Ohio RSOL and Derek Logue of OnceFallen.com are mentioned in this article. However, I'm not happy that the reporter feels the need to add irrelevant details about Logue's background.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/lawmakers-sex-offenders-nursing-homes-issue-begs-for-answers/ZirXSbeC0nIcdj7ykPkQqO/
Lawmakers: Sex offenders in nursing homes issue begs for answers
Katie Wedell Staff Writer
3:53 p.m Friday, Oct. 21, 2016
Laws on sex offenders in nursing homes
California: If a person on the sex offender registry is being released into a nursing home, the Department of Corrections or other government agency must notify the home. Otherwise, the registered offender must self-report before becoming a client of any care facility. Homes must notify all residents and employees.
Illinois: Nursing facilities must do a “needs” screening prior to admission that includes a mental evaluation and a criminal background check. That assessment is reviewed by a forensic psychologist who creates an “Identified Offender report” detailing risk level and security concerns. That report goes to the home, local police, an ombudsman and the Department of Public Health, which must track offenders in nursing homes and report to lawmakers annually. Sex offenders can’t have roommates in care facilities.
Iowa: A bill to require notification of nursing home residents about sex offenders died in legislature. Another to create a specialized facility for Tier II and Tier III offenders was introduced in 2015 but hasn’t moved out of committee.
Massachusetts: Law bars anyone classified as a level III offender — based on a risk assessment — from living in any care facilities. At least one resident has successfully challenged this law in court.
Minnesota: Registered offenders must notify nursing homes of their status. Additionally, a law enforcement officer must prepare a “fact sheet” for the facility stating the offender’s criminal history, risk level, and profile of likely victims. That sheet must be distributed to all residents if the offender is admitted.
Ohio: Nursing homes must check the sex offender registry before admitting a new resident and must notify other residents or their family members about the care plan for that offender.
Oklahoma: Passed law in 2008 to create specialized nursing home for offenders, but no bids were submitted and it was never built. Notification law requires homes to check registry, notify the state health department if an offender is moving in and post conspicuously a notification that a resident is a registered sex offender.
Oregon: Registered sex offenders must inform a nursing home of their status prior to admission.
Virginia: Care facilities must register with the state police to recieve notifications if a sex offender moves within the same or contiguous ZIP code; determine prior to admission if a potential resident is a registered offender; and have every resident sign an acknowledgement that they know how to check the registry. There is no law that requires a home to tell residents about offenders being admitted. In a fact sheet, the department of health said, “If a facility determines that a sex offender is already a resident of the facility, affirmative notice to other residents is not required by law; nor is it advised.”
Ohio lawmakers want to take a closer look at how the state monitors sex offenders living in nursing homes, and some advocates support changes to how those on the offender registry are classified.
“You brought a problem to light that I really didn’t think about. I just want to look at what other states are doing and what Ohio can do to protect the other residents of the nursing homes and also to protect the individual that’s (on the registry),” said state Rep. Ron Maag, R-Lebanon.
A Dayton Daily News investigation published last week found that 136 sex offenders are living in 43 nursing homes in Ohio. The newspaper identified failures in the safety net intended to balance the needs of all patients with a responsibility to shield them from danger.
Others responding to the investigation said it’s a complicated issue in need of more study.
“The question is what do we do with these people,” said state Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering. “You obviously have people who are in need of nursing home care who happen to be sexual predators. And what is the alternative for them?”
The investigation explored an idea other states have proposed but none have implemented — creating specialized nursing homes for those on the sex offender registry.
Critics said that approach would isolate offenders from family and friends while creating a prison-like setting.
“I’m of the belief that when a person serves their time that should be the end of it,” said Derek Logue, who is on the Ohio registry for a first-degree sexual abuse conviction involving a juvenile in Alabama. He advocates for the rights of those on the registry through his website OnceFallen.com.
“(Registered citizens) should go to the same place everybody else gets to go,” when it comes time for nursing home care, he said.
State Rep. Jim Butler, R-Oakwood, said he’d like to explore changes that could address safety concerns without creating totally separate facilities, including potentially a higher licensure level for homes housing the most at-risk offenders.
