tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56305490884778011822024-02-20T23:45:17.565-05:00Sex Crimes & Offenders as to Americans w/ Disabilities & the ElderlyeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.comBlogger263125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-79009958146998026812017-11-21T22:31:00.000-05:002017-11-21T22:41:06.342-05:00The Last of the Iron Lungs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ipbzlCd0L9XTqC29ZUVNnc4ciz6nq59Kydqwbf8oRXCwD3AXdGNlCsVpYJ2jNIYH4pF7YjpanYOLOirKgvspK6bYJIo2pqF4QLKX24GgH5Ml0oprPB2BaV7JrY_26R9d5DpLnVQpCXM/s1600/a-iron-Lung.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ipbzlCd0L9XTqC29ZUVNnc4ciz6nq59Kydqwbf8oRXCwD3AXdGNlCsVpYJ2jNIYH4pF7YjpanYOLOirKgvspK6bYJIo2pqF4QLKX24GgH5Ml0oprPB2BaV7JrY_26R9d5DpLnVQpCXM/s200/a-iron-Lung.jpg" width="200" height="100" data-original-width="888" data-original-height="442" /></a></div><b>11-21-17 National:</b><br />
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Martha Lillard spends half of every day with her body encapsulated in a half-century old machine that forces her to breathe. Only her head sticks out of the end of the antique iron lung. On the other side, a motorized lever pulls the leather bellows, creating negative pressure that induces her lungs to suck in air.<br />
<br />
In 2013, the Post-Polio Health International (PHI) organizations estimated that there were six to eight iron lung users in the United States. Now, PHI executive director Brian Tiburzi says he doesn’t know anyone alive still using the negative-pressure ventilators. This fall, I met three polio survivors who depend on iron lungs. They are among the last few, possibly the last three. <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-last-of-the-iron-lungs-1819079169">..Continued..</a>eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-65918892225417208502017-10-19T00:53:00.000-04:002017-10-19T00:53:42.285-04:00How to Communicate With Deaf People When You Don't Know Sign Language<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirYxCbpyjIrT5dZpa1Ucoh11sMcX4HEw6OTAmNgY9UeSnyu_hAdJvYjDIPAUAwPZgLOXg_V27ZyJlr48HrBsiS5WMkTp5wGhFCVy6iCPKP8P3m22JziOI3L60JBNJjGEyKYp56iSMOwZQ/s1600/a-deaf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirYxCbpyjIrT5dZpa1Ucoh11sMcX4HEw6OTAmNgY9UeSnyu_hAdJvYjDIPAUAwPZgLOXg_V27ZyJlr48HrBsiS5WMkTp5wGhFCVy6iCPKP8P3m22JziOI3L60JBNJjGEyKYp56iSMOwZQ/s200/a-deaf.jpg" /></a></div><b>10-19-15 National:</b><br />
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When you don’t know how to connect with a deaf or hard of hearing person, you can complicate the process—or worse, shut them out entirely. If you need to communicate with a deaf person, here’s what you should do.<br />
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<b>Politely Get Their Attention</b><br />
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With a hearing person, you can call their name or shout something like “Hey!” But that obviously won’t work with someone who can’t hear you. They need to see you.<br />
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According to the Deaf-Hearing Communication Centre (DHCC), you have a few basic options for getting their attention that aren’t considered rude: <a href="https://lifehacker.com/how-to-communicate-with-deaf-people-when-you-dont-know-1819512491">..Continued..</a>eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-41712494021739158512017-07-21T22:40:00.002-04:002017-07-21T22:40:51.022-04:00 Federal judge orders Texas prison system to provide cooled quarters for heat-sensitive inmates<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIn1BRCGNJ-wJbRErOQp_Sa61qzxrHmVGeZ_A4e1YImSD0En571eiiLrA_XbIe3jN5lnwLezB-Pca8_4A6p9wcU0hvy1o8OCDZslXwvVICN5zfGrdVPo1T3xMd7XmMkxfEePOSoCZZkGo/s1600/elderly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIn1BRCGNJ-wJbRErOQp_Sa61qzxrHmVGeZ_A4e1YImSD0En571eiiLrA_XbIe3jN5lnwLezB-Pca8_4A6p9wcU0hvy1o8OCDZslXwvVICN5zfGrdVPo1T3xMd7XmMkxfEePOSoCZZkGo/s200/elderly.jpg" width="158" height="200" /></a></div><b>7-20-17 Texas:</b><br />
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HOUSTON — In a searing 100-page rebuke of the Texas prison system, a federal judge Wednesday ordered state officials to provide air-conditioned living quarters for elderly, disabled and other heat-sensitive inmates at the Pack Unit northwest of Houston.<br />
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The judge’s ruling — which chastises prison officials for “obstruction” and “deliberate indifference” to inmate suffering — gives the state 15 days to draft a plan to ensure that 475 vulnerable inmates have living units cooled to no more than 88 degrees and that 1,000 others have easy access to indoor respite areas. The prison must also develop a heat-wave policy to prevent further injuries and install insect-proof window screens.<br />
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The ruling from U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison does not require prison officials to install air conditioning throughout the prison, but suggests staff could adjust housing assignments to make sure inmates with health problems sleep in cooled dormitories.<br />
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Ellison — who spent five hours at the Pack Unit in the summer of 2014 to feel the heat for himself — cites Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s writing on Siberian prison conditions in ordering the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to bring its prisons up to modern standards.<br />
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“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons,” Ellison wrote. “To deny modern technology to inmates today for the simple reason that it was not available to inmates in past generations is an argument that proves too much. No one suggests that inmates should be denied up-to-date medical and psychiatric care, or that they should be denied access to radio or television, or that construction of prison facilities should not use modern building materials. The treatment of prisoners must necessarily evolve as society evolves.” <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Federal-judge-orders-Texas-prison-system-to-11300994.php">..Continued..</a>eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-8752243948762626912017-06-27T17:04:00.000-04:002017-06-27T17:08:01.963-04:00Prison rehabilitation ‘made pedophiles & rapists more dangerous’ – report <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYdBY7vF6vKe14W41oR1k3lQHkHK5iY5JLfjk6XdWvx3Uokvu3xVDP7y12wtP5NV1Zh_RF6pYN0Nn_iVmUHNwmOztcrh0Iys5bLciyIgJAD9jj0ZQgA06NDOXkwYVTHDmwJpZSUQsAGg/s1600/a-news-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYdBY7vF6vKe14W41oR1k3lQHkHK5iY5JLfjk6XdWvx3Uokvu3xVDP7y12wtP5NV1Zh_RF6pYN0Nn_iVmUHNwmOztcrh0Iys5bLciyIgJAD9jj0ZQgA06NDOXkwYVTHDmwJpZSUQsAGg/s200/a-news-4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>6-27-17:</b><br />
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Prisoners who took the taxpayer-funded Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) – a six-month psychological group therapy course – were at least 25 percent more likely to be convicted of further sex crimes than those who did not, according to an independent study seen by the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4635876/Scandal-100million-sex-crime-cure-hubs.html">Mail on Sunday</a>.<br />
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The newspaper says those convicted of physically attacking children were especially likely to reoffend after taking the course, which has cost more than £100 million ($127 million) since it was set up in 1991.<br />
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Before the report was compiled, about 1,000 prisoners had taken the “core” program across eight jails, and the worst offenders did an extended course. The courses involved discussions to help sex offenders understand their crimes, increase awareness of victim harm, and to stop reoffending.<br />
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The core and extended programs have now been cut by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The ministry was reportedly initially reluctant to accept the findings, but after they were independently endorsed, were forced to act.<br />
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The newspaper accuses Liz Truss, the former justice secretary, of keeping the independent study secret. <a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/394108-prison-rehabilitation-pedophiles-rapists/">..Continued..</a></span>eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-79700524151440139022017-06-25T16:30:00.000-04:002017-06-27T16:58:24.464-04:00Kenguru, the first drive-from-wheelchair EV, enters production<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79S36-aMxrPPWCGLYNryXa6vHFEq7fqAF6QVgUTMTfZTHd5BNd8E4Vg9UBGhTCPAdt_A-tY27_vybSKto9VSEEpd1-CpXDw_IVWFHPupZWlVFrQyRWISzLFYU8qSzN9Tdg1XP_JzBzAc/s1600/a-kenguru.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79S36-aMxrPPWCGLYNryXa6vHFEq7fqAF6QVgUTMTfZTHd5BNd8E4Vg9UBGhTCPAdt_A-tY27_vybSKto9VSEEpd1-CpXDw_IVWFHPupZWlVFrQyRWISzLFYU8qSzN9Tdg1XP_JzBzAc/s320/a-kenguru.jpg" width="320" height="197" data-original-width="910" data-original-height="561" /></a></div><b>6-25-17:</b><br />
<br />
See <a href="http://newatlas.com/kenguru-enters-production/23412/#gallery">Pics at Website</a>eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-6940157315026156682017-06-09T20:27:00.001-04:002017-06-09T20:59:08.885-04:00The Octogenarians Who Love Amazon’s Alexa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZ4U5SDXNUsM41yF_DGxvPPAB7aKJJycKFdT-qyjxxmt0JEKqA6y52OywnatEI5z3sjb2S8JDxicsPb22hOrevfMzfVKCMpRoSj86Nqp9LrfENp8BDAfb5UTOCtIHiWRTXnIT1Q76KRR/s1600/a-echo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZ4U5SDXNUsM41yF_DGxvPPAB7aKJJycKFdT-qyjxxmt0JEKqA6y52OywnatEI5z3sjb2S8JDxicsPb22hOrevfMzfVKCMpRoSj86Nqp9LrfENp8BDAfb5UTOCtIHiWRTXnIT1Q76KRR/s320/a-echo.jpg" /></a></div><b>6-9-17 National:</b><br />
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<b>A community of San Diego retirees is using the personal-assistant gadget to listen to audiobooks, keep current with family news, and control home appliances.</b><br />
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When Lois Seed wakes up in the morning, one of the first things she says is “Alexa, what is the weather?” Seed, who is 89 and has low vision because of macular degeneration, finds it convenient to get weather information by speaking to the Alexa voice-activated assistant on her Amazon Echo. She also asks her Echo to tell her the time and to play classical music from her former hometown radio station.<br />
<br />
“Life is more enjoyable [with Alexa],” she says, proving that the recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk">Saturday Night Live spoof</a> about Alexa and seniors couldn’t be further from the truth.<br />
<br />
Seed and about 50 other residents at the <a href="http://carlsbadbythesea.org/">Carlsbad by the Sea retirement community</a> near San Diego have been testing the personal-assistant technology inside their homes since late February. <a href="http://frontporch.net/">Front Porch</a>, the nonprofit organization that runs the community, devised the pilot program after residents expressed interest in Alexa and asked to try it.<br />
<br />
Some older adults have been using Alexa on their own to <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/older-adults-buddy-up-with-amazons-alexa-2016-03-18">alleviate loneliness</a> and <a href="http://dailycaring.com/amazon-echo-for-dementia-technology-for-seniors/">set medication reminders</a>, but Front Porch appears to be the first retirement community to study the technology’s impact in depth. And it wants its residents’ experiences to help inform how future versions of Alexa might better serve the elderly. The group could represent a sizeable new market for Amazon. More than one million Americans reside in assisted-living facilities today, and that number is expected to double by 2030. <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608047/the-octogenarians-who-love-amazons-alexa/"> ..Continued.. </a> eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-15671864055953857252017-06-01T17:55:00.000-04:002017-06-01T17:56:44.706-04:00The Puzzle of Housing Aging Sex Offenders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HL7WA5h1xkGL8agBo2Xrgr76Ea0_JFV9GEyH3FOylrDG0YnY_aTjQ6UDRjUozhR1R8mYKrpyNIsoVmhKuB39mvxVbhEhRxufkFhkinoGzniFU8ZrMRveoKj8-DtjCEJyfqDK6jAw_0o/s1600/a-age.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HL7WA5h1xkGL8agBo2Xrgr76Ea0_JFV9GEyH3FOylrDG0YnY_aTjQ6UDRjUozhR1R8mYKrpyNIsoVmhKuB39mvxVbhEhRxufkFhkinoGzniFU8ZrMRveoKj8-DtjCEJyfqDK6jAw_0o/s320/a-age.jpg" width="320" height="299" data-original-width="570" data-original-height="532" /></a></div><b>6-1-17 National:</b><br />
