at taxpayers expense; dumb.. Simply look at the registry to figure out how many there could be, then how many of them would need a nursing home 24/7/365?

UPDATE: If the idea is justified at all, how many of these nursing type facilities would a state need to have? One in every city or county of a state; talk about expensive/waste of taxpayer money. Then one must consider, if the RSO is in such a facility -sickened- what happens when s/he gets better and wishes to leave the facility? Would the facility be a prison or a treatment center where the RSO can leave at will, like maybe on weekends. Lawmakers need to study this issue before creating another form of a civil commitment center.

4-6-15 Oklahoma:

Tonight, lawmakers are kicking around the idea of a nursing home--- designed only for registered sex offenders.

The idea is to keep them away from everyone else.

Under current law in Oklahoma, registered sex offenders could live amongst the elderly in assisted living facilities.

The caregivers are supposed to make residents aware a sex offender lives in the building.

Right now they determine on a case by case basis whether sex offenders are or are not a threat in a nursing home environment.

Wes Bledsoe, founder of a 'Perfect Cause' and an advocate for nursing home reform, says this is a major problem that's putting senior citizens at risk.

"They have the two things they need to commit an offense against others: accessibility and opportunity. It is absolutely a danger, a clear and present danger. When you put the predators in with the prey, somebody's going to get bit,” said Bledsoe.

Bledsoe is a supporter of Senate Bill 578. Under this legislation the state would build a facility just for aging sex offenders who are deemed moderate or high risk, and incarcerated sex offenders who are terminally or so critically ill that they can't perform daily functions.

"What that does as a result it help protect vulnerable adults who live in nursing homes from these kinds of violent sexual offenders,” said Bledsoe.

But attorney David Slane tells FOX 25 this is a horrible idea. He says you can't lump all sex offenders with a variety of circumstances, into one category.

"We always have to be worried about it there going to be inmate on inmate attacks. You can't lump them all into one,” said Slane.

Slane says while there are rare instances of sexual assault and more does need to be done to insure safety in nursing homes, a stand-alone nursing home would be a big drain on taxpayer dollars and resources... He says this isn't the route to go.

"You could have staff that trained to deal with these types of individuals to spot any kind of action that might be called questionable. Maybe we could put incremental changes to strengthen what we're already doing to make it more safe,” said Slane.

The bill has not been voted on yet, if it is passed as written, it would become effective as of November 1st of this year. ..Source.. by Kylen Mills

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State moves toward separately housing violent SNF residents

The majority of the cited places were something violent happened, there was no indication of a violent past for those folks before violent incident; first time offenses and they likely will wind up in prison. So who would be put in this NEW facility? (Bill details are here)

2-17-2015 Iowa:

Iowa moved one step closer to a plan that would transfer violent public nursing home residents to a segregated government- or private agency-managed facility using state money.

The state Senate late last week approved a measure that would establish a task force to study the plan. It was spurred mainly by issues with elderly psychiatric patients, including four sex offenders, at a state mental institution in Clarinda.

Gov. Terry Branstad's (R) administration wants to close the facility, as well as one in Mount Pleasant, according to the Des Moines Register.

Nursing homes across the country have occasionally been challenged by caregivers with violent pasts, but when the residents themselves turn violent, there can be other serious ramifications. Several recent incidents of resident-on-resident violence in Texas and Michigan have rattled the nursing home industry.

Corrections officials in Oklahoma are considering a pilot program that would house aging convicts in a long-term care facility. Earlier state laws already allow the Department of Corrections to contract with a private nursing home to care for chronically ill registered sex offenders.

Cornell University researchers recently found that nearly 1 in 5 people living in nursing homes is involved in at least one aggressive encounter each month, and resident-to-resident mistreatment is under-reported at some long-term-care facilities.

The Iowa bill is expected to be considered by the Senate Human Resources Committee soon. ..Source.. by John Hall

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Victim’s family: Keep sex offenders in mental institutes

UPDATE 2-15: Iowa urged to be careful in closing mental hospitals

2-7-2015 Iowa:

To all Iowa residents who may now or in the future have a loved one residing in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or MHI:

I have just read a Register editorial, “Weak rules for care facilities worsen” and an article, “4 Sex offenders live at mental hospital being closed.” Another, “Sex offenders at Clarinda taken off registry,” and yet another “Where are these sex offenders now?” This comes on top of the plan to close the MHI facilities in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. Gov. Terry Branstad decided that saving money in his budget is more important than the welfare of the citizens he was elected to protect.

More than three years ago, my mother-in-law was the victim of sexual assaults by a four-time convicted sex offender in the Pomeroy Nursing Home. He was released from the Cherokee MHI to the Pomeroy nursing home in December of 2010. In January of 2011, my mother-in-law, Mercedes Gottschalk, came out of the lounge and told the staff that he had tried to assault her. Over the next eight months, according to the investigation, she may have been assaulted many, many, many, many, more times until an 8-year-old girl visiting her mother passed by Mercedes’ room and saw him assaulting her. She was hollering, “No! No! No! No!”

Mercedes never got her day in court. She died with her family by her side Oct. 23, 2012. She was a devoted wife and mother and a devout Missouri Synod Lutheran. At that time there were 47 convicted sex offenders in nursing homes in the state. Do you have a loved one in a nursing home? We were told that the nursing home does not have to even tell us if a convicted sex offender is living there. The Pomeroy grade school brought children on a regular basis to visit the residents of the nursing home. The school was never told that two child molesters were among the residents.

Branstad appointed a “study group” to come up with some options for placement of convicted sexual offenders. They met once and disbanded. If closing these facilities is the govenor’s solution, he really does not care about the safety and welfare of seniors and others that need assistance. If it was his mother or wife living in a nursing home, I have no doubt that the regulations and rules would be much different than those proposed or now in place!

The court dates were postponed several times before a court ruled that William Cubbage was unable to stand trial due to dementia and mental illness. Those are about the same reasons that the Cherokee MHI used to release him to Pomeroy. Coincidentally, Mercedes’ family filed a lawsuit against the Pomeroy Nursing Home and the state prior to these postponements and rulings. You may not think that any of this stuff affects you, but at some point in time, all of us may be living in a nursing home or assisted living facility or have a family member there. Would you want a convicted sex offender living down the hall from your wife or mother? Most nursing homes have the minimum number of staff now to try to manage the care and well-being of all residents. These new rules will allow even less oversight.