Logue, who lives in Cincinnati, argues for doing away with the registry completely. Other advocates for reform say there are best practices that would decrease the number of offenders publicly labeled for life, while ensuring that those who pose the greatest dangers are properly monitored.
“I think the push has to be for more and better information on fewer registrants,” said Barb Wright, a member of the Ohio chapter of Reform Sex Offender Laws.
Risk levels
The reform group has pushed for a model similar to those used in Minnesota and Massachusetts, where offenders are placed into tiers not based solely on their crimes, but on an assessment of a number of risk factors.
Minnesota assigns registered individuals to levels I (low risk of re-offending) to level III (high risk) based on an assessment performed when they leave prison or move in from another state.
A committee considers multiple factors including criminal history, behavior while incarcerated, and relationship to the victim. They also can consider “whether the offender demonstrates a physical condition that minimizes the risk of re-offense, including but not limited to advanced age or a debilitating illness or physical condition,” according to the state statute.
An offender may appeal the decision or request that their risk level be changed after three years, so those who become ill or disabled can petition to get a lower level assignment.
Only those labeled as level III, or most at risk of re-offending, are listed on Minnesota’s online public registry and are subject to community notification.
According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, about half of all registered offenders living in the state have been assigned risk levels. Of those, approximately 57 percent are level I; 31 percent are level II; and and 12 percent (about 360 individuals) are level III.
“It’s sort of a problem I think we have with dealing with sexual predators in general. There’s such a wide range of behavior that what might be appropriate for one group is not appropriate for others,” Lehner said of the current tier system in Ohio, which puts offenders into tiers I through III based solely on the crime they committed.
Crime details
Ohio used to perform a risk assessment to determine whether a sex offender was likely to repeat an offense, said Wright. In 1997, Ohio began listing offenders according to offense.
Supporters of reform say these risk-based approaches would give nursing homes more information about a potential resident, while making sure that only those who pose the greatest risk to others are subject to the public stigma and collateral damages of the registry — including patients in need of care being rejected from nursing homes.
Rep. Butler said he’d like to see more details on the registry, including age ranges of victims.
In one case examined by this newspaper, a Stark County nursing home acknowledged it would have handled the care of a registered sex offender differently if staff had known that he previously attempted to rape a 92-year-old in a Cleveland facility. One week into his stay at the second home he raped an 85-year-old resident and is now in prison.
Butler also approves of a more risk-based tier system and said the Ohio Criminal Justice Recodification Committee currently is studying something similar. The committee is expected to make recommendations for changes to Ohio’s criminal code early in 2017.
“It’s better to have the judge or corrections officials, who know the situation, have the discretion so it’s not a cookie-cutter type approach,” he said.
Unsafe homes?
Roger Evans, of Brookville, said he’d never thought about the issue of sex offenders in nursing homes, but has seen how vulnerable his loved ones have become as they age while he’s navigated the complicated world of nursing facilities.
“We’re still working our way (as a society) through how to deal with aging,” Evans said.
His father spent the last year of his life in a VA nursing facility and his mother-in-law is currently a resident at Walnut Creek Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Kettering.
Evans, 70, worries that the rising costs of high-quality facilities mean many without the economic means are left in understaffed, and possibly unsafe, homes.
The newspaper’s investigation found nearly half of the Ohio homes that currently house sex offenders have a rating of 1 (on a 5-point scale) on the Medicare.gov nursing home comparison tool. Lower ratings indicate repeated health and safety citations on state inspections and can indicate inadequate staffing levels.
Although there are many regulations in place designed to hold nursing homes accountable for quality care, Evans wonders how much monitoring actually is going on when most homes are understaffed.
“You’ve got 25-to-30 people on a floor and each of them needs, in some cases, 24-hour care,” he said.
Rep. Maag also questioned what can be done to make sure those who could pose a risk are properly monitored.
“OK, so I know this person’s a sex offender, I’ve notified the residents of the home, but it looks like there should be some other method of monitoring that patient to make sure they don’t (re-offend),” he said.
“That sounds good when they say they’re doing (hourly checks) but they’re not doing that, I’m sure, because they’re not getting paid for it.”
Staying with the story
I-Team reporter Katie Wedell conducted a months-long investigation that uncovered problems involving sex offenders living in nursing homes. We will provide updates on this issue as lawmakers explore potential changes to Ohio law.