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<b>States are grappling with how to care for a growing population of registered offenders in long-term care facilities.</b><br />
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When state officials finally released William Cubbage from the Iowa Mental Health Institute in 2010, they predicted he was too sick to hurt anyone again. But the octogenarian only became an even more notorious sex offender.<br />
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Between 1987 and 2000, Cubbage was convicted in four separate cases of assault. Then, a year after his release, he molested a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home. Neither the home’s patients nor their families had been notified of his history. The woman’s relatives were unable to sue, when the <a href="http://www.iowacourts.gov/About_the_Courts/Supreme_Court/Supreme_Court_Opinions/Recent_Opinions/20170414/14-1326.pdf">Iowa Supreme Court ruled</a> the state was not legally liable. The state took Cubbage back, and in 2016 he was in the news again for allegedly trying to grope a care worker during a bath.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Cubbage passed away last month, but his case forced Iowa legislators to consider how to handle a growing population of sex offenders in long-term care facilities. Public outcry has led to multiple attempts to address the issue, including a push in February for a bill that would have established a committee that looked into the feasibility of building a long-term care facility specifically for the state’s 800 registered offenders, to keep them from being placed in traditional nursing homes (the bill didn’t receive final action). And while Cubbage’s case is extreme, he’s symptomatic of a larger puzzle in America’s long-term care facilities that no one’s managed to solve. As lawmakers in Oklahoma and Ohio have found, isolating aging sex offenders is easier planned than achieved.<br />
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“The problem is that you’re talking about a project that’s uniquely difficult when it comes to structural needs and safety,” says Amy McCoy, a public-information officer with the Iowa Department of Human Services. “You’re talking about things like hallways without corners. You’re also talking about building a place that isn’t a prison. It’s something entirely different from a traditional care facility. You want people in the least restrictive setting, but you also want to be able to respond if something does happen.” <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/aging-sex-offenders/528849/">..Continued..</a> by Peter Rugg </span>eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-23587997996271864192017-05-15T22:24:00.001-04:002017-05-15T22:28:30.180-04:00Aging sex offender dies after latest charges dropped <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3EVekMXrEuk3sJA2o83EdvBWZq1In6EUr48HYmo7PX7mN5c2nuYdXL0KH5i29t5QPftgk9D8k5YCsp8sRhbKc4qFmLWNmmIgw3hcat54s1ibJ_w83CG0AFi8Z5Kn0RyxhUxMIP9pv-7I/s1600/a-death.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3EVekMXrEuk3sJA2o83EdvBWZq1In6EUr48HYmo7PX7mN5c2nuYdXL0KH5i29t5QPftgk9D8k5YCsp8sRhbKc4qFmLWNmmIgw3hcat54s1ibJ_w83CG0AFi8Z5Kn0RyxhUxMIP9pv-7I/s200/a-death.jpg" width="200" height="29" /></a></div><b>5-15-17 Iowa:</b><br />
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INDEPENDENCE – A man who was at the heart of the issues over caring for aging sex offenders has died.<br />
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William Russell Cubbage died Friday at the Mental Health Institute in Independence, according to Buchanan County Attorney Shawn Harden. He was 88.<br />
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Cubbage’s death came almost two weeks after a district court judge dropped criminal charges against him for allegedly grabbing a female MHI employee between the legs in January 2016.<br />
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In ruling issued May 2, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Bradley_J._Harris">Judge Brad Harris</a> found that Cubbage was incompetent to stand trial on a charge of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. There was also no substantial probability that Cubbage could be restored to competency within a reasonable amount of time, Harris’s ruling continued.<br />
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The decision came following a mental health report and an agreement between the state and the defense.<br />
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Cubbage --- who suffered from dementia and had a lengthy record sex crimes involving children and was removed from a nursing home after sexually assaulting a 95-year-old resident in 2011 --- was accused of grabbing the MHI worker while she was assisting him in the shower in January 2016.<br />
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The MHI charge was put on hold in March 2017 after the defense questioned his competency to stand trial.<br />
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With the dismissal of the criminal charge, Cubbage was returned to MHI under a mental illness hospitalization order, Harden said.<br />
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Cubbage was convicted of sex offenses in 1987, 1997 and 1991, and he was later diagnosed with pedophilia and a personality disorder and was committed to treatment at the Department of Human Services’ Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders in Cherokee in 2002 under the state’s sexually violent predator statutes.<br />
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In 2010, he was released from the Cherokee facility after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s with other physical and mental ailments, and a doctor determined he no longer met the criteria of a sexual predator. He was released from the sexual predator commitment and placed under commitment for those with serious mentally illness.<br />
<br />
Because Cubbage needed full-time care, he was placed at the Pomeroy Care Center in Pomeroy. In August 2011, an 8-year-old child who was visiting the center witnessed Cubbage sexually assaulting a 95-year-old woman, according to court records.<br />
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He wasn’t charged criminally in the Pomeroy assault, but the state began a court action to return to the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders. This was dismissed in 2014, and he was returned to the Department of Human Services and eventually placed at MHI in Independence.<br />
<br />
The family of the 95-year-old woman from the Pomeroy incident sued the care center and the state, and the center filed a cross claim against the state. A district court judge threw out the claims against the state in a ruling was upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court in a split decision in April 2017. <a href="http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/aging-sex-offender-dies-after-latest-charges-dropped/article_31d48495-5e44-56a8-8930-7d97eb8e5df7.html">..Source..</a> by JEFF REINITZeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-64168102071399344372017-04-29T13:54:00.000-04:002017-04-29T16:02:43.061-04:00Should autistic man have to register as a sex offender?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmeNJjV4gTYVzUvrVL6D0vznf7CGSejSizSwXQ1LNRHVVfFUTu-AzH60v5KAhUQwbTJYUFvcBGBifMWYqBqAiwzXBRgFPMgCUSmNjgLKbllaDjZUJD5iYMahw3t-zpi1i9eMUWQyH-MI/s1600/a-autism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmeNJjV4gTYVzUvrVL6D0vznf7CGSejSizSwXQ1LNRHVVfFUTu-AzH60v5KAhUQwbTJYUFvcBGBifMWYqBqAiwzXBRgFPMgCUSmNjgLKbllaDjZUJD5iYMahw3t-zpi1i9eMUWQyH-MI/s200/a-autism.jpg" width="200" height="155" /></a></div><b>4-29-17 Pennsylvania:</b><br />
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Brett Mika allegedly used his cell phone to solicit sex from a 15-year-old.<br />
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But the 32-year-old Bethlehem man is autistic and has the sexual awareness of a 12-year-old, according to his attorney.<br />
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If he's convicted and forced to register as a sex offender, he risks losing the insurance that helps him get sex offender treatment and faces big obstacles moving to a treatment facility when his parents can no longer care for him, attorney Rory Driscole said.<br />
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Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta must decide whether Mika's special needs outweigh the need to protect the community.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
He asked for time Friday to read a psychological report prepared about Mika.<br />
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Mika was charged in 2015 after he texted the teenager. The victim reported the text immediately to his school counselor, who reported it to Bethlehem Township police. Police kept texting Mika, pretending to be a teenager, and said Mika sent them sexually explicit texts.<br />
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Driscole said Mika found the teen by randomly texting phone numbers.<br />
<br />
"He would think of numbers off the top of his head and ask them to send him pictures of his tummy," Driscole said. Driscole said Mika was looking for a "companion" more than he wanted sex. Police searched all the electronic devices in his home and found no pornography or inappropriate communication with minors. <a href="http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2017/04/should_autistic_man_have_to_re.html">..Source..</a> by Rudy Miller eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-56798001689107345262017-04-25T20:52:00.000-04:002017-04-29T16:05:47.555-04:00Iris Scans Come to Nursing Homes. Next Stop, Your Phone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIlixBXhV7rQFu_wRzCxOvBKpoMLYax2IOxBDGxLT3JC9_JrlSX31AN_YxxfNyM4TX7zM-2APp3ZuhGStChalGXKtZ2W3LqLlXY3zrS6wJIFTwCZonBwQmPnJbewukI6xA8KyjcwZjWNM/s1600/a-iris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIlixBXhV7rQFu_wRzCxOvBKpoMLYax2IOxBDGxLT3JC9_JrlSX31AN_YxxfNyM4TX7zM-2APp3ZuhGStChalGXKtZ2W3LqLlXY3zrS6wJIFTwCZonBwQmPnJbewukI6xA8KyjcwZjWNM/s320/a-iris.jpg" width="320" height="228" /></a></div><b>4-25-17 Pennsylvania:</b><br />
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The citizens of Brevillier Village like living there. The retirement neighborhood in Erie, Pennsylvania overlooks Lake Erie, and paths dotted by benches follow the shoreline. The site presents beautiful views, and a grave menace: Just over and above the fence at the edge of the residence lies a cliff that plunges 30 ft to the water down below.<br />
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Compounding the risk, elderly citizens with progressing states of dementia reside in the making closest to the cliff. To defend them from hurt, Brevillier adopted technology more widespread in sci-fi thrillers than houses: iris scan recognition.<br />
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A biometric that most individuals associate with a specifically grisly scene in Minority Report makes a whole lot of perception for elder care. Keycodes can be hard to remember, and complicated to tap into a keypad if you experience from tremors or weak vision. Fingerprints may well operate, but your skin thins as you age, creating prints harder to browse. Moreover, a weakened immune program boosts the microbial hazard of critical pads and fingerprint viewers. All of which would make unlocking a door with your eyes fairly handy.<br />