Department of Human Services Director Charles Palmer stated that there is no plan in place to house the current residents and sex offenders in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant, but that DHS would work with private facilities to place them. What private facilities? Nursing homes? The people that may have a temporary setback and need some guidance from a mental health professional will have to travel hours away from their friends and families when their support is needed the most! Taxpayers will foot the bill for extra deputies just to spend the time transporting court ordered commitments. Ask your sheriffs what they think.

Everyone, please contact your representatives or senators. Tell them to use some common sense. Keep Clarinda and Mount Pleasant funded. Pass laws that keep convicted sex offenders out of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They belong in secure MHI facilities like Clarinda and Mount Pleasant, where they can never again assault your loved ones. ..Source.. by KENNETH RASSLER

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FOX19 Investigates: Sex offenders in local nursing homes

For all those who think this is a good idea, consider, sex offenders are often targeted by vigilantes, so this bill would also place other residents of the facility at risk. Lawmakers frequently FAIL to think through these bills, this is but one example.

11-12-2014 Ohio:

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - If your loved one resides in a local nursing or rehabilitation facility, they may be living with a sex offender and not know it.

A new Ohio state law now requires nursing and residential care facilities to screen for registered sex offenders. If the search identifies the individual as a registered sex offender and the person is admitted to the facility, administrators must also develop a plan of care to protect other residents' rights, notify all other residents and their loved ones that a sex offender has been admitted and direct the individual in updating their address in the Ohio state internet-based sex offender registry. The law took effect September 15, 2014.

The new requirements only apply to sex offenders admitted on or after September 15. The law does not address sex offenders living at facilities prior to that date.

For years, the old state law required local sheriffs to notify anyone living within 1,000 feet of a sex offender, but an unintended loophole did not require administrators of long-term care facilities to notify residents and their sponsors when a sex offender was admitted.

FOX19 Investigates searched the Ohio state sex offender registry and identified 17 sex offenders with addresses listed as nursing and rehabilitation homes in the Cincinnati area. The registry does not specify when the address became effective or how long the individual has lived there.

We showed photos of sex offenders with registered addresses listed as nursing homes to residents and family members of some of the facilities. At one Cincinnati nursing home, one man told us they recognized one of the sex offender photo as a fellow resident.

“I got nieces and nephews that come in here, that are underage,” said resident David Wallace. “I think that's something that needs to be looked into.”

“Shocked, little scared, shocked," said Sonja Tinker, a resident at another Cincinnati nursing facility, listed as the home address for several sex offenders on the state database. Tinker was concerned the new law does not include notification of sex offenders admitted prior to September 15, 2014.

“Just because they've already been there, they came the day before that, you know, you don't know," Tinker said.

The Ohio Attorney General's office maintains the state registry as a public service tool. According to information on the state database, a sex offender is required to register annually with law enforcement. Attorney General Mike DeWine said the new law is a significant step in addressing the loophole in the old law.

“The way the law was written September 15th is the day," De Wine said. “I would say most laws are not retroactive, I think it's an exception to make a law retroactive. Could they have done it? I don't see why they couldn't have done it, but that's not what the law says."

We contacted the Cincinnati-area nursing homes sex offenders listed as home addresses on the state registry. All of them said they are aware of the new law and are in full compliance. ..Source.. by Hagit Limor

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Law would mandate sex-offender alerts at nursing homes

Fear mongering by lawmaker who wants to garner favor from constituents.

4-6-2014 Ohio:

State lawmakers want to close a loophole that requires neighbors to be notified when a registered sex offender moves into a nursing home but not the people who live there or their families.

“As it stands now, if I live next to a nursing home, I’m going to be notified if a sex offender moves in. But if I’m in the room with a sex offender, I probably won’t know it,” said Beverley Laubert, the state’s long-term-care ombudsman with the Ohio Department of Aging.

Current law requires notification of anyone living within 1,000 feet of a sex offender. However, it does not require nursing-home administrators to notify residents, family members or guardians.

Legislation in Gov. John Kasich’s mid-biennium budget review would require administrators of nursing homes and assisted-living centers to check the names of all prospective residents against the state’s electronic sex-offender registry.

They also would be required to assess the potential risks of admitting that person and to create a plan if they do that includes information about how they would provide a safe environment for everyone, including the offender.

The administrators would then have to tell the other residents and their family members or guardians that a sex offender had moved in and describe the plan to protect them. They also would be required to help sex offenders change their addresses with the local sheriff’s office if they haven’t done so themselves.

“We’re simply trying to correct an unintended consequence of the original law. It’s that simple,” said Bonnie Burman, director of the Department of Aging.

The new requirements are part of a larger bill that could go to the House for a vote this week. Ohio lawmakers have tried several times to change state law so that nursing-home residents are notified when a registered sex offender moves in, but those efforts have failed.

Nationwide, 14 states have enacted laws related to sex offenders in long-term-care facilities, but only five of them require that other residents be notified.

“I think it would be a good first step,” state Sen. Capri Cafaro said. “Anything that promotes better protection of the frail and vulnerable older adults in our state is worth pursuing.”

In 2010, Cafaro, a Democrat from Hubbard in northeastern Ohio, introduced a provision aimed at identifying when the most-serious offenders intended to move into a facility. That bill included a measure to fine facilities $100 a day per violation if they didn’t comply.

A Dispatch investigation at the time found that 110 nursing-home residents and six employees statewide were registered sex offenders. Fifty-one were concentrated in four nursing homes, including 26 at Carlton Manor in Washington Court House. That one closed this year after the Ohio Department of Health revoked its license because of failed inspections and a history of problems.

While admirable in concept, the law might prove to be a difficult balancing act, said Jane Straker, a senior researcher at the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University.

“Who doesn’t want to take care of frail, older adults if we perceive that they might be in danger? But sex offenders can also be frail, older adults in need of help,” she said. “It’s a huge dilemma, and I don’t know the answer.”

Straker said research hasn’t been able to show a link between resident abuse and registered sex offenders in long-term care. And predicting which residents are likely to abuse others has been problematic.

Some people worry that notification would create unnecessary fear among the other residents and their families.

“If you ship out a notice that you’ve just admitted a sex offender, a mass exodus will probably ensue, and no one wants that,” said Peter Van Runkle, the executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, a nursing-home industry group.

To prevent that from happening, he predicts that most nursing homes would simply say they don’t have the staff and other resources to meet a sex offender’s needs.

And if a nursing home did accept a registered sex offender, “would it become a scarlet letter?” asked Steve Wermuth, interim president and CEO of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes.

But state officials said those fears are unfounded.

When it has been previously revealed that a sex offender has lived at a nursing home, “nothing awful has happened,” said Laubert, the state’s ombudsman. ..Source.. by Encarnacion Pyle

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Register Investigation: After nursing home slaying, new legislation

Unbelievable, Iowa lawmaker using a situation which HAS NOTHING to do with sex offenders, to pass a law covering sex offenders. Is there a better example of legalized vigilantism?