Laws on sex offenders in nursing homes
California: If a person on the sex offender registry is being released into a nursing home, the Department of Corrections or other government agency must notify the home. Otherwise, the registered offender must self-report before becoming a client of any care facility. Homes must notify all residents and employees.
Illinois: Nursing facilities must do a “needs” screening prior to admission that includes a mental evaluation and a criminal background check. That assessment is reviewed by a forensic psychologist who creates an “Identified Offender report” detailing risk level and security concerns. That report goes to the home, local police, an ombudsman and the Department of Public Health, which must track offenders in nursing homes and report to lawmakers annually. Sex offenders can’t have roommates in care facilities.
Iowa: A bill to require notification of nursing home residents about sex offenders died in legislature. Another to create a specialized facility for Tier II and Tier III offenders was introduced in 2015 but hasn’t moved out of committee.
Massachusetts: Law bars anyone classified as a level III offender — based on a risk assessment — from living in any care facilities. At least one resident has successfully challenged this law in court.
Minnesota: Registered offenders must notify nursing homes of their status. Additionally, a law enforcement officer must prepare a “fact sheet” for the facility stating the offender’s criminal history, risk level, and profile of likely victims. That sheet must be distributed to all residents if the offender is admitted.
Ohio: Nursing homes must check the sex offender registry before admitting a new resident and must notify other residents or their family members about the care plan for that offender.
Oklahoma: Passed law in 2008 to create specialized nursing home for offenders, but no bids were submitted and it was never built. Notification law requires homes to check registry, notify the state health department if an offender is moving in and post conspicuously a notification that a resident is a registered sex offender.
Oregon: Registered sex offenders must inform a nursing home of their status prior to admission.
Virginia: Care facilities must register with the state police to recieve notifications if a sex offender moves within the same or contiguous ZIP code; determine prior to admission if a potential resident is a registered offender; and have every resident sign an acknowledgement that they know how to check the registry. There is no law that requires a home to tell residents about offenders being admitted. In a fact sheet, the department of health said, “If a facility determines that a sex offender is already a resident of the facility, affirmative notice to other residents is not required by law; nor is it advised.”
Friday, October 21, 2016
Monday, October 17, 2016
Registrant in Ohio describes how he struggled to find a nursing home
I didn't write the headline below, and if you read my last post, I'm not really fond of this Dayton Daily News series. However, this story describes the difficulty in finding a nursing home while being forced to register.
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/convicted-rapist-says-his-care-hurt-by-his-offende/nsqzK/
Convicted rapist says his care hurt by his offender status
Sex offender who lives in Columbus nursing home talks about difficulties in getting housing.
NEWS By Katie Wedell - Staff Writer 14
Posted: 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016
COLUMBUS — Carlos Campos has long suspected his status as a registered sex offender contributed to problems getting quality care.
Campos in 1979 was convicted of kidnapping, rape, attempted rape and having a weapon under disability.
In her testimony during his trial, the 15-year-old victim recounted how Campos and another man forced her into their car and assaulted her for two hours, according to news accounts. He spent 22 years in prison, followed by several additional stints for parole violations.
Campos, 68, is now a resident of Bryden Place, one of a handful of nursing homes in Ohio that house multiple sex offenders. He uses a wheelchair due to a gunshot wound to his spine in 1973, and has been in and out of nursing homes because of body sores that become infected.
He shares a room at the Columbus home where he has lived since August 2015.
Speaking from his bed in early September, Campos acknowledged Bryden Place wasn’t his first choice of nursing homes. It is far from his home in Wood County and he has other complaints about the conditions, care level and menu.
Still, he’s grateful they were willing to take him.
“No nursing homes in Wood County would accept me so they sent me here,” said Campos, who wanted to be closer to family in northeast Ohio. “But thank God I’ve got a place to stay out the weather. I’ve got hot water and soap to wash up and clean clothes.”
Offenders like Campos — some with far more serious medical needs — have few options in Ohio. As their numbers continue to grow, the state is faced with a vexing issue: how to balance providing care to those who need it while protecting a vulnerable population from someone in the next room or down the hall whose criminal history might include child molestation, sexual battery or rape.
