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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee has advanced a bill that would require the state Department of Corrections to notify long-term care facilities and their residents before a parolee is admitted.
Ann Hart, a former Salt Lake County ombudswoman, testified Wednesday in favor of the bill, saying some long-term nursing facilities have had bad experiences with their parolees.
One man, a convicted sex offender, was caught giving candy to a child sitting on his lap. Another reportedly shoplifted craft supplies. Still others beat up care workers and assailed residents with canes and walkers.
"Young nurses and other (staff) are not trained to work with criminals and are generally considered vulnerable themselves," she said.
Under HB125, Corrections not only would have to notify nursing facilities 10 days in advance of a parolee's arrival, but the staff would be required to tell the residents or their guardians. However, they would not be required to disclose the parolee's name or medical condition.
Hart said the legislation is critically needed in light of the growing number of aging inmates state prisons are unable to care for because of a lack of money and room.
Wendy Morris, a coordinator at the Fairview Care Center-East in Salt Lake City, said ex-convicts have lived there and been well-behaved. She said the staff has received special training to work with them.
When a child is at the facility, for example, sex offenders are told to go their rooms and shut the door.
The residents do not known about the parolees.
Morris worries the bill would unnecessarily alarm other residents of the facilities and cause them to ostracize the parolees, many of whom are trying to turn their lives around.
"We feel like they paid their debt to society and they should have an opportunity to succeed the second time around," she said.
In the past six years, the number of elderly inmates at the Utah State Prison has risen 67 percent while the overall population increased just 11 percent, said Richard Garden, Corrections' clinical director. Most of them were 55 or older when they were sentenced to prison, and about 61 percent were convicted of a sex offense.
Corrections Director Scott Carver, who testified in favor of the bill, said between six and 10 inmates with terminal or chronic illnesses are paroled early and admitted to long-term care facilities each year.
The Board of Pardons and Parole makes that decision.
"If there is an incident, or the person makes a miraculous recovery and should actually continue their incarceration, they can be brought back (to prison)," Carver said.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake City.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