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Iris scanners have been popping up at ATMs and airports, in hospitals and law enforcement stations, and even on cellular telephones lately. And if the three hundred citizens of Brevillier Village are lining up to have their eyeballs scanned, the relaxation of you can not be significantly guiding.<br />
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Brevillier Village installed the iris scanners past slide, creating it the 1st retirement home in the US to use the technological innovation. Most citizens arrive and go as they be sure to soon after gazing into a scanner, but any one with cognitive impairment ought to check with another person to open up the door because their irises aren’t in the program.<br />
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An iris scanner in essence slices the eye in half. An algorithm bisects an infrared snapshot of your eye vertically, from the edge of the white aspect to the pupil, unwrapping the iris into a flat, rectangular plane. Then it seems for areas of significant contrast—locations exactly where microscopic melanin pigments are clustered—and actions the distances amongst them and the ends of the rectangle. The regular iris scan collects more than 200 of these distinction factors and stores them as a unique digital map.<br />
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All scanners operate on this theory, and operate on some variation of the program University of Cambridge mathematician John Daugman formulated and patented in 1994. Until a couple of a long time in the past, only a couple of firms held the rights to this technology, restricting the uses over and above legislation enforcement. But Daugman’s patent expired in 2011, providing increase to all kinds of new purposes. <a href="http://technewsdir.com/iris-scans-come-to-nursing-homes-next-stop-your-phone">..Continued..</a> by Badilla NathanieleAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-7504923237396077892017-03-29T17:48:00.001-04:002017-03-29T17:52:22.846-04:00UVA Law Professor Representing Buckingham Inmate in Federal Suit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizdjR4rlZbVkCwkl3HnVfBptIBdVplDE3JnV36V3DQqoGy0mQx_ECUGa0nJdt_T5ZFpyAEP3fVy845_PXgMlPgBAjdkFB4JyFjjmHb9Apie7e4336SkeH-CUgVlnXu2rhzuKgMnXpzNbo/s1600-h/a-lawsuit.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizdjR4rlZbVkCwkl3HnVfBptIBdVplDE3JnV36V3DQqoGy0mQx_ECUGa0nJdt_T5ZFpyAEP3fVy845_PXgMlPgBAjdkFB4JyFjjmHb9Apie7e4336SkeH-CUgVlnXu2rhzuKgMnXpzNbo/s200/a-lawsuit.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218083808154194978" /></a> <b>3-29-17 Virginia:</b><br />
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BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - A University of Virginia School of Law professor is representing a prison inmate in his fight to receive medical treatment for a life-threatening disease.<br />
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George Rutherglen filed a federal lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections and Buckingham Correctional Center on behalf of Elmo Reid.<br />
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The suit alleges the Buckingham Correctional Center denied 60-year-old Reid the latest form of treatment for Hepatitis C, which is a viral liver infection.<br />
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Rutherglen says this is a growing public health crisis.<br />
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“We're really facing an issue of whether the commonwealth of Virginia can afford the harsh sentences that have been imposed in the past and, I think, the alternative is either treat these people or send them out into the world on probation or parole,” Rutherglen explained.<br />
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A federal judge denied a request from the correctional center and its medical team to dismiss the lawsuit.<br />
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A trial is set for January 2018. <a href="http://www.nbc29.com/story/35016864/uva-law-professor-representing-buckingham-inmate-in-federal-suit">..Source..</a> by Matt TalhelmeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-77833618971109645372017-03-21T14:46:00.000-04:002017-03-21T14:49:18.135-04:00Assault at nursing home raises questions about why sex offender was living there<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYdBY7vF6vKe14W41oR1k3lQHkHK5iY5JLfjk6XdWvx3Uokvu3xVDP7y12wtP5NV1Zh_RF6pYN0Nn_iVmUHNwmOztcrh0Iys5bLciyIgJAD9jj0ZQgA06NDOXkwYVTHDmwJpZSUQsAGg/s1600/a-news-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYdBY7vF6vKe14W41oR1k3lQHkHK5iY5JLfjk6XdWvx3Uokvu3xVDP7y12wtP5NV1Zh_RF6pYN0Nn_iVmUHNwmOztcrh0Iys5bLciyIgJAD9jj0ZQgA06NDOXkwYVTHDmwJpZSUQsAGg/s200/a-news-4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>3-21-17 New York:</b><br />
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Thomas Moore spent more than 20 years in prison for sexually abusing hospitalized women who were elderly, disabled or incapacitated.<br />
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But when time came to release him last year, state prison officials faced a problem. Indigent and with no family, the lifelong Queens resident had nowhere to go. Prison officials struggled to find a facility willing to accept the 62-year-old disabled sex offender. Indeed, Moore stayed at the Fishkill Correctional Facility three months longer than he was supposed to as the state shopped around his application.<br />
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Moore had no previous connection to Western New York, but late last year he was accepted at Waterfront Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Buffalo – where he lived surrounded by elderly, disabled and incapacitated women.<br />
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Barely a month after he moved into Waterfront, Moore was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a fellow resident in her bed.<br />
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"It was like throwing the fox in the hen house,” said Dr. Charles P. Ewing of the University at Buffalo, an attorney and forensic psychologist who has studied sex offenders and the law.<br />
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Authorities accused Moore of entering the room of another Waterfront resident at about midnight on Jan. 3, pulling off her blanket and molesting her. Police arrested Moore nine days later, charging him with sexual abuse of a person incapable of giving consent and with endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person.<br />
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The police report filed after Moore’s arrest said the woman had told Moore to leave her room “multiple times” before he came in at midnight, pulled down her blankets and molested her.<br />
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Moore, now in custody at the Erie County Holding Center, was brought to Buffalo City Court on Monday. His defense counsel said he hoped the charges could be reduced to a misdemeanor. But Erie County Assistant District Attorney Ryan Haggerty rejected that possibility. The prosecutor believes the charges filed against Moore when he was arrested are too low. The case will be presented to a grand jury, and Judge Kevin Keane scheduled a return court date of April 25.<br />
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Ewing called Moore's case "very troubling."<br />
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“If he’s in the community, that means that somehow, somewhere, someone made that decision," Ewing said.<br />
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---<br />
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<b>Older targets</b> <br />
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The police report’s description of the January assault seems similar to Moore’s first two convictions for sex crimes. In both cases, he assaulted women who were disabled or incapacitated.<br />
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Moore’s first sex offense conviction came in July 1996. According to the New York Daily News, Moore targeted a 79-year-old woman – a patient in a Manhattan hospital. Convicted of the sexual abuse of a person who was physically helpless, he spent four years in prison and was released in 2000.<br />
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By August 2001, Moore was working part-time as a delivery person for a New York City florist. The job helped him gained entry to Beth Israel Medical Center, where Moore assaulted two female patients, according to the Daily News. First he pulled the sheet off a 58-year-old woman who had come out of surgery. Then a nurse spotted him on a bed with a semi-conscious 93-year-old woman.<br />
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Convicted of burglary and sexual abuse, Moore went to prison again. He remained imprisoned until 2016, when he maxed out his sentence and his parole.<br />
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Fishkill has a unit designed for state inmates with health problems.<br />
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---<br />
<b><br />
'Prevention of abuse'</b><br />
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Denise Marciano, executive director of the Waterfront Center, declined repeated requests to comment on Moore’s situation and if she knew the exact nature of Moore’s previous crimes when the facility agreed to accept him as a resident.<br />
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State law required Waterfront to be notified of Moore’s status as a level 3 “sexually violent and predicate sex offender” when he was released to its care, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Services.<br />
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State law also required the Buffalo Police Department receive notification of Moore’s new address, but it does not specifically require any nursing homes notify their residents if the person in the next room is a convicted sexual predator.<br />
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Federal regulations, however, require nursing homes to make every effort to protect their residents from abuse.<br />
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Those rules “not only specify that these facilities may only admit residents they can appropriately care for, but they must also identify residents whose personal histories put them at risk for abusing other residents,” according to the state Department of Health.<br />
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“Staff must work diligently to prevent such occurrences by monitoring behavior of these residents and regularly reviewing their internal strategies for the prevention of abuse,” according to its statement to The News.<br />
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Ewing said that any facility responsible for the safety of others, whether they are young, elderly or infirm, has a higher level of obligation to stay informed if it agrees to hire or house someone on the sex offender registry.<br />
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“If you’re running a facility where you have vulnerable people, it seems like a reasonable precaution to check what (the resident offender) was guilty of,” Ewing said.<br />
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---<br />
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<b>Assessing danger</b><br />
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Moore’s recent arrest highlights the difficulties faced in evaluating sex offenders who have served their time, Ewing said.<br />
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“He was almost certainly assessed by somebody and found to be somebody not to be petitioned (for civil confinement),” Ewing said.<br />
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Ewing was not involved in Moore’s case.<br />