2-14-2013 Iowa:

Rules apply only to sex offenders, not violent residents such as man charged in Fayette County death

In the wake of a brutal homicide at a Fayette County care facility, state lawmakers are again examining the issue of violent criminals living in Iowa’s nursing homes.

The Iowa House is considering a bill that would require care facility administrators to notify patients, visitors, workers and others when a registered sex offender moves into the home. But the bill is silent on violent offenders convicted of crimes that aren’t sexual in nature.

The Des Moines Register last year identified at least 42 registered sex offenders living either in nursing homes for the elderly or the more lightly regulated residential care facilities for disabled adults. The Register’s report also detailed several incidents in which known offenders moved into the homes and then sexually assaulted their fellow residents.

The Register’s investigation into the Fayette County homicide reveals that the suspect, 35-year-old Matthew T. Braun, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had a well-documented history of violence toward family members and police before he was admitted to the Prairie View Residential Care Facility last summer. Braun had been arrested 10 times for various forms of assault, and had eight convictions for willful injury and assault, with most of the victims being police officers or corrections officials, court records show.

John Tapscott, a former state lawmaker who now advocates for the elderly, says too many of Iowa’s care facilities have evolved from “safe havens for the elderly and the disabled” into “holding facilities for sexual offenders or those with a history of violence or criminal convictions.”

The home’s administrator, Sylvia Mork, declined to answer questions about the case but said in a written statement that Braun — who is now being held awaiting trial — was “immediately removed from the facility” after the killing.

She said the home will “continue to screen prospective residents to ensure that we can meet their needs and protect the safety and welfare of our residents.”

Prairie View is a 90-bed care facility that was staffed by only three workers the night of the killing, state records show. The facility is owned by Fayette County but is managed by Prairie View Management Inc., a nonprofit organization run by a six-member board that includes Marjorie Strudthoff.

Strudthoff, 79, said the board has never discussed the assaults that have taken place at Prairie View, or the risk posed by violent offenders. She said the home’s administrator informs the board of some of the incidents that occur in the facility, but that information is limited.

“We’ll get some information, but not much about what is going through the police ...continued... by Clark Kauffman

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Small price to protect frail Oklahomans

4-19-2012 Oklahoma:

How much is it worth to make sure your loved one - your mother, grandmother, father, grandfather or child - who lives in a long-term care facility or who uses home care is protected from potential abuse?

What if we could add an extra layer of protection for Oklahomans who use home-care providers for about the same price as it costs to have a Big Mac at McDonald's? The answer is simple: Most of us would gladly pay $4 to ensure Oklahoma's most frail and vulnerable residents are protected from potential abusers.

Special interests at the state Capitol are working hard to defeat a bill in the Legislature that would require nursing homes, assisted living and residential care facilities and home-care providers to perform fingerprint-based, nationwide background checks on future employees with direct patient access.

Twice, AARP has stood up to these powerful special interests who think $4 is too much for home-care providers to pay to add fingerprints to background checks when they currently are not required to check the Sex Offender and Violent Offender Registries when conducting background checks on future employees.

And now, unless the state Senate votes on House Bill 2582 by April 26, and ensures the bill eventually becomes law, Oklahoma will send a powerful message to the rest of the country: Four dollars - less than the cost of a car wash - is just too much money to protect our most frail and vulnerable residents from potential abusers.

What does this say about Oklahoma? Are profits more important than the safety of our nursing home, long-term care and home-care patients? Can we put a price on the safety of these people, many of whom are older and disabled?

The facts are clear: Significant evidence exists that there are employees working in Oklahoma long-term care facilities who have been charged with harmful acts in other states. They simply cross state lines and work in our long-term care facilities because we don't require home-care providers to check the Sex Offender and Violent Offender Registries. This bill would broaden the law and require home-care providers to check those registries.

HB 2582 wouldn't require any additional costs to nursing homes, assisted living or residential care providers. That's why, in addition to AARP, the Oklahoma Department of Health and the Oklahoma Aging Partnership, many nursing homes, assisted living and residential providers support HB 2582.

Even though we know all this, some home-care providers and their powerful lobbyists still oppose adding fingerprint-based, national background checks for future employees because it would cost them $4 - less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

This is not a partisan issue. It is about protecting the safety and well-being of older Oklahomans. What the Oklahoma Senate does on HB 2582 will directly impact thousands of our most frail and vulnerable residents.

We think $4 is not too much to pay to keep those Oklahomans safe. ..Source.. by Marjorie Lyons

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Bill on offenders in care centers advances

Utter nonsense, personal notification, if this is what is required then do away with the registry! And, a plan of how to protect folks from the registrant? Anyone ever heard of 911? If this is implemented businesses will have to drive costs for their services sky high (needing personal guards for everyone). Stupidity at its best... Remember, the government does not tell you how to protect yourself when in the public, excepting to be mindful of the registry. Hint hint..

3-15-2012 Iowa:

The Iowa House moved legislation Wednesday regarding sex offenders in nursing homes, as well as two other high-profile bills.

On a unanimous vote, House members approved new mandates for nursing homes and other care facilities to inform residents, employees, visitors and others when a sex offender is admitted as a resident. Facilities housing a sex offender also must develop a plan outlining how other residents, employees and the public will be protected from the offender.

The bill, House File 2422, now moves to the Senate for further consideration.

The issue arose following reports in The Des Moines Register identifying dozens of sex offenders living in nursing homes and other care facilities — including one case in which a known offender living in a nursing home was accused of assaulting another elderly resident.

Bill sponsor Joel Fry, R-Osceola, said the bill aimed to address short-term issues concerning the presence of offenders in nursing homes but also to study longer-term concerns over aging populations of known sex offenders that may increasingly be referred to care facilities with vulnerable residents.

The bill passed on a 93-0 vote, but not everyone accepted it wholeheartedly. Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, said she supported the bill, but wondered aloud whether it may face constitutional concerns.

She implored lawmakers to consider sex offenders’ rights alongside those of others.

“I just hope that as we go forward we keep in mind that we do have to balance the very legitimate need to protect our family members, people who are in these institutions and may not be able to protect themselves, against the constitutional rights of people who for whatever reason are on the sex offender registry,” she said.

Fry replied that he recognized her concern, and felt the bill struck the right balance.

