Stuck in Legal Limbo

Here's a story of an offender who can't go home from the hospital because he can't find housing that doesn't violate local law that also has handicap accessibility:

Keith Shortsleeves knew he was going to have to stay in Glens Falls Hospital for at least a few weeks when he checked in on Jan. 20 for diabetes-related problems.

Circulation problems required partial amputation of his left leg.

But within a few weeks, Shortsleeves had recovered to the point he was ready to be discharged.

"I thought I'd just be going home," he said.

Nearly five months later, Shortsleeves is still in the hospital, despite the fact he is no longer in need of treatment there.

The hospital's staff won't let him go because he doesn't have a home that meets his needs for post-hospital care, he said during an interview in his room last week.

He is a Level 3 sex offender who can't go back to his former apartment in Fort Edward because of handicapped accessibility issues, but can't find an accessible apartment anywhere else because of laws that dictate where sex offenders can live.

So since February, Shortsleeves has stayed in a variety of hospital rooms, most recently in a third-floor corner room overlooking the front parking lot, waiting for a solution to his housing woes.

"I don't want to be here, but I got no choice," he said. "I ain't got no place to live."

This is really a bizarre outcome and one with no obvious resolution in sight. The hospital can't release him under state law unless he has suitable housing for rehabilitation. There is no such housing because he is a sex offender. Since neither of those conditions is likely to change, he is essentially a permanent resident of the hospital. While surely an outlier outcome, this is yet another data point in the strange collateral effects of residency restrictions.

Comments

[TheNerd]

WTF? This brings two thoughts to my mind. 1. All apartment complexes over a certain size should have handicapped accessability. No excuses. 2. There should be a limit to the length a person is registered as a sex offender. I think if someone has successfully turned his life around and has proved it through 7-10 years of a clean record, he should be taken off the registry.

[Mike Jones]

Pointless waste of taxpayer money with all the redlining. As a DOC worker as well as a psychology major, I can tell you what a waste of time and money this all is. First off, only a very small amount of offenders are fixated or considered pedophiles. The majority of sex offenders are not. Second off, a sex offender is the least likely of all criminals to re-offend. There is a lot of speculation and assumptions, and all around bad information. The DOC of your local state can provide the real numbers if someone of mild intelligence is willing to research before fear mongering. Next, over %90 of crimes involve a close family member, relative, or friend. It is rare that some stranger even livening next door to you is going to commit such a crime if they do not have some form of relationship with your family. Restricting where a sex offender can live accomplishes nothing but a false sense of security. Again, since recidivism is so low, there is absolutely no point. It is the sex offenders that have not been caught, and have not committed a crime yet that the public has to worry about. Money needs to be spent on treatment programs, because yes, treatment makes a difference just like with drugs, alcohol, spousal abuse, and the many other crimes that have truly horrifying results on families and communities, but are downplayed. If you think the victim of a sex crime has suffered, what about the wife and kids of a husband and father that beats them every night in a violent rage. Do people honestly think this is less damage to the wife and kids than a sex offense? What about the mother who lost a child to a drunk driver, or the child that lost their life to the drunk driver, is this not as bad? Let’s get a grip on reality and realize that a sex offense if not worse than many other crimes, but many other crimes are just as bad as a sex offense and worse in many cases. Let’s stop with pointless restrictions and fear mongering, and let’s start dealing with facts. Stop wasting money creating and enforcing pointless sex offender laws, and start spending it on treatment for all crimes. Let stop physical abuse that takes lives and scars families for life, and stop drunk drivers who do the same with their careless (and in most cases repeat) actions. Let’s stop buglers who destroy family’s security and peace of mind. Spend money on treatment, because treatment works for all criminals. Treatment is effective at stopping all crimes to a high percentage when it can be applied effectively. And let’s stop false thinking that someone can’t be treated because such and such reason. People are treated every day to suppress negative behavior through treatment and even operant conditioning. It works, let’s stop acting like is does not.