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He said the risk of releasing Moore may have taken into consideration his age and disability. Moore uses a wheelchair during court appearances. Ewing said that, in general, the odds of most people re-offending are small and the risk of older men re-offending is even smaller, sometimes because they are not physically capable.<br />
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There are more than 300 convicted sex offenders being held and treated in civil confinement in New York State, after they were deemed too dangerous by the Office of Mental Health to be released.<br />
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Ewing contends sex offender registries are flawed because they stigmatize many who are unlikely to ever commit another crime while not giving enough information about persistent offenders.<br />
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Ewing calls the state’s one-size-fits-all set of regulations for sex offenders an ongoing problem. For instance, in New York State, level 3 sex offenders like Moore cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school or day care.<br />
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But Moore was never accused or convicted of abusing children. His victims were bed-ridden adult women.<br />
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“One of the most significant indicators is past history – what he was convicted of. This (Moore's case) is not like staying a half-mile from a school,” Ewing said. “This would have him living in the school.”<br />
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---<br />
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Where to put offenders?<br />
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Moore's case, it turns out, is not an isolated incident. A disturbingly similar one occurred last year in Ohio.<br />
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The Alliance Review reported that Scott Russell Cook, a paraplegic, had been arrested in 2010 for attacking a 92-year-old woman suffering from dementia in a Cleveland retirement home. Cook, who was in his 40s, was sentenced to five years in prison before being released to another Ohio nursing home.<br />
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In 2016, he was arrested again, charged with the rape and sexual battery of a resident, an 85-year-old woman.<br />
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A 2015 study led by Cornell researchers found that more than 20 percent of nursing home residents are victims of some type of resident-on-resident abuse in the course of any given month, with the abuse ranging from cursing and threats, theft of personal items, inappropriate touching or hitting, all the way up to homicide. Most of the residents involved do not have criminal records, and many have dementia.<br />
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So, considering the challenges they already deal with, many nursing homes opt not to house sex offenders at all. Those decisions create a significant problem for the prison system.<br />
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“What do you do with these guys?” Ewing asked. “Because of the draconian sentences handed down over the years, there are a lot of old sex offenders in prison and the question is, where will they go when they are released?”<br />
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Offenders with level 2 and 3 designations have strict constraints on where they can live, making it extremely difficult for even healthy ex-cons to find housing. For those with disabilities or who need nursing care, it can be almost impossible.<br />
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That helps explain how someone like Moore, whose last outside address was the Bellevue Men’s Shelter in New York City, ended up 400 miles away in a Buffalo nursing home that has consistently received the lowest quality ranking possible from the state Health Department.<br />
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After Moore’s arrest, Waterfront was cited for further unspecified “deficiencies,” according to the Health Department, but the exact nature of those citations has not been disclosed or posted.<br />
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Meanwhile, the state Division of Criminal Justice Services says people who are concerned about their own family members' safety can register at www.nyalert.gov to receive alerts whenever a level 2 or level 3 sex offender moves to a specific address, including a nursing home. <a href="http://buffalonews.com/2017/03/21/sex-offender-accused-assaulting-fellow-resident-nursing-home/">..Source..</a> by Melinda MillereAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-24095682954951212082017-02-22T17:26:00.002-05:002017-02-22T17:26:41.740-05:00Alexa can tell you the steps for CPR, warning signs of heart attack and stroke<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZ4U5SDXNUsM41yF_DGxvPPAB7aKJJycKFdT-qyjxxmt0JEKqA6y52OywnatEI5z3sjb2S8JDxicsPb22hOrevfMzfVKCMpRoSj86Nqp9LrfENp8BDAfb5UTOCtIHiWRTXnIT1Q76KRR/s1600/a-echo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZ4U5SDXNUsM41yF_DGxvPPAB7aKJJycKFdT-qyjxxmt0JEKqA6y52OywnatEI5z3sjb2S8JDxicsPb22hOrevfMzfVKCMpRoSj86Nqp9LrfENp8BDAfb5UTOCtIHiWRTXnIT1Q76KRR/s320/a-echo.jpg" /></a></div><b>2-22-17 National:</b><br />
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The voice-activated Amazon Echo device answers thousands of everyday requests, like setting a timer, playing music, ordering a pizza or changing a thermostat.<br />
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Now, this device can help save someone’s life.<br />
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Alexa, the friendly voice of the Amazon Echo, will for the first time offer CPR instructions and describe the warning signs of heart attack and stroke.<br />
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The information is crucial because prompt medical attention can make the difference between life or death, or significant disability, said Robert Neumar, M.D., Ph.D., chair of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.<br />
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“Any system that can reliably reduce delays in medical care for cardiac arrest, heart attack and stroke has the potential to improve health outcomes,” he said.<br />
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To access this new information, people simply ask Alexa, starting with the phrase “Alexa, ask American Heart” to ensure they’re hearing the science-based information from the American Heart Association. So, you would say:<br />
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-- “Alexa, ask American Heart … how do I perform CPR?”<br />
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-- “Alexa, ask American Heart ... what are the warning signs of a heart attack?”<br />
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-- “Alexa, ask American Heart ... what are the warning signs for stroke?”<br />
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Every day in America someone has a stroke every 40 seconds on average. About 2,200 Americans die from cardiovascular diseases each day. Cardiac arrest claims more than 350,000 lives a year. Because these are emergencies requiring urgent treatment, Alexa first tells the user to call 911 before offering other instructions.<br />
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There are about 8.2 million Amazon Echo devices in the U.S., according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. This year, sales of the Amazon Echo line and newer Google Home devices are projected to reach 4.5 million, according to the Consumer Technology Association.<br />
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The ability to easily offer assistance in so many homes is enticing to healthcare providers, because time is so important.<br />
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“Anything we can do to have not only more bystanders do CPR but have them start sooner is likely to have an impact on survival,” Neumar said.<br />
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About 70 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home, but victims are half as likely to survive when they are at home as they are in a public setting. One reason could be that no one at home did CPR, Neumar said.<br />
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“We need to create a culture where everybody is expected to be able to perform CPR who has the physical capability,” he said. “It’s not feasible to have everybody do a CPR course.”<br />
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Alexa offers the steps of Hands-Only CPR for a teen or adult who suddenly collapses: push hard and fast in the center of the chest at the rate of 100 to 120 beats per minute, the same rate as the classic disco song "Stayin' Alive."<br />
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Shawn DuBravac, Ph.D., chief economist at the Consumer Technology Association, said he could envision a day when voice-activated services are one day part of the 911 system. A 2015 study reported that about half of all communities do not have 911 dispatchers trained to give CPR instruction, as the AHA recommends.<br />
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And, people are more likely to take this step reflexively as they grow more and more accustomed to conversing with their devices.<br />
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“When you can order a pizza, one would think certainly that you could request first responders,” he said. <a href="http://newsok.com/alexa-can-tell-you-the-steps-for-cpr-warning-signs-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/article/feed/1172400">..Source..</a> by AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWSeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-57077436716298470502017-02-22T17:21:00.001-05:002017-02-22T17:21:56.689-05:00Amazon Alexa Can Now Help Diagnose What Ails You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZ4U5SDXNUsM41yF_DGxvPPAB7aKJJycKFdT-qyjxxmt0JEKqA6y52OywnatEI5z3sjb2S8JDxicsPb22hOrevfMzfVKCMpRoSj86Nqp9LrfENp8BDAfb5UTOCtIHiWRTXnIT1Q76KRR/s1600/a-echo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZ4U5SDXNUsM41yF_DGxvPPAB7aKJJycKFdT-qyjxxmt0JEKqA6y52OywnatEI5z3sjb2S8JDxicsPb22hOrevfMzfVKCMpRoSj86Nqp9LrfENp8BDAfb5UTOCtIHiWRTXnIT1Q76KRR/s320/a-echo.jpg" /></a></div><b>2-20-17 National:</b><br />
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Amazon Alexa users with health issues can now have Alexa call <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/10/healthtap-dr-ai-launch/">Healthtap's Doctor AI</a> to help figure out what's wrong and direct them to act accordingly.<br />
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Doctor AI initially supported Apple iOS and Android devices and its first voice application, <a href="http://www.mobihealthnews.com/26755/healthtap-launches-siri-like-app-hires-webmd-alum">Talk to Docs</a> launched for those same devices in 2013. But support for Alexa, the smart voice-activated software that debuted with the Amazon Echo connected speaker, brings Dr. AI to home users who might not be adept at using screens.<br />
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"We'd been doing text and video before, then expanded into voice and that's exciting in healthcare because we serve many populations that are older, disabled, or frail," said Ron Gutman, founder and chief executive of Palo Alto, California-based digital health company which claims 107,000 doctors in its network. Records and data from those doctors make up Dr. AI's health care data trove.<br />