“We want to walk that tightrope to make sure those rights are protected but also to make sure the rights and the safety of those individuals who reside in those facilities is also balanced and protected,” he said. ..Source.. by JASON NOBLE

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States consider legislation to track sex offenders at nursing homes

11-19-2011 Tennessee:

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - There's enough to worry about already when you put a loved one in a nursing home, but have you ever thought about the registered sex offenders who live there? Some states are considering legislation to warn potential tenants of the risk of moving in.

Wes Bledsoe is the founder of A Perfect Cause, a nursing home watchdog group. A Perfect Cause documented more than 60 suspected rapes, sexual assaults, physical assaults and murders committed by people living in long-term care facilities nationwide.

Notice, he doesn't say those were committed by registered sex offenders. Reality is, there were committed by employees other residents and folks (sometimes felons) placed there on a temporary basis because they needed the care of the nursing home. In addition, he does not define sexual assault, which can be as simple as a touch due to the way laws are constructed.

"Who else would be so vulnerable except a small child?" he asked.

One victim WAS a small child: a 3-year-old girl visiting family at a Texas nursing home where a registered sex offender lived.

"There needs to be notification of every entrant into the facility that there is a violent or sexual offender in that facility," Bledsoe said. "That way, when we have school groups, church groups or civic groups coming to entertain these residents – these children - we can make sure they're being protected."

Currently, A Perfect Cause reports 1,800 registered sex offenders living in nursing homes around the country.

Tonya Glassco researched at least four facilities before choosing one for her mother-in-law, and each time she asked if sex offenders lived there.

"Yes, I did, because there are some dirty old people out there," she said.

But aside from state sex offender registries, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas do not require notification be given to nursing home residents or their families when a sex offender moves in.

Lawmakers in Alabama are considering a bill that would do just that.

"What this bill does is mandate to the owners of the nursing home or assisted living facility that if they receive an individual who may be a sexual predator that they notify first the residents, then the Department of Senior Services, and also the local D.A. that that individual is in that facility," Rep. Jeremy Oden said.

The Action News 5 Investigators discovered at least two registered sex offenders who list a Memphis nursing home as their address.

- Johnny Kilpatrick was convicted of sexual battery in 1998. He now lives at Spring Gate Rehab and Rehabilitation on Old Covinginton Pike. A manager there didn't know he was a registered sex offender until the Action News 5 Investigators called. The manager said, "We want to make sure our residents are protected. Mr. Kilpatrick is harmless, he won't endanger anybody. We will address it."

- A Shelby County jury convicted Joseph White of rape. According to the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry, White lives at Ashton Place on Walnut Grove. But Ashton Place told Memphis police that White hasn't been there in two years. As cops were obtaining a warrant for White, they quickly discovered he was already dead.

Back in Alabama, there is opposition to the bill that would require sex offender notification to be given to residents and their families. But for Wes Bledsoe, it is a cause worth fighting for.

"Many of these people do not have the mental capacity to protect themselves from an assault, and many of them do not have the ability to report what has happened to them," he said.

The manager at Ashton Place said the facility checks residents against the sex offender registry, and doesn't allow sex offenders to live there. ..Source.. by Anna Marie Hartman

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Bill shuts notification loophole on sex offenders in nursing homes

Things are getting out of hand, first everyone wanted a public registry, now everyone wants PERSONAL NOTIFICATIONS. This request is another form of secondary dissemination which could easily pass on erroneous information, and without the WARNINGS required by the Adam Walsh Act, to protect the RSO. Oh, did Ohio forget about that when it allegedly enacted AWA?

Nursing home staff is already burdened with work and adding another task will unnecessarily drive up costs of nursing homes. This lawmaker needs to get a life and stop with this nonsense, current laws are sufficient, folks need to get off their duffs and find out for themselves.

How about a law -for voters- to tell them -at the polls- about lawmakers like this that waste the time of the legislature. PS: How many of these RSOs in nursing homes NEED the services provided by nursing homes? Oh, lawmaker is silent on that point!

1-21-2010 Ohio:

A loophole that allows more than 100 registered sex offenders to live in Ohio nursing homes without other residents and their families knowing about their offenses could be closed with state legislation unveiled today.

Senate Bill 130, sponsored by state Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, would require nursing-home administrators to notify residents, family members and guardians when a Tier III sex offender - the most serious level of offense - intends to move to the facility. The hearing today was the first on the bill.

Current law requires the notification of anybody living within 1,000 feet of a sex offender. However, the law does not require nursing-home administrators to inform residents, family or guardians.

Cafaro told the Senate Judiciary and Criminal Justice Committee that the state's Sex Offender Registration and Notification Law must be strengthened "to better protect our state's most vulnerable residents."

Facilities that don't comply could be fined $100 a day per violation. Proceeds from fines would be used for adult protective services, Cafaro said.

A Dispatch computer analysis last year comparing state records of long-term-care facilities with the existing notification list found that 110 nursing-home residents and six employees were registered sex offenders. Fifty-one were concentrated at four nursing homes, including 26 in one facility in Washington Court House.

Ohio's number of offenders in nursing facilities nearly tripled in the past five years, according to Perfect Cause, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit group. Perfect Cause documented at least 60 murders, rapes and serious assaults nationwide in nursing homes by residents who are sex offenders, including the rape of a mentally retarded woman in Cincinnati.

Nearly two-thirds of the offenders in nursing homes are Tier III cases, The Dispatch found. The category includes rape, sexual battery, kidnapping a minor and gross sexual imposition on a child younger than 12.

Beverley L. Laubert, the state's long-term-care ombudsman, urged state lawmakers to pass a law closing the loophole in a report released late last year.

Some argue that notification is unfair and would create unnecessary fear.

Pete VanRunkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, representing long-term-care facilities in the state, said previously that while he supports the idea there is no provision in state law that would allow nursing homes to remove or refuse sex offenders.

Attorney General Richard Cordray supports the change, but Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, chairman of the committee in which Cafaro's bill is being heard, is skeptical. He said previously that nursing-home residents and their families can "check for themselves" to see whether an offender resides in the facility. ..Source.. Alan Johnson, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Nursing homes report more felons

While the media and politicians want the public to believe the problem is caused by sex offenders, the reality is it is caused by all persons involved with nursing homes (felons, sex offenders, employees, visitors and vendors). Everytime one of these articles comes out they ignore the fact that, nursing homes are for -folks who are ill- AND -senior citizens-, most of those who are ill are recuperating and are TEMPORARY residenst of these homes.

12-21-2009 Illinois:

Facilities statewide noted increase of 3 percent from November to December

Following Tribune reports of violent attacks by felons living in nursing homes, some facilities are scrambling to comply with a 4-year-old disclosure law requiring them to notify state public health officials when they admit offenders, state officials say.

