Hot Topic: Nursing Homes for Sex Offenders & Violent Offenders

Legislative report may help state enact law to define role of senior centers

1-11-2015 Connecticut:

NORWICH - A newly released state senior safety zone report that used a rescinded Montville ordinance as its template may provide a legislative blueprint to enact changes in Connecticut law, including modifications to the sex offender registry and a definition of the role of senior centers.

The study, released Jan. 1 and conducted by the General Assembly’s Commission on Aging, is the first of its kind in Connecticut and it looked at several areas, including the percentage of sexual offenders whose victims are elderly people.

According to its findings, of the 4,364 reported sexual assaults between 2009 and 2013, 57 – or 1.3 percent – were victims older than 60. But because the state’s population is aging, officials worry the pool of targets may grow.

“I felt all along we needed to have some legislation out there and I think this validates what the concerns were,” said state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, the task force’s co-chairwoman. “We’ll work on that collaboratively together out of that report.”

The task force found that by 2040, Connecticut’s population of people 65 or older is projected to grow by 57 percent. Already, state residents have the third highest life expectancy in the nation, at 80.8 years old.



Osten, who is co-chairwoman of the General Assembly’s aging committee, said the task force’s findings will be submitted to members as part of its work.

In 2012, Montville adopted an ordinance establishing senior safety zones that prohibited convicted sex offenders from entering any town-owned or leased park, senior center, senior bus, elderly community, event, function or other facility where seniors congregate.

But a year later, the measure was scrapped after opponents, including the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was unconstitutional.

The Legislature has considered senior safety zone bills every session since 2011. Osten hopes the published report will help lawmakers finally put together a measure that holds up under the constitution. David McGuire, a staff attorney with the state ACLU, was a member of the task force that compiled the report.

William “Billy” Caron, deputy chairman of the Montville Town Council who introduced the local ordinance, said he’s willing to bring it up again once state lawmakers bring clarity to the law.

“We are wait-and-see right now to see what the state is going to do. Yes, I’d like to see the state take action on it, because we’re obligated to protect the innocent. The senior centers are also like a safe haven. Some of them, that’s all they have sometimes and we are obligated to do as much as we can,” he said.

Among the report’s 11 recommendations:

Develop mandated reporter training to identify elder abuse.

Include emergency services workers as mandated reporters.

Standardize and define the role of senior centers by statute.

Explore changes to the sex offender registry to give law enforcement and the public more information about the nature of the offense.

“Generally, senior and community centers are similar to a library in that people come and go without oversight. There is no standard practice in monitoring the participation of a sex offender in a senior or community center setting,” the report concluded. “These centers generally lack the capacity to screen participants and monitor participation and behavior.” ..Source.. by Adam Benson

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