At least one state — Oklahoma — tried creating specialized facilities for sex offenders in 2008 when its legislature passed a measure calling for bids to operate a secure facility that would keep offenders separated from other residents.
However, no bids were submitted and the facility wasn’t built, according to Wes Bledsoe, an advocate for quality nursing home care in that state.
In Ohio, about 44 percent of the 136 sex offenders living in nursing homes reside at just five facilities — two of them with an overall rating of 1 (far below average) or 2 (below average) on the 5-point scale Medicare.gov uses to compare nursing homes. Two others were given a rating of 3 (average) and one — Scenic Pointe Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Millersburg — received a 5, the highest rating.
Bryden Place, where Campos lives, has an 1 rating, though many of its cited deficiencies have been corrected, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates the website.
Bryden Place, with 18 registered sex offenders, has more residents on the registry than any other nursing home in Ohio.
The former Carlton Manor in Washington Court House previously had the largest sex offender population, but it was shut down in 2014 following multiple failed inspections.
Carlton Manor’s demise demonstrates the compounding issues homes fear can happen if they take in sex offenders, advocates for the nursing home industry say.
“The places that are going to be willing to take the difficult patients are those that may struggle to attract less difficult people,” said Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association. “What you find is that in addition to sex offenders, they probably have folks with other behavioral issues in those facilities. When the surveyors come in they’re going to find issues because of that population, so that causes them to get a bad survey, which drives down their star (Medicare rating).
“It’s a circular sort of thing.”
Some have suggested protective measures that include placing offenders on locked floors or in units used for dementia patients and others who are at risk of wandering off.
But others question whether such a precaution would put even more patients at risk.
“If a facility says we’ll take the sex offenders and we’re going to put them in our locked unit, well if the residents in the locked unit have dementia and are less able to report and prevent and defend themselves, I would think that would not be the right choice,” said Bev Laubert, Ohio’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman.
The ACLU of Ohio said separate, locked facilities are not a practical solution because the people housed there would be kept further from their home, friends and relatives.
Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist for the ACLU, said the offender database should be purged to eliminate the profiles of people who no longer pose a danger to others.
“What this really calls for is a change in our statewide sex offender laws,” he said. “There should be allowances … flexibility in the law that allows somebody, perhaps a judge, to go back in and revisit.”
Campos was told in August he no longer needs to register. His profile, including the details of his crime, has been taken off the Ohio online registry.
Campos said he didn’t mind complying with the registry requirements but feels the law shouldn’t continue to punish those who have served their time.
“They are made to keep you in check and make sure that you’re doing the right thing,” he said. “The laws weren’t made to adversely affect you.”
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/convicted-rapist-says-his-care-hurt-by-his-offende/nsqzK/
Convicted rapist says his care hurt by his offender status
Sex offender who lives in Columbus nursing home talks about difficulties in getting housing.
NEWS By Katie Wedell - Staff Writer 14
Posted: 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016
COLUMBUS — Carlos Campos has long suspected his status as a registered sex offender contributed to problems getting quality care.
Campos in 1979 was convicted of kidnapping, rape, attempted rape and having a weapon under disability.
In her testimony during his trial, the 15-year-old victim recounted how Campos and another man forced her into their car and assaulted her for two hours, according to news accounts. He spent 22 years in prison, followed by several additional stints for parole violations.
Campos, 68, is now a resident of Bryden Place, one of a handful of nursing homes in Ohio that house multiple sex offenders. He uses a wheelchair due to a gunshot wound to his spine in 1973, and has been in and out of nursing homes because of body sores that become infected.
He shares a room at the Columbus home where he has lived since August 2015.
Speaking from his bed in early September, Campos acknowledged Bryden Place wasn’t his first choice of nursing homes. It is far from his home in Wood County and he has other complaints about the conditions, care level and menu.
Still, he’s grateful they were willing to take him.
“No nursing homes in Wood County would accept me so they sent me here,” said Campos, who wanted to be closer to family in northeast Ohio. “But thank God I’ve got a place to stay out the weather. I’ve got hot water and soap to wash up and clean clothes.”
Offenders like Campos — some with far more serious medical needs — have few options in Ohio. As their numbers continue to grow, the state is faced with a vexing issue: how to balance providing care to those who need it while protecting a vulnerable population from someone in the next room or down the hall whose criminal history might include child molestation, sexual battery or rape.