As a result, the number of felons reported to be living in the facilities increased last month, according to state records and interviews. Illinois nursing homes disclosed that they held 3,326 offenders as of Dec. 10, up from 3,224 on Nov. 5.

Some had been living in the facilities undeclared for as long as a year, records show.

"If they have not been reporting individuals in the past, they've begun reporting them," said Richard Dees, chief of the state Department of Public Health's Bureau of Long-Term Care.

Statewide, the rate at which facilities reported new felons has doubled from about 50 a month to 100 last month.

Since 2006, Illinois has required nursing facilities to conduct criminal background checks on all new residents and immediately notify state health authorities when they admit anyone with a serious felony conviction. But some homes failed to conduct the background checks within the required time period, made serious errors on the checks, or simply failed to report felons to public health officials, the Tribune found in an October investigation. Some of these offenders went on to commit assaults and other serious crimes inside the homes.

On Friday, for example, a 22-year-old mentally ill felon pleaded guilty to the brutal January rape of a 69-year-old woman who lived in the same Elgin nursing home. Christopher Shelton's background screening had been improperly handled by Elgin's Maplewood Care nursing home because they used the wrong birth date, records show. Shelton will serve 12 years under his plea agreement.

The surprising number of offenders in Illinois nursing facilities stems from a decades-old policy that shuttered state-run psychiatric hospitals while offering little housing and community-based treatment to the discharged patients. Many, including thousands with criminal records, wound up in nursing homes that were ill-equipped to monitor and treat them, according to government reports and interviews with officials and advocates.

The felons currently housed in Illinois nursing facilities include 196 sex offenders, state records show.

The largest jump in reported felons occurred at Wincrest Nursing Center, a 70-bed facility nestled amid student dormitories near the Loyola University Chicago campus in Edgewater. The number of felons reportedly living at Wincrest more than doubled to 30 in December from 12 the previous month, state records show.

Facility administrator Narad Persadsingh acknowledged that his staff knew about the criminal backgrounds of the 18 newly disclosed felons but simply failed to notify the state as required by law. "I just missed it," Persadsingh said.

He said state health authorities are not taking punitive action because the facility is now in compliance with state law. Federal health care inspectors recently gave Wincrest a four-out-of-five-star, "above average" rating for overall quality.

State Rep. Harry Osterman, whose district encompasses the facility, said he repeatedly has asked Wincrest how many felons live there but "to date they have not given that to us." Told the number by reporters, Osterman said: "I'm astonished. That highlights the public safety concerns that we've seen in the past."

Neighbors' complaints to Osterman's office have included accusations that Wincrest residents have purchased drugs, committed burglaries and harassed students. An April 2009 state health department report said Wincrest residents "purchase and smoke marijuana and consume alcohol while off the premises of the facility," and added that one resident allegedly had walked into a nearby dorm and smeared feces on the walls. There are seven Loyola residence halls with about 600 students within a block of Wincrest, and female students have reported catcalls and harassment, university officials said.

Persadsingh told the Tribune that, by law, Wincrest can put few restrictions on its residents, who suffer from psychiatric and substance abuse problems. "These are mentally ill people and we don't lock them in like animals," he said. He added that neighborhood complaints are exaggerated and stem from Loyola's desire to take over the property. "They want this place," Persadsingh said. "They want to gentrify the area."

Loyola officials said they are not against having a psychiatric facility in their midst, but they question whether Wincrest is properly treating and supervising its residents. "I wouldn't want my daughter to walk by there at 12 at night," said Loyola Interim Director of Campus Safety Robert Fine.

The state health department's Division of Patient Safety and Quality has only two employees dedicated solely to collecting reports of felons, tracking the offenders and initiating the state's risk assessments, which are used to identify high-risk individuals who should live in private rooms and be closely monitored.

"We are short-staffed," state health department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said.

Gov. Pat Quinn's new Nursing Home Safety Task Force, formed in response to Tribune reports, is considering ways to strengthen and speed the background checks and risk assessments as part of a broader overhaul designed to protect vulnerable residents and improve the care of the mentally ill.

"We're glad that the spotlight that is being directed toward this issue is contributing to a serious effort on the part of the nursing home providers and the department to follow our existing rules that will better help us segregate people who need a different sort of setting for their care," task force chairman Michael Gelder said in an interview.

An increase in felons also was reported at Sharon Healthcare Pines in Peoria, which disclosed 18 offenders this month, up from 11 in November.

While one of those seven newly reported felons was admitted to Sharon Pines in recent weeks, the criminal backgrounds of the other six had been known to the facility for months -- but not disclosed to health authorities as required, records and interviews show.

Among them was a 45-year-old convicted burglar and drug user with a major psychiatric disorder. A second, a 49-year-old with numerous convictions and a mood disorder, had been living in the home unreported for almost a year, according to his confidential state risk assessment report.

It was "an unfortunate clerical error," said Arnold Kanter, a facility spokesman. "What is more significant than the number of felons is the monitoring and treatment they receive," he added.

Federal health care inspectors recently gave a five-star, "well above average" rating for overall quality to Sharon Pines, which specializes in younger adults with psychiatric illness and severe medical conditions. There have been 11 police reports of alleged violence at the facility since January 2008. ..Source.. Gary Marx and David Jackson, Tribune reporters

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Nursing homes: Most sex offenders living in nursing homes aren't listed on state police's online registry

12-1-2009 Illinois:

Under Illinois law, families researching nursing homes are directed to search a state police Web site for critical information about sex offenders living in the facilities.

But only 59 of the 192 sex offenders in Illinois nursing homes -- or less than one in three -- were listed on that online state registry, a Tribune investigation found.

The shortfall is especially acute in Chicago, where fewer than one in five sex offenders in nursing homes were posted on the state police Web site, the Tribune found.

Part of the problem is a gap in the law: Although some sex offenders can remain dangerous for decades if unmonitored and untreated, many are no longer required to register with police if their convictions or final parole dates occurred more than 10 years ago.

Notice carefully how the reporter fails to tell us "How many of those no longer required register by law" resided in nursing homes at the time of the article. So, of the 192 total, less those appearing on the registry (59), leaves us with 133. Are these required to register or not? This is how journalists mislead readers, the title of the article "Nursing homes: Most sex offenders living in nursing homes aren't listed on state police's online registry" is technically true, but in essence misleads readers by not including ALL the facts. The absence of those FACTS makes folks think the UNREGISTERED offenders where violating the law, when in fact, some or all were not.

