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| State won't identify homes with sex offenders |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/22/2004 |
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State prison officials last Wednesday refused to tell lawmakers the names of four private nursing homes that are housing seven convicted sex offenders under the state's supervision. Deputy Commissioner Harley Nelson told senators that identifying the homes might make it possible to identify the medical conditions of the offenders, possibly violating state and federal privacy laws. Four are housed in private homes in Hennepin County, and homes in the counties of Redwood, Winona and Kanabec each have one. "Is there somebody at my mother's nursing home?" is the question lawmakers are getting asked and want to be able to answer, Sen. Linda Berglin told the officials. The Minneapolis DFLer is chairwoman of the Health, Human Services and Corrections Budget Division. "That begins, and maybe I'm wrong, to divulge medical data -- private medical data," Nelson answered. Lawmakers demanded an accounting of state-supervised sex offenders in nursing homes in response to a lawsuit Attorney General Mike Hatch filed against a Minneapolis nursing home that housed at least five sex offenders, including two that he alleges abused other residents. Officials at that home denied the allegations. The department located 12 in all -- the seven in the private homes and five at a state-operated nursing home in Walker. That home also has six other sex offenders, but they were referred in other ways and not under the Department of Corrections' control. Corrections Commissioner Joan Fabian worked to place the issue in a broader context. She said the department has been placing ailing parolees and prisoners in nursing homes for 30 years as part of a state push to use community-based organizations where possible. She said the system has largely worked, leading to a smaller prison system than other states and low recidivism rates. The offenders in private nursing homes are aged and physically ill or mentally incapacitated. Several of the offenders are bedridden, one has renal failure requiring thrice-weekly dialysis and at least one is unable to speak. The seven are among 2,357 under the departments' supervision who live in the community. There also are 2,653 registered sex offenders under the authority of district courts or on probation from counties that do not use state Department of Corrections probation officers, Fabian said. |
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