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"Voice is cool, but more important, it's fills a real need of people who have difficulty using their hands or whose eyesight is not that great," Gutman added. <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/02/20/alexa-dr-ai/">..Continued..</a> by Barb DarroweAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-84665471590311233302017-02-22T15:36:00.000-05:002017-02-24T17:22:55.571-05:00Sick, dying and raped in America’s nursing homes – a CNN Investigation<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s1600-h/a-nursing-home.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195149435920451650" style="FLOAT:right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s200/a-nursing-home.jpg" border="0" /></a> <b>2-22-17 National:</b><br />
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They go to nursing homes to be cared for. Instead, the unthinkable is happening at facilities across the country: Vulnerable seniors are being raped and sexually abused by the very people paid to care for them.<br />
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Senior Writers Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken provide a <a href="http://cnn.it/2l3Tzeu">shocking and detailed account</a> of the rape and sexual abuse occurring in nursing homes across the country — and the systemic failures of nursing homes and state regulators to stop it.<br />
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The graphic reports of abuse they uncovered are horrifying. <ul><li>83-year-old Sonja Fischer fled war-time Indonesia as a young girl only to be raped by a nursing assistant during the “final, most vulnerable days of her life."</li>
<li>An 88-year-old California woman only had sex with one man her entire life - her husband of nearly 70 years — then contracted a sexually transmitted disease from her alleged rapist.</li>
<li>One elderly man with paralysis was sexually abused and forced to eat feces out of his adult diapers by a group of nursing aides.</li>
</ul><br />
As part of the five-month investigation, CNN Correspondent Ana Cabrera confronted multiple nursing homes where caregivers were accused of sexually assaulting multiple residents before eventually being convicted of rape.<br />
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Ellis and Hicken also read through thousands of government documents to conduct a detailed analysis of federal data - the first of its kind.<br />
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Some of the findings: CNN found that more than 1,000 nursing homes have been cited for mishandling or failing to investigate or prevent alleged cases of rape, sexual assault and abuse at their facilities between 2013 and 2016. Nearly 100 of these facilities have been cited multiple times during the same period. At least a quarter were allegedly perpetrated by aides, nurses and other staff members. <br />
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The reporters also traveled to the small town of Waynesville, North Carolina, to tell the story of one certified nursing assistant who worked at multiple facilities in the area and now stands accused of rape. This deeply reported account comes from police reports, court documents, interviews with the alleged victims and even the accused rapist, who denied the charges from jail.<br />
<br />
Read the <a href="http://cnn.it/2l3Tzeu">full investigation here</a>. <a href="http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2017/02/22/sick-dying-and-raped-in-americas-nursing-homes-a-cnn-investigation/">..Source..</a> by CNNeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-32776164742193218712017-02-13T23:59:00.003-05:002017-02-22T15:28:16.589-05:00Aging sex offenders have nowhere to go, Iowa prison director says<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s1600-h/a-nursing-home.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195149435920451650" style="FLOAT:right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s200/a-nursing-home.jpg" border="0" /></a> <b>2-13-17 Iowa:</b><br />
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<b>Jerry Bartruff supports study to examine building a facility</b><br />
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CORALVILLE — Iowa Department of Corrections Director Jerry Bartruff said he supports legislation to study whether Iowa should build a facility for geriatric sex offenders — a growing group of inmates.<br />
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That’s because finding places for elderly sex offenders to live after they’ve served their time in prison is very difficult, Bartruff said Monday during a community forum in Coralville. Iowa recently had three sex offenders who had served their time, but because they had no place to go, died behind bars.<br />
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“That’s a sad commentary for those individuals,” he said.<br />
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Senate Resolution 7, which has been placed on the calendar for the Human Resources committee, would ask the Legislative Council to create a committee to study the establishment of a facility to care for geriatric individuals who are registered sex offenders or who are sexually aggressive.<br />
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Aging inmates are a challenge across the country.<br />
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Inmates age 50 and older were the fastest-growing segment of the federal inmate population, increasing 25 percent from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2013, the Office of Inspector General reported. Inmates age 50 and older made up 16 percent of Iowa’s prison population last year, Bartruff said. <br />
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“About 10 years ago, the number of people over age 50 was 800. Now it’s at 1,400,” he said. “As people age and are sicker, there is a cost that goes along with that.”<br />
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Although 78 percent of Iowa sex offenders serving time are considered low to moderate risk to reoffend, there have been high-profile cases of abuse in Iowa care facilities.<br />
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William Cubbage, a convicted sex offender reportedly with dementia, was accused in 2011 of molesting a 95-year-old woman at a Pomeroy nursing home, the Des Moines Register reported. Cubbage now has been charged with grabbing a female care provider between the legs at the Mental Health Institute in Independence, where he was a patient.<br />
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Matthew Sperfslage, a social worker at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, told people gathered for the community forum sponsored by the Johnson County Task Force on Aging about the challenges of finding community placement for an aging sex offender.<br />
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Social workers help offenders find places to live at least 2,000 feet from schools and child care centers, as well as assist with identifying transportation, health care and a guardian, if necessary. If the offender has health needs, such as dementia, diabetes or depression, he may need nursing care, Sperfslage said. <br />
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“It becomes a really difficult process to put someone in a safe situation in the community with the services they need,” Bartruff added. “Matt and his co-workers are on the phone constantly.”<br />
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Iowa’s spending on prescription medications for prison inmates has started to climb because of a growing population of older inmates and some wildly-expensive drugs, Bartruff said.<br />
<br />
He pointed to a promising new drug for hepatitis C, which afflicts many people in prison, that costs more than $50,000. While prison inmates are required to get the same level of health care as patients on the outside, it becomes a difficult question of what medications the prisons can provide, he said.<br />
<br />
After spending $9 million in fiscal 2008 on drugs and biological medications, the Corrections Department whittled that down to about $5.5 million in fiscal 2013 by developing a centralized pharmacy. Last year, the agency’s spending had crept up to just under $7 million. <a href="http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety/aging-sex-offenders-have-nowhere-to-go-iowa-prison-director-says-20170213">..Source..</a> by Erin Jordan eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-59254239206144493342017-02-11T14:24:00.000-05:002017-02-13T23:53:17.356-05:00States look for solutions to growing number of aging sex offenders<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s1600-h/a-nursing-home.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195149435920451650" style="FLOAT:right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s200/a-nursing-home.jpg" border="0" /></a> <b>2-11-17 Ohio:</b><br />
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<b>Balance sought between caring for those who need nursing help with protecting the public.</b> <br />
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As states like Ohio deal with a growing number of aging registered sex offenders, another state is examining what to do with elderly sex offenders when they are in need of nursing home care.<br />
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In Iowa, lawmakers are studying whether to establish a separate facility for sex offenders to keep them away from other nursing home residents.<br />
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A Dayton Daily News examination found numerous examples of lax oversight of sex offenders in nursing homes in Ohio.<br />
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This newspaper’s investigation found 136 sex offenders were living in 43 nursing homes in Ohio in October. It also identified potential problems with the safety net, from under-staffing at homes with offenders to a lack of information on the public registry used by facilities to make admission decisions.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The Iowa Senate Human Resources Committee this week approved a resolution which asks the state’s legislature to create a committee to study the establishment of a facility to care specifically for those who are sex offenders or are sexually aggressive.<br />
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Iowa, like Ohio, has no dedicated facility for housing sex offenders in need of long-term care.<br />
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“Thelackofsuchafacilityplacesothergeriatricpatients,residents,andtenantsatriskforbeingsexuallyabused,” the Iowa resolution says.<br />
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The proposal suggests studying either establishing a new facility, or expanding an existing one to keep sex offenders or sexually aggressive individuals separate from the general nursing home population.<br />
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A report would be due by Jan. 1, 2018.<br />
<br />
Several Ohio lawmakers said the issues raised in the Daily News’ investigation were in need of further study. The Criminal Justice Recodification Committee has made recommendations to update Ohio’s sex offender laws, including giving judges more discretion to release individuals from registration requirements if they no longer pose a risk. <a href="http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/local/states-look-for-solutions-growing-number-aging-sex-offenders/jNNRiJzrksimjUg8enSUAI/">..Source..</a> by Katie WedelleAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-87666186929058612622017-01-11T17:18:00.001-05:002017-01-11T17:20:34.528-05:00What You'll Lose When Obamacare Is Repealed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2tFjnepLT9u1OhRgTPPYyGGDi2RuRBZ6ieddUP5Zjf2uytHWNUFXWORVhBSGjOFhCV-XGKNOxg_tKDXklEmXaAbdkzJAFIfZwH5UiryQqbwsdSHBjEYB-_3hHDjmBEpQ4PDYtM3kuvKI/s1600/a-aca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2tFjnepLT9u1OhRgTPPYyGGDi2RuRBZ6ieddUP5Zjf2uytHWNUFXWORVhBSGjOFhCV-XGKNOxg_tKDXklEmXaAbdkzJAFIfZwH5UiryQqbwsdSHBjEYB-_3hHDjmBEpQ4PDYtM3kuvKI/s200/a-aca.jpg" width="187" /></a></div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color:#ffff00;"><b> What about inmates who already signed up?</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>1-11-2017 National:</b><br />
<br />
