No place to live, sex offenders kept in prison

Michael Blaine Wolfe III served out every bit of his eight-year sentence for sexual abuse and should have been released from prison more than a year ago.

But he is still behind bars and could be for up to four more years, with state taxpayers footing the bill for his medical expenses and incarceration.

The reason: He was charged with violating the terms of his conditional release from prison before he even got out, because he couldn’t find a legal place to live as a sex offender.

Wolfe, 40, who suffered brain damage in an accident as a teenager and uses a wheelchair, needs nursing care, and the Corrections Department says none of the 310 places it has contacted to house him has been willing to accept him. Only 15 said they would even consider it, the department says.

Wolfe is one of five inmates in Kentucky who have been “violated at the gate” — that is, found to have violated the conditions of their release before they even left the prison gates. One of them died in custody three months later.

Another, Frank Boswell, who served out his sentence for rape and sexual abuse on May 25 and is “near death,” according to his public defender, Melanie Lowe, found an approved placement on July 29 at a nursing home in Henry County.

Lowe said that as sex offenders age in the system, problems placing them will grow.

Finding legal places to live for sex offenders, especially those who require medical treatment, is a growing problem nationally, experts say. Illinois keeps 1,250 parolees behind bars because of a shortage of housing, and most are sex offenders, the Chicago Tribune reported in January.

The MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University law school, which has fought unsuccessfully in court to end the practice, says it is discriminatory because most of the affected offenders are poor. “If you have money, you rent an apartment where it is legal,” said staff attorney Alexa van Brunt.

Wolfe and other offenders are held after the sentences expire under a Kentucky law that tacks a five-year period of conditional release on sex offenders, during which they can be returned for violating sex offender residency laws or for other violations.

Lowe says that it is unjust to hold inmates after they’ve done their time solely because they can’t find nursing care at a legal address. Sex offenders cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center or publicly owned playground.

Corrections Commmissioner LaDonna Thompson declined to respond to questions about the fairness of the law, but Lowe said some officials in the department aren’t happy with it.

Lisa Howard, an administrator with Probation and Parole, testified in a June 26 hearing that nursing homes are reluctant to admit sex offenders because of the potential liability and because it would place the home’s address on the sex offender registry.

On cross-examination, Howard conceded that the department stopped looking for placement for Wolfe after it formally charged him with a violation in July 2014.

Administrative Law Judge Eden Stephens found there was no probable cause that Wolfe violated the terms of his conditional release, according to Lowe, though she said the implications of the ruling are unclear.

Stephens apologized to Wolfe for the delays. “This has