In addition, state investigators have documented more than a dozen instances since 2007 in which nursing homes failed to notify local law enforcement that they housed a convicted sex offender, as required by law, or failed to implement care plans to monitor and treat sex offenders inside the facilities, the Tribune found.

In some cases those offenders allegedly went on to molest vulnerable residents and even staff, according to state public health reports.

Which offender/s and how many? Those registered or those not red because they law didn't require them to register? Or, was it other felons also housed in nursing homes which reporter fails to mention here? Facts are missing from the article and the result misleads readers.

The state police sex offender registry is a critical tool for nursing home residents and their families because, under Illinois law, facility administrators don't have to divulge the identities of sex offenders living in the homes, reveal any details of their crimes or even say how many are there.

Instead, state law requires homes to inform people of the state police online registry, which allows them to search for sex offenders by name if known, city, county and ZIP code.

The undercounting of sex offenders in nursing homes on the state police registry represents another example of how Illinois has fallen short in keeping nursing homes safe and consumers fully informed even as the facilities admit growing numbers of felons and psychiatric patients with violent backgrounds.

"Does an unregistered sex offender still pose a risk? Absolutely. The fact that someone is registered or not doesn't really address the (danger) they pose to other people," said Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. "Because of the high risk of recidivism, it is extraordinarily important to have the information."

Last year, state health inspectors cited the Asta Care Center of Elgin for failing to inform authorities that John Gorzela -- deemed a sexual predator by state police -- had been living at the facility for more than a year, according to a state report and Elgin police.

It was not until March 2008 -- after Gorzela allegedly put his hands on a female employee in an inappropriate way "on several occasions" -- that the facility took him to Elgin police to register him as a sex offender, according to state reports and interviews.

A Tribune review of a dozen of the state's confidential background screenings of sex offenders who recently entered nursing homes found some of these assessments omitted details about the sex crimes and contained only cursory information about the risks the offenders posed to vulnerable residents. Four of those assessments took more than six months to complete, and one took a year and a half, even though the law requires that they be done within days of admission.

Sex offender Jack Brougher, 80, was admitted to the Asta Care Center in Bloomington with a February 2008 assessment that rated him as a low risk, meaning he was to be given his own room but generally treated like any other resident, records show. Brougher's state assessment gave no information about his offense, saying only that there was "no violence involved."

That surprised Kim Campbell, first assistant state's attorney in McLean County, where Brougher was convicted of molesting a 5-year-old neighbor when he was 73. "He didn't hit anybody, but this guy is a sexual predator," she said.

Mental health experts and criminologists point out that most men who commit sex offenses early in life discontinue by the time they reach their 50s, but some lose the ability to suppress dangerous urges and impulses as their mental capacities and willpower ebb with age.

Safety assessments and monitoring must be especially rigorous in nursing homes, where sex offenders live close to frail and mentally impaired residents who can't always defend themselves and "may not be able to report" that they've been attacked, said Alyssa Williams-Schafer, coordinator for sex-offender services at the state corrections department.

In a telephone interview with the Tribune, Brougher denied molesting the 5-year-old but said his conviction is widely known among facility residents.

"I don't advertise it -- it's just one of those things that's in the books," Brougher said. When a group of children recently came to entertain residents, Brougher said he was forced to sit in the back. "I'm not supposed to be around kids. ... I got a lot of restrictions," he said.

Homes with the most sex offenders have consistently low ratios of nursing staff-to-patients, a Tribune analysis found, even though experts consider adequate staffing essential to protecting vulnerable residents.

Of the 29 homes with three or more sex offenders, according to public health authorities, 15 were given the lowest possible federal rating, "much below average," for their nurse staffing-to-patient ratios, while seven others were rated "below average," government records show.

Among these homes are three sister facilities, the Asta Care Centers of Toluca, Bloomington and Elgin, which between them recently housed a total of 18 sex offenders -- nearly 10 percent of the 192 sex offenders living in Illinois nursing homes, according to Nov. 5 figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Only eight of those 18 sex offenders were listed on the state police registry.

Asta attorney Michael Siegel said those facilities had only a couple of incidents of sex offenders actually molesting or inappropriately touching others in the last three years: "These are fairly isolated situations, and I think they do a very good job of monitoring and caring for these folks."

Last year, the state public health department fined Asta Bloomington for failing to protect residents from a sex offender as well as from another resident who fondled two mentally impaired residents.

Separately, a state inspection last year said the Asta Elgin facility failed to develop a care and safety plan for Gorzela, 79, who was adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a 5-year-old in 2005. Gorzela declined to comment.

Gorzela was later moved to the sister Asta Care Center in Bloomington, but in December 2008, state inspectors reported that the Bloomington facility failed to notify residents and their families about him and seven other felons living there. One woman told state inspectors she had no idea a sexual predator lived near her mentally disabled daughter, adding, "Had I known, I would have been down there throwing a fit."

While some offenders might be dismissed as threats because of their advanced years or apparent weaknesses, Frank Aoskad's case -- pieced together through state records and interviews -- shows how difficult that determination is to make.

Alert and straight-backed, the silver-haired 80-year-old in the plaid shirt seemed "a clean-appearing elderly man," one public health department report said. The state police registry labels Aoskad a "sexual predator," listing his 2002 conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a 15-year-old neighbor.

Aoskad has not been charged with any crime at any of the Asta Care Center nursing homes. He declined requests for comment.

At the Asta home in Toluca earlier this year, he was one of at least six sex offenders put on "30-minute monitoring" because of their potential threat to others. But the facility failed to conduct scheduled monitoring of five of those six, a state inspection later found.

Siegel said Asta monitored Aoskad but "didn't do the documentation."

On April 10, state inspectors wrote, Asta supervision logs didn't account for Aoskad's whereabouts for 9 1/2 hours. That afternoon, a maintenance man spotted Aoskad sitting on a lobby couch with his hand on a woman's leg "in a manner that was 'a little too friendly,' " a state report said.

A state report and interviews describe what happened next: A nurse's aide intervened, but a few hours later, the same worker discovered another woman -- an 82-year-old Alzheimer's patient -- lying on the bed in Aoskad's room with her pants pulled down to her thighs and Aoskad beside her. The worker left to get a nurse's aide, who walked in to find Aoskad with his hand in the woman's pants.

Aoskad was transferred on July 16 to the Asta Bloomington sister facility. Administrators there admitted Aoskad knowing he "had a recent history of sexual abuse at a sister facility" but "failed to put in place procedures and interventions to protect the (other) 73 residents," a separate state report said.

Siegel disputes the inspector's findings, saying Bloomington employees were briefed on Aoskad's background and watched him closely.