In 2017, more than 11 million people are projected to be covered by policies purchased through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and even those who have private insurance are benefiting from reforms put into place by the passage of Obamacare. Now, a Republican-controlled Congress plans to repeal the ACA as their first act back in session, and President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to sign whatever they send him.<br />
<br />
But while “repeal and replace” is catchy and apparently wins elections, the GOP still hasn’t agreed on when each part of Obamacare’s repeal will go into effect, and whether they will include some popular reform planks when they introduce their own replacement plan. While Republicans are insistent that their own plan is in the works, nothing has been released to the public - despite the fact that they have voted repeatedly to repeal the ACA ever since they took the majority in the House in 2011. The delay is purposeful, since many aspects of the Affordable Care Act are extremely popular and constituents don’t want to see them disappear, especially with no replacement plan on the horizon.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
How will voters help shape what the “repeal and replace” process looks like? Here are some of the biggest benefits you received thanks to the Affordable Care Act, and how likely it is that each benefit will completely disappear.<br />
<br />
<b>Policy: Staying on parental plans until age 26</b><br />
<br />
Currently, you can stay on your parents' health insurance without needing to find your own plan - at least, you can until you are 26. That means not purchasing a more expensive individual plan, which would cost more out of pocket. Taking away the extended minors portion of the ACA will mean once you turn 19 or are no longer a full-time student, you are on your own for insurance coverage, increasing the financial burden on young adults who are unemployed, underemployed, contractors, working for small companies, or those starting their own businesses.<br />
<br />
Will it stay or will it go? <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/youll-lose-obamacare-repealed-172247041.html">..Continued..</a> by Robin MartyeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-27548242691676118602017-01-01T23:02:00.000-05:002017-02-11T14:15:24.114-05:00Editorial: Sex-offender notification falls victim to lobbying<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s1600-h/a-nursing-home.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195149435920451650" style="FLOAT:right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s200/a-nursing-home.jpg" border="0" /></a> <b>11-28-2016 Iowa:</b><br />
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Sometimes it’s hard to tell when politicians are grandstanding, pandering to the crowds and playing to the cameras.<br />
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It’s hard because such scripted statements may also be grounded in truth and genuine sincerity. Just because there’s sizzle doesn’t mean there’s no steak on the plate. But there are occasions when the words of politicians are completely at odds with their own actions, and the words are revealed to be pure window-dressing.<br />
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Take the controversy over Iowa’s practice of placing sex offenders and violent criminals in Iowa care facilities alongside elderly and disabled adults.<br />
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For years, Statehouse politicians and Gov. Terry Branstad have decried the situation, wrung their hands and then failed to act — even as vulnerable adults were sexually abused and even murdered by fellow residents known to have posed a threat to others.<br />
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Granted, this is not a particularly easy issue to address. Sex offenders and violent criminals age just like the rest of us, and many of them eventually need 24-hour care. Ideally, they would be placed in either a dedicated facility for high-risk individuals, or placed in the secure wing, with close monitoring, of a traditional care facility. Both solutions entail additional spending.<br />
<br />
As things stand now, many of these individuals are simply placed with the general population of care-facility residents, with no additional oversight.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Legislators have known about this for years, and they have railed about it but accomplished very little. The governor has been even more complicit, blocking attempts to study the issue so that a workable solution could be proposed. Both the governor and the Legislature appear to be cowed by the powerful and well-funded nursing home lobby.<br />
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As the Register’s Tony Leys recently reported, the Iowa Health Care Association, which represents many of the state’s nursing homes, has successfully opposed measures that would simply require homes to notify residents and family members when a registered sex offender moves in.<br />
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Steve Ackerson, the head of the IHCA, told Leys that if notification was required, many facilities would accept a sex offender only if the individual was bedridden or near death — and even then that could trigger an exodus of residents. “You might just as well close your facility down,” he says.<br />
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That is an absolutely stunning admission for the IHCA to make. The organization’s argument — one that has so far proven persuasive to our bought-and-paid-for state policymakers — is that it’s better for the industry if Iowa families are left in the dark, unaware that grandma is living alongside a sex offender; that it's better to keep grandma in harm's way than to disrupt the operations of a profitable nursing home.<br />
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As galling as that is, it pales in comparison to what the state itself is doing. Although the governor has publicly stated he supports mandatory notification, he presides over a state agency that refuses to provide that sort of notification in state-operated care facilities.<br />
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For example, officials didn’t notify other residents or their families when a convicted rapist, Donald Wayne Young, was recently transferred to the state-run Woodward State Resource Center. Young joined seven other registered sex offenders living at Woodward, which serves people with intellectual disabilities. Young has actually served prison time for beating and raping a supervisor at a similar state-run facility 13 years ago.<br />
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Why weren’t families told? A spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Human Services, which runs Woodward, says state law forbids employees from telling residents at state facilities about other residents.<br />
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That law could easily be changed to allow — or better yet, require — DHS to share what is already public information: an individual’s status as a registered sex offender. Common sense dictates that DHS should be able to share with families and residents the same information the Iowa Department of Public Safety is required by law to post on its website for everyone to see.<br />
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And yet, that is not happening.<br />
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So when Gov. Branstad said in 2011 that the state needs to "always err on the side of openness and victim notification in making sure people are aware of the potential risks that are out there," was he sincere or just pandering?<br />
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We’d like to give the governor the benefit of the doubt — but it has been five years and vulnerable Iowans are no less at risk now than when he made those comments. <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/11/26/editorial-sex-offender-notification-falls-victim-lobbying/94336746/">..Source..</a> by The Register's EditorialseAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-8617631007611577662016-12-26T13:21:00.000-05:002016-12-26T13:36:43.804-05:00Psychopathy, ADHD, and brain dysfunction as predictors of lifetime recidivism among sex offenders.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiAvl1MqR-xqQD-mEP-hRbvIhJC_1SaGrTT5fcEDfPH3XBNdVlN81u_A89_Mv8qScGh_B_OpkbXGBTdy1ztLRUO3nb68mjY5_OPKbzaA_NlKBcHdbSjgR3vRv4UzDFHWIn9o2s-LOY7s/s1600/a-add-adhd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiAvl1MqR-xqQD-mEP-hRbvIhJC_1SaGrTT5fcEDfPH3XBNdVlN81u_A89_Mv8qScGh_B_OpkbXGBTdy1ztLRUO3nb68mjY5_OPKbzaA_NlKBcHdbSjgR3vRv4UzDFHWIn9o2s-LOY7s/s320/a-add-adhd.jpg" width="320" height="76" /></a></div><b>2016:</b><br />
<br />
<b>Abstract</b><br />
<br />
This study examines the best predictor of lifetime recidivism among Hare's psychopathy scores (PCL-R), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis, and brain dysfunction measures in a sample of 1,695 adult male sexual, violent, and nonviolent offenders. Results indicated that most variables were associated with significantly more frequent recidivism. <br />
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The best predictor of overall recidivism was the PCL-R, but more specifically, it was its items on criminal history that were associated with recidivism. Sexual offense recidivism was predicted by the presence of learning disorders; however, all measures were poor predictors. General recidivism was primarily associated with past criminal history and secondarily with learning disorders and ADHD. <br />
<br />
<span style="color:black;background-color:#ffff04">Results suggest that ADHD and brain dysfunction with criminal history measures are the best predictors for addressing the problem of criminal recidivism</span>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20130091">..Source..</a> by Langevin R, Curnoe S.eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-88278881462942559692016-12-25T23:55:00.000-05:002016-12-26T12:53:35.108-05:00Consumer Affairs Unveil “Safe Care Cam” Cameras to Detect In-Home Healthcare Abuse <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Qkli3gtk3ZIjWSoacDZUkQfCDhNiWAOtj6oK5BvQ1qoA8zep69x6_ABmhWHJgqxpydsMJ5MWagKOmR8HUMoNFwjh-0RnvzbDpM_aY1_PeedF6AIQlRLMcq0WGjdm5BG05EuhmLPoxVk/s1600/a-camera-abuse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Qkli3gtk3ZIjWSoacDZUkQfCDhNiWAOtj6oK5BvQ1qoA8zep69x6_ABmhWHJgqxpydsMJ5MWagKOmR8HUMoNFwjh-0RnvzbDpM_aY1_PeedF6AIQlRLMcq0WGjdm5BG05EuhmLPoxVk/s200/a-camera-abuse.jpg" width="200" height="115" /></a></div><b>12-25-16 New Jersey:</b><br />
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TRENTON – Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino and the Division of Consumer Affairs today announced a new program designed to ensure that New Jersey residents who suspect their loved ones are being abused by unscrupulous home health care providers have access to the latest technology in micro-surveillance cameras that can easily be hidden to detect abuse and protect patients.<br />
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The “Safe Care Cam” program makes micro-surveillance cameras available for free 30-day loans to anyone who suspects their loved one is being abused or neglected by home health aides or other in-home caregivers who spend long hours alone with a disabled or elderly person. The footage captured by the hidden device will either quell people’s fears or provide them with proof that immediate protective intervention is necessary.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