At least one state — Oklahoma — tried creating specialized facilities for sex offenders in 2008 when its legislature passed a measure calling for bids to operate a secure facility that would keep offenders separated from other residents.
However, no bids were submitted and the facility wasn’t built, according to Wes Bledsoe, an advocate for quality nursing home care in that state.
In Ohio, about 44 percent of the 136 sex offenders living in nursing homes reside at just five facilities — two of them with an overall rating of 1 (far below average) or 2 (below average) on the 5-point scale Medicare.gov uses to compare nursing homes. Two others were given a rating of 3 (average) and one — Scenic Pointe Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Millersburg — received a 5, the highest rating.
Bryden Place, where Campos lives, has an 1 rating, though many of its cited deficiencies have been corrected, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates the website.
Bryden Place, with 18 registered sex offenders, has more residents on the registry than any other nursing home in Ohio.
The former Carlton Manor in Washington Court House previously had the largest sex offender population, but it was shut down in 2014 following multiple failed inspections.
Carlton Manor’s demise demonstrates the compounding issues homes fear can happen if they take in sex offenders, advocates for the nursing home industry say.
“The places that are going to be willing to take the difficult patients are those that may struggle to attract less difficult people,” said Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association. “What you find is that in addition to sex offenders, they probably have folks with other behavioral issues in those facilities. When the surveyors come in they’re going to find issues because of that population, so that causes them to get a bad survey, which drives down their star (Medicare rating).
“It’s a circular sort of thing.”
Some have suggested protective measures that include placing offenders on locked floors or in units used for dementia patients and others who are at risk of wandering off.
But others question whether such a precaution would put even more patients at risk.
“If a facility says we’ll take the sex offenders and we’re going to put them in our locked unit, well if the residents in the locked unit have dementia and are less able to report and prevent and defend themselves, I would think that would not be the right choice,” said Bev Laubert, Ohio’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman.
The ACLU of Ohio said separate, locked facilities are not a practical solution because the people housed there would be kept further from their home, friends and relatives.
Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist for the ACLU, said the offender database should be purged to eliminate the profiles of people who no longer pose a danger to others.
“What this really calls for is a change in our statewide sex offender laws,” he said. “There should be allowances … flexibility in the law that allows somebody, perhaps a judge, to go back in and revisit.”
Campos was told in August he no longer needs to register. His profile, including the details of his crime, has been taken off the Ohio online registry.
Campos said he didn’t mind complying with the registry requirements but feels the law shouldn’t continue to punish those who have served their time.
“They are made to keep you in check and make sure that you’re doing the right thing,” he said. “The laws weren’t made to adversely affect you.”
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Dayton Daily News reporter Katie Wedell figures shaming nursing homes accepting registrants counts as investigative journalism
When the Dayton Daily News announced they were doing a "series" exposing registrants living in nursing homes, somehow I knew the series would end with the reporter feeling the need to list every nursing home in the state accepting registered citizens.
That in itself is an affront, but reporter Katie Wedell's reports get worse:
"Ohio has a duty to protect its most vulnerable citizens, many of them frail or disabled. But safeguards enacted to keep sex offenders in check are more difficult to enforce when the predator is down the hall.
A Dayton Daily News investigation found that 136 sex offenders are living in 43 nursing homes in Ohio, where an intricate safety net is supposed to balance the needs of all patients with a responsibility to shield them from danger."
"We uncovered stories about assaults and attempted assaults in nursing homes across the state – from a 48-year-old paraplegic who raped an elderly woman; to a man who paid a developmentally disabled woman 75 cents to perform sex acts on him; and even a 45-year-old sex offender who attempted to rape a nurse.
Some sex offenders in nursing homes are barely mobile and not capable of harming their neighbors, but many remain capable of committing crimes."
You know what is omitted from this report? Whether the other two cases she mentioned had anything to a registrant. (I'm willing to guess they were not.)
The bottom line: Shame on Katie and the Dayton Daily News for writing this crap. My worry is how this story might hurt the residents of these few programs willing to accept registrants no thanks to one of the featured guests in the report, Rep. Courtney Combs. Shame on him too.
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