Asta Bloomington installed a laser-beam alarm on Aoskad's door, but for two or three days at least, he was able to "sidestep the alarm system," and when they put him in a new room, he would get around those alarms too, a state inspector wrote. Within two weeks, a nurse's aide found Aoskad "fondling the breast" of an Alzheimer's patient, a state report said.

In August, Aoskad was moved back to Asta Toluca, records show. When a state health inspector interviewed Aoskad there, he denied touching women but said that at Asta Bloomington, he was able to go where he pleased.

Siegel disputed the inspectors' characterization of Aoskad, saying he was enfeebled by two strokes and "confused."

It wasn't until August -- when Aoskad was transferred back to Toluca -- that he was finally assessed by the state, Siegel said. He was given the top classification of "high risk" to others in a report that said his impaired judgment due to the strokes increased his danger of acting out.

Only 28 felons -- or less than 1 percent of those in Illinois nursing facilities -- were similarly rated as high risk. ..Source.. David Jackson and Gary Marx

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Chicago nursing homes: Slaying of nursing-home resident in nearby motel shows how violence can spill into neighborhoods

Rarely mentioned is, the MAJORITY of nursing home residents are TEMPORARY, there to rehabilitate following some sort of surgery. Most people erroneously think nursing homes house LONG TERM residents only. No matter who the person is, or what the person's background is, there are times when they need the services of a nursing home. Politicians ignore such circumstances as does the media in its reporting.

12-1-2009 Illinois:

Crimes frustrate Uptown and Edgewater, where a cluster of nursing homes admit mentally ill felons

She was a beautiful woman with broad cheekbones and an easy smile. But drug addiction dragged Maratta Walker into a life of prostitution and violence.

By last year the 45-year-old had been arrested more than 35 times for crimes ranging from crack cocaine possession to slashing three people with a razor blade.

Still, because she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered debilitating seizures, Walker qualified for Medicaid-funded housing in the Somerset Place nursing home in Uptown.

Before she was admitted to the massive, 450-bed facility on North Sheridan Road last year, a probation officer noted hopefully that "her mental and physical conditions can be monitored at all times."

But instead of getting close supervision, Walker soon was trading sex for cash and using cocaine only blocks from the nursing home, government records and interviews show.

Cases like hers fill the crime blotters of the Uptown and Edgewater communities, where a cluster of large nursing homes admit hundreds of felons who have severe psychiatric disorders.

Illinois is unique among states in relying on nursing homes to house younger adults with mental illness, including several thousand felons. A recent Tribune investigation documented reports that violent psychiatric patients who were not receiving proper treatment assaulted, raped and even murdered their elderly and disabled housemates.

But stories like Walker's show how the chaotic and harmful behavior also can spill outside the nursing home walls.

Nowhere is that more true than the lakefront communities of Uptown and Edgewater, which contain the state's densest concentration of mentally ill and criminal nursing home residents, a Tribune analysis of recent data from the Illinois Department of Public Health found.

Among the nursing homes in a 2-square-mile section of those neighborhoods, 11 facilities last month housed 318 convicted felons and 1,350 people with mental illness -- roughly 10 percent of the felons in all Illinois nursing homes and more than 9 percent of the psychiatric patients in state facilities.

Here, Maratta Walker joined a ragged underclass of dope dealers, prostitutes, panhandlers and petty thieves who sometimes ply the streets while living in government-funded homes.

Many facility residents wind up becoming both criminal and victim. The pattern frustrates many in these neighborhoods who recoil at their destructive behavior, yet see that it stems from lifelong addictions and disabilities.

"People are suffering in these homes, and because of them," said Ald. Mary Ann Smith, 48th, who recently met with officials from the U.S. Justice Department and other agencies to address what she calls the deplorable conditions at some facilities.

Though nursing home staffing levels are considered the cornerstone of patient safety and quality care, most of the 11 Uptown-Edgewater homes that currently house felons have substandard nurse staffing levels, a Tribune analysis found.

Of the seven facilities recently rated by the federal government on nursing staff-to-patient ratios, five were "well below average," while another was below average and only one was average.

"If you provided adequate psychiatric services in these nursing homes, then you wouldn't be so nervous about people walking out the door," said University of Chicago Law School clinical professor Mark Heyrman, who has worked with mentally ill nursing home residents in Uptown-Edgewater.

At the All American Nursing Home at 5448 N. Broadway, state investigators reported last month that the facility often lacked care and discharge plans for psychiatric residents. One suicidal felon, who fought with peers and tested positive for drugs, signed himself out of the home despite a physician's restrictions against leaving the facility, that report said.

State inspectors also reported this year that the nearby Sheridan Shores Care & Rehabilitation Center, 5838 N. Sheridan., failed to provide services to the mentally ill.

The owners and administrators of those two facilities declined interview requests, as did Eric Rothner, who through companies and family trusts has an ownership stake or consulting role in Somerset and more than a dozen Illinois facilities. Rothner told the Tribune in a one-page letter that "the real issue is that no one wants these facilities in their respective neighborhoods."

"We are working," he added, "to assure that residents in our facilities have the best quality of life possible. We also work closely with the community to address any issues that may arise."

Somerset staff and a representative of two other area nursing homes said in interviews that they provide excellent care to a difficult population and cannot stop mentally ill residents from leaving the facilities or follow them onto city streets. State and federal nursing home regulations emphasize resident rights, including access to the community.

When residents like Walker commit crimes or endanger themselves, the homes say they can only offer behavior contracts, impose curfews and restrict pass privileges. The facilities' last option is involuntary discharge, a legal process that can take months.

Somerset, 5009 N. Sheridan, placed Walker on a "pass restriction," meaning she was not supposed to leave without being accompanied by staff or a family member, a state report said. But shortly after 9 p.m. on May 8, 2008, she strolled onto the streets alone.

Twelve days later, her decomposed body was found in a nearby motel room. Police say a paroled bank robber beat Walker to death after the two met on the streets and launched a days-long binge of drinking, sex and crack-smoking and heroin use.

"I was so angry and hurt -- I was outraged," said Walker's sister Caroline. "All they had to do is keep her on restriction. ... I don't know how they let her get out. There needs to be something done about it."

'Public safety hazard'It took decades for parts of Uptown and Edgewater to become what one federal report called "a psychiatric ghetto."

High-rise apartment-hotels were constructed here in a more glamorous time -- the 1920s and '30s, when Broadway shimmered with dance halls and speak-easies.

But as the club scene shifted elsewhere, the streets of Uptown and Edgewater got rougher. Then, starting in the 1960s, Illinois joined a nationwide de-institutionalization movement and began to empty the state-run psychiatric hospitals that once housed more than 50,000 patients but now hold only about 1,500.

Many of the old hotels were converted into transient rooming houses and nursing homes as Broadway became a squalid mosaic of taverns, day labor agencies and methadone clinics.

Though pockets of the West and South Sides of Chicago were similarly affected, the unique concentration of large facilities packed with the mentally ill in Uptown and Edgewater strained a part of the city already struggling with poverty and crime.

Somerset alone generated 6,698 police calls for service in the 20 months from January 2008 through August 2009, according to data compiled by Smith. Although many of the calls are frivolous, Smith noted that they represent a drain on resources.

In an April letter to local officials, the Carmen-Winona Neighborhood Association said Somerset created a "public safety hazard," adding: "There are numerous complaints from neighbors about being accosted by Somerset residents as they walk by the building. ... Some neighbors have been followed home and threatened."

Somerset administrators recently met with police and community groups to address allegations of drug sales and loitering in front of the building.

Among the nursing home residents who engaged in chronic street crime is former Gangster Disciple Rodney Williams, 43, who has been arrested at least 14 times since 2004 during stays at the Wilson Care and Grasmere Place homes, police records show.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Williams was charged with punching a bicycle rider to the ground during a 2007 Uptown robbery attempt. This year, he was arrested for selling crack cocaine on the street and jailed for shoplifting. Efforts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.

At the One Stop Convenience grocery at 4601 N. Sheridan, between Grasmere Place and Wilson Care, manager Waleed "Wally" Alsilwadi said he catches several shoplifters from nursing homes each day, but "I just take the stuff and let them go because I know the police won't do nothing."

Just up the street from the Bryn Mawr Care nursing home -- an aging facility at 5547 N. Kenmore Ave. that recently housed 20 felons among its 169 mentally ill adults -- Reza Minaey traces a long crack in the front door of his tidy deli.

A nursing home resident kicked the door last year after being told to leave because he was belligerently demanding free food, Minaey said.

"They walk down the street kicking over garbage cans. They scream and talk to themselves," he said. "A lot of people are leaving the neighborhood because they bother people."

A downward spiralAs a teenager in Maywood, Maratta Walker dropped out of high school in 10th grade to care for her ailing mother and her siblings.

But Walker was soon struck by paralyzing seizures as well as overwhelming mood disorders. She developed a cocaine addiction and a growing criminal record, court documents and interviews show.

In recent years, Walker lived on and off in Somerset, a grim, century-old former hotel with narrow, antiseptic corridors. Since 2000, the facility has reported profits of $21.4 million on revenues of $132.8 million, much of it from the Medicaid health program for the poor.

In 2007, while living there, Walker was arrested for crack cocaine possession and sent briefly to prison. A month after being paroled, she checked herself back into the facility.

Caroline Walker said she phoned her sister most mornings, sometimes taking Maratta to Maywood to visit family or to a beauty salon to get her nails painted.

One mental health worker later told state investigators that Walker was not supposed to leave the facility without such supervision to "protect her from her substance abuse and prostitution."

But nursing home employees, including the facility administrator, knew Walker was slipping out to use drugs and work as a prostitute, according to police and state public health reports. Between March and May 2008, Walker failed at least five drug tests, a state report shows.

When Walker returned to Somerset bloodied one spring evening last year, she told staff a man gave her $20 for sex in an alley, then took back the money and pummeled her, cutting and bruising her eye, a state report shows.

On the night of May 8, Walker signed out at the facility's front desk and hooked up with Edward Gibson, a violent and mentally unstable vagrant who was on probation after a federal prison stint for a series of Chicago bank robberies, police and court records show. She never returned to Somerset.

Holed up in the Chicago Lodge, a now-shuttered motel on Foster Avenue, Gibson and Walker smoked cocaine, snorted heroin and drank Crown Royal whiskey, according to statements Gibson made to police.

On their third or fourth day together, Gibson said he became enraged and began punching Walker -- flattening her nose and knocking out her teeth, according to police and medical records. She fell backward, Gibson later told police, smashing her head against the mini-refrigerator.

Gibson told police he put a newspaper over Walker's bloody face and continued his drug binge. When her corpse began to smell, Gibson said, he dragged it into a closet, then kept getting high for two or three more days.

Meanwhile, Walker's sister was in a panic. On May 9, she telephoned for Walker but was told by Somerset staff that she wasn't around. "Nobody had an answer for me," Caroline Walker said.

Eventually, she said, Somerset administrator Jeremy Boshes called to say Maratta Walker had been discharged May 12. Caroline Walker said she was incredulous because her sister wasn't supposed to leave without notifying family.

Days later, Caroline Walker was summoned to the Cook County medical examiner's office. "There were a lot of people there trying to identify somebody," she said, breaking down in tears. "It was us that caught the bad luck."

Boshes told police investigators that Somerset filed a missing person's report the day Maratta Walker disappeared. But Chicago police told the Tribune they could not find such a report on Walker, and state public health investigators reported that Somerset failed to notify police or file a missing person's report. Boshes declined interview requests.

State investigators interviewed Walker's parole officer and determined that facility staff had not told the officer she was living at the facility, let alone that she was testing positive for cocaine. Had the parole officer known about her drug abuse, Walker could have been placed in a treatment program or in prison, the state report said.

State public health investigators cited Somerset with failing to prevent Walker from "leaving the facility unsupervised" and fined the facility $7,000.

Somerset administrators said they couldn't discuss Walker's case, but said that among several corrective actions, they have improved their process for reviewing which residents have access to the community and placed an enforcement monitor at the front desk. Somerset employs a cadre of professional counselors and therapists, the administrators said, and has successfully treated and moved many residents back into the community.

Still, problems have persisted. An April 2009 state inspection found several residents repeatedly skipped out despite pass and curfew restrictions, including a 36-year-old schizophrenic woman who was "soliciting outside the facility for sex" and tested positive for cocaine. And an October report said the facility failed to monitor and treat numerous mentally ill patients.

Since Walker's death, state and federal agencies have levied an additional $80,000 in fines against the facility for other alleged infractions, public health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said. And Somerset's insurance company settled a civil lawsuit by Walker's family for $245,000, according to Walker family attorney Mark McKenna.

In an interview at Cook County Jail, Gibson, 58, denied the unresolved charges that he murdered Walker, telling a Tribune reporter that police promised to release him if "I told them what they wanted."

Caroline Walker said she attends each one of Gibson's court hearings, hoping that someday justice will be delivered.

"Somebody got to stand up," she said. "Somebody loved her." ..Source.. Gary Marx and David Jackson Tribune reporters

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