“Anyone who suspects a loved one is being abused by an in-home caregiver should not be left to feel helpless or without recourse,” said Attorney General Porrino. “Cameras don’t lie, and the abuses they’ve revealed are shocking. But a quality micro-surveillance camera is expensive and many people simply can’t afford them. So we’re offering the use of these cameras free of charge to those who wish to confirm that their loved ones are safe and well cared for in their absence. We hope that the Safe Care Cam program will provide peace of mind for family members, while at the same time serving as a strong deterrent and reminder to unscrupulous care providers that we will prosecute their cases aggressively.” <a href="https://www.tapinto.net/towns/montclair/categories/press-releases/articles/consumer-affairs-unveil-safe-care-cam-cameras-t">..Continued..</a> by Consumer AffairseAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-56518072072139968072016-12-20T05:47:00.001-05:002016-12-20T05:47:29.843-05:00Nursing home for prison inmates opening in Milledgeville <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s1600-h/a-nursing-home.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195149435920451650" style="FLOAT:right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_aq9nyeJm5-Ei7RbP8RSEn0t9UH5IQ1VwyTejS1zDkjjAZGkSNhLJRgJ3QwhZWikh_M60uipMj3Pu6kNZ6s871t1DN8ZBsBZII3U1Y_8xaZXoV5r858UGxCU8atscL7rYaw22HKV_8i4/s200/a-nursing-home.jpg" border="0" /></a> <b>12-20-16 Georgia:</b><br />
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A former prison doctor has opened a nursing home that will take up to 280 elderly and infirm inmates who otherwise might not have a place to go when they’re paroled.<br />
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“Even for a person who has no health issues, finding appropriate housing when on parole can be very, very complicated,” said Sara Totonchi, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. “When you add in health issues or mobility issues or other challenges it can be nearly impossible to find.”<br />
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The Bostick Nursing Center in Milledgeville, on the site of a demolished prison, is the first in Georgia that was conceived specifically for parolees. It will begin accepting parolee-residents early next year.<br />
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There were already three nursing homes in South Georgia that accepted parolees but catered to the general public — in Montrose, Byromville and Pineview. With no spaces specifically set aside for one-time prisoners, parolees are accepted only if there is room; each has between 10 and 20 parolees in residence and at least two of them cannot take sex offenders. Messages left at the three nursing homes were not returned.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
“This facility (Bostick) will serve a population that’s extraordinarily difficult for the state to place. Even though they are not mobile and (are) elderly and, in some cases, very sick, most nursing homes don’t want to take those folks in,” said Brian Robinson, a spokesman for CorrectHealth, which specializes in providing health care in correctional facilities. “It keeps the state from having to keep inmates (in prison) because they have nowhere else to send them. Having them in a nursing home is much cheaper than keeping them in a prison cell or in a jail cell.”<br />
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The cost of caring for parolees is covered by Medicaid, a state-run program that is primarily funded by federal taxpayers. Dr. Carlo Musso, who owns CorrectHealth, wrote in his bid to buy the abandoned Bostick State Prison that he expected the daily cost of caring for each parolee at the new center would average $179 the first year and $184 the second year.<br />
<br />
In his state application to operate a nursing on the grounds of the now-closed Central State Hospital, Musso estimated the facility would take in more than $16.7 million a year, most of it from Medicaid.<br />
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“The size of this population of medically fragile, parole-eligible inmates is large and growing rapidly, due, in part, to the aging of the inmate population,” Musso said in an announcement last month. “The number of inmates in state custody who are age 50 or over increased by an astounding 590.8 percent in the last 20 years and shows no sign of slowing.”<br />
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According to the Department of Corrections, more than 5,600 inmates are 55 or older. Out of more than 52,600 total prisoners, another 4,200 are between the ages of 50 and 55.<br />
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Prisoners, for the most part, age faster and have more health problems than the general population, according to various studies. And once a prisoner is released, those health issues become even harder to manage.<br />
<br />
The Marshall Project reported that the number of inmates 55 and older had quadrupled between 1995 and 2010. The American Civil Liberties Union projected that by 2030 one-third of all inmates in the nation will be older than 55.<br />
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“The recidivism rate of adults over 65 is only 4 percent, yet compassionate release laws are rarely used,” the ACLU wrote in a document on its website.<br />
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In the first 11 months of this year, almost 8,000 prisoners were released on parole, but records do not indicate how many of them were at least 55.<br />
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Other states have tried to provide nursing home care to inmates in the community, rather than keep the inmates in prison. But they confronted community opposition to parolees living in nearby nursing homes.<br />
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Milledgeville residents, however, are accustomed to having prisoners in their midst as prisons have been a major employer in the area for decades.<br />
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At one time, there were eight prisons in Baldwin County. Now there are two. The nursing center, once it is fully operating, will employ about 330.<br />
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“These are people that the Parole Board, with a very high threshold for approving the release of people, has taken a hard look at this situation and determined them no longer a public safety threat,” Totonchi, of the Southern Center for Human Rights, said. “So it makes no sense for them to take up valuable and expensive prison beds. Yet there is little to no appropriate housing in the community.”<br />
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Musso, who has a decades-long relationship with the Georgia Department of Corrections, bought the 700-bed Bostick State Prison for $50,000 in 2014. He demolished it and built in its place the nursing home for prisoners.<br />
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“Typically, these patients are difficult to place in nursing facilities,” Musso said. “I have a passion and compassion for inmate end-of-life issues.” <a href="http://www.myajc.com/news/local/nursing-home-for-prison-inmates-opening-milledgeville/bxty42FvMBDkO7T8jla8WP/">..Source..</a> by Rhonda Cook eAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-69273827245645016102016-12-02T16:30:00.000-05:002016-12-02T16:30:08.655-05:00Movie Captioning and Audio Description Final Rule<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7HCKy5SoIJzAOtVrr9wh3Q-kp2xGQKNaEw9fWdbMnX72orW9Dz29iOaLfDJlKwoSEWRWioDyAAaXMUqxN1dz_e77QUv-Gy9sgtEkBhPQGg6sgFUIXYd1VICOLgYCMQwhQZzKSRL34OI/s1600/a-ada-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7HCKy5SoIJzAOtVrr9wh3Q-kp2xGQKNaEw9fWdbMnX72orW9Dz29iOaLfDJlKwoSEWRWioDyAAaXMUqxN1dz_e77QUv-Gy9sgtEkBhPQGg6sgFUIXYd1VICOLgYCMQwhQZzKSRL34OI/s200/a-ada-logo.jpg" height="195" width="200" /></a></div><b>12-2-2015 National:</b><br />
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On November 21, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed a Final Rule revising the Justice Department’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) title III regulation to further clarify a public accommodation’s obligation to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services for people with disabilities. The Final Rule requires require movie theaters to: (1) have and maintain the equipment necessary to provide closed movie captioning and audio description at a movie patron’s seat whenever showing a digital movie produced, distributed, or otherwise made available with these features; (2) provide notice to the public about the availability of these features; and (3) ensure that theater staff is available to assist patrons with the equipment before, during, and after the showing of a movie with these features.<br />
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Title III of the ADA requires public accommodations, including movie theaters, to provide effective communication through the use of auxiliary aids and services. This rulemaking specifies requirements that movie theaters must meet to satisfy their effective communication obligations to people with hearing and vision disabilities unless compliance results in an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. For a summary of the Final Rule and its requirements, see the “Final Rule Questions & Answers.” <a href="https://www.ada.gov/regs2016/movie_captioning_rule_page.html">..Continued..</a> by ADA.goveAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-21210452481234410062016-11-30T16:05:00.000-05:002016-11-30T16:05:56.728-05:00Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2014 - Statistical Tables<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEmnP45sZZ6sQUzryB5Y3o9cqv8sdIjXw4ELILfWo9PpJqNgkKPB6V0X8UBMuZ3aiiIexZsD5dexEK-8InjeKYd7O4lZq_TkR8K0Ek7qUwR6I3QAxoBB2sv94gad5jXaQnP3jbLgy9DZs/s1600-h/a-research.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEmnP45sZZ6sQUzryB5Y3o9cqv8sdIjXw4ELILfWo9PpJqNgkKPB6V0X8UBMuZ3aiiIexZsD5dexEK-8InjeKYd7O4lZq_TkR8K0Ek7qUwR6I3QAxoBB2sv94gad5jXaQnP3jbLgy9DZs/s200/a-research.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191264007855603282" /></a><b>November 29, 2016 NCJ 250200:</b><br />
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Presents estimates of nonfatal violent crime (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) against persons age 12 or older with disabilities. Disabilities are classified according to six limitations: hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living. The report compares the victimization of persons with and without disabilities living in noninstitutionalized households, including distributions by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, disability type, and other victim characteristics. It also includes crime characteristics, such as victim-offender relationship, time of crime, reporting to police, and use of victim services agencies. Findings are based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) from 2009 to 2014. NCVS data were combined with data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey to generate victimization rates. <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5844">..Source..</a> by Erika Harrell, Ph.D., Bureau of Justice StatisticseAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630549088477801182.post-24904612671718359762016-11-20T10:02:00.000-05:002017-07-21T22:37:38.288-04:00The challenge of elderly sex offenders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIn1BRCGNJ-wJbRErOQp_Sa61qzxrHmVGeZ_A4e1YImSD0En571eiiLrA_XbIe3jN5lnwLezB-Pca8_4A6p9wcU0hvy1o8OCDZslXwvVICN5zfGrdVPo1T3xMd7XmMkxfEePOSoCZZkGo/s1600/elderly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIn1BRCGNJ-wJbRErOQp_Sa61qzxrHmVGeZ_A4e1YImSD0En571eiiLrA_XbIe3jN5lnwLezB-Pca8_4A6p9wcU0hvy1o8OCDZslXwvVICN5zfGrdVPo1T3xMd7XmMkxfEePOSoCZZkGo/s200/elderly.jpg" width="158" height="200" /></a></div><b>11-20-16 National:</b><br />
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<b>Where should they live? What if their health and minds are failing</b><br />
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By the time deputies arrested Thomas Bernard Brown for failing to register as a sexual predator, he had built up a 10-year record of consistent registration in Marion County.<br />
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That’s 42 check-ins, as his attorneys and his friends pointed out at a sentencing hearing in June. When it came to No. 43, Brown, 72, who has since been diagnosed with early stages of dementia, says that he simply forgot.<br />
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“My only crime, your honor, is that I have become old and forgetful,” he told Circuit Judge Robert Hodges that day.<blockquote style="background-color:#663300">Why it matters<br />
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Florida counts more than 1,100 individuals on its sexual offender/sexual predator registry who are older than 80. In Marion County, 74 of the approximately 870 offenders and predators the agency tracks are 70 or older. What is the best way for law enforcement, the courts and outside agencies to work with these aging members of the system? This story provides background, context and reviews some proposed solutions.</blockquote>Brown is currently serving a three-plus-year sentence. He took his case to a jury, and the sentence is in line with state guidelines. While mental impairment can stand as grounds for a judge to grant a more lenient sentence than the guidelines recommend, Hodges pointed to circumstances in Brown’s case that, in the judge's eyes, suggested the excuse didn’t make that cut.<br />
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The diagnosis came after Brown's arrest and after he self-reported memory loss to his doctor, for example. Hodges also pointed out that Brown’s memory issues didn’t seem to affect his ability to run Solid Rock Foundation of Marion County, a nonprofit that served men transitioning out of custody. The seriousness of Brown’s underlying crimes, too, make adherence to reporting requirements particularly important, according to the line of reasoning Hodges voiced in June.<br />
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(Brown has long maintained his innocence on a sex-related convictions, following arrests in Texas in 1985 and in Florida in 2001, both of which involved young girls.)<br />
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His case stands as an example of the sorts of challenges that legally designated sexual offenders and sexual predators can face as they reach their 70s, 80s and 90s in a state that calls for lifetime reporting requirements. Advocates who work with sex offenders throughout Florida say they’re familiar with cases like Brown’s, in which dementia of Alzheimer’s disease affects an offender’s ability to comply with requirements.<br />
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Jim Broderick, president and CEO of <a href="http://www.floridajusticetransitions.com/">Florida Justice Transitions</a>, a Clearwater-based nonprofit, recalled an offender, several years ago, who ran into trouble during a grocery trip when he unintentionally left an electronic monitoring system on the roof of his car.<br />
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That man, Broderick said, was similarly in the early stages of dementia.<br />
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Broderick and other advocates also point to complications that arise when an offender needs to enter assisted living or a nursing home. These facilities often do not, or cannot, accept them.<br />
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“Very often it’s not that these facilities do not want to provide services,” said Gail Colletta, president of the <a href="https://floridaactioncommittee.org/">Florida Action Committee</a>, a nonprofit based in Lake Monroe that supports and advocates for sex offenders and their families. “They are located in places that don’t meet residency restrictions.”<br />
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“This population is growing every single day,” said Ted Rodarm, executive director of Matthew 25 Ministries, referencing the state’s aging population. “This is only going to get worse until we get some change.”<br />
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Florida counts more than 1,100 individuals on its registry who are older than 80, according to Colletta. Her breakdown also covers an additional 3,600-plus who are older than 70. In Marion County, Lt. Michelle Wissinger, commander of the Sexual Offender/Predator Unit within the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, said that 74 of the approximately 870 offenders and predators the agency tracks are 70 or older.<br />
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Advocates said it’s reasonable to assume those number will increase as populations continue to age in Florida and in the United States.<br />
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Rodarm, for example, said he sees this trend through his work at City of Refuge, a community in Pahokee that provides housing exclusively to sex offenders. <a href="http://www.matthew25ministries.org/?gclid=CJW436PUt9ACFQ86gQodER8LdQ">Matthew 25 Ministries</a> runs the community. City of Refuge does not provide medical care for its residents, but Rodarm said several are in their 70s, 80 and even 90s.<br />
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At <a href="http://sohofl.org/">Sex Offender Housing of Florida</a>, a 55-plus community for sex offenders outside of Orlando, Lori Nassofer said she, too, sees steady demand from an aging population.<br />
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“Their needs are going to increase exponentially,” Colletta said of elderly sex offenders. “We don’t have provisions for that.”<br />
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Consider residency restrictions, for example. Florida law mandates that a registered sex offender cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility, park or playground. While that complicates housing options for an offender of any age, it can particularly limit an elderly or infirm offender who’s trying to enter an assisted living or nursing home facility.<br />
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Nassofer said she has seen this play out. She recalled contacting a nursing home about a resident and learning that, while the nursing home’s policies would allow the man to live there, the building sat too close to a school to accept him.<br />
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“What difference does it make if he’s near a school?” Nassofer asked, pointing out that patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease often live in locked facilities anyway. “He can’t do anything.”<br />
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Colletta echoed the frustration.<br />
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“If I’m at the point where I need a nursing home,” she said, speaking hypothetically, “I’m not a threat.”<br />
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Underscoring the point is a recent case out of Boynton Beach. In September, the family of a nursing home resident, Jack Ehrhart, pushed back against threats to arrest Ehrhart for violating a residency ordinance. The nursing home sits closer to a preschool than the ordinance allows.<br />
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Courthouse News Service identified Earhart as having end-stage Alzheimer’s disease. The former gynecologist’s conviction dates back to the mid-1980s, when patients complained that he touched them sexually.<br />
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“You can’t get them in nursing homes,” Broderick said of the offenders he’s worked with through Florida Justice Transitions, which provides support and transitional housing to offenders. “I’ve had very limited success, but they’re not really good quality nursing homes.<br />
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“It’s a challenge,” he said.<br />
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If, or when, a registered sex offender cannot find care through an assisted living or nursing home, advocates said there are no good answers. Rodarm said the burden of caring for them likely falls to the family members.<br />
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Wissinger and Detective Tasha Nix, who also works in Sexual Offender/Predator Unit at the Sheriff’s Office, said they’ve seen family members step in to ensure that the offender registers on time in some cases. In others they said they make can accommodations -- if an offender were bedridden, for example.<br />
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They said that, in their experience, an elderly offender is no more likely to abscond, or fail to register, than anyone else.<br />
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In Marion County, where advocates around the state could not point to any specific resources, it’s unclear what options, if any, are available to elderly sex offenders. Jennifer Martinez, executive director of Marion Senior Services, said her organization does not have experience catering to their specific needs, but that it does not discriminate against them.<br />
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From Colletta’s perspective, the most effective solution to the challenges that elderly sex offenders face is to eliminate the registry altogether. She and other advocates suggested that the registry appeals more to politicians and to the public more than it serves any public safety purpose.<br />
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Recidivism among sex offenders is statistically lower than recidivism among those convicted of other crimes. Colletta puts the rate at 13 percent for sex offenders who commit another sex-related crime. (For comparison, the Public Policy Institute of Marion County reported in 2014 that 79.4 percent of inmates at the Marion County Jail were repeat offenders.)<br />
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And, obviously, the registry offers no warning to the public if someone is a first-time offender.<br />
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Short of eliminating the registry, Colletta suggested several measures that the Legislature could take to ease what she cast as unnecessary burdens on elderly sex offenders.<br />
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She called for the elimination of residency restrictions, for one, painting them as a particularly ineffective element of registry requirements. Or, she suggested, the state could enact residency exceptions for facilities that provide treatment or care.<br />
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While that would address situations like Earhart’s in Boynton Beach, she pointed out that this measure, too, could more easily allow offenders to enter residential substance abuse or rehabilitation programs.<br />
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Colletta also suggested the offenders in Florida need a path toward attrition, or natural removal from the registry.<br />
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“These men in their 70s 80s or 90s -- they’re no longer a threat,” Rodarm said. “They’re still being punished for a crime where they’ve already paid their debt to society. It’s in nobody’s best interest to keep them in custody.”<br />
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That’s in line with Ruthanna Smith’s line of thinking. Smith is a friend of Brown, the Marion County defendant, whom she knew through her church. Smith said she had been helping Brown work on an application for clemency through the governor before his arrest; afterward, she sat in on his trial and sentencing hearing.<br />
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To Smith, it was particularly upsetting to hear attorneys dredge up details of a 35-year-old conviction, for which Brown has already served a sentence. Smith said she doesn’t understand the logic in incarcerating someone she knows as a committed church member.<br />
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“Why would the state of Florida want to punish someone for being old and forgetful?” she asked. <a href="http://gm5-lkweb.newscyclecloud.com/news/20161120/challenge-of-elderly-sex-offenders">..Source..</a> by Nicki GornyeAdvocatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569822127629044435noreply@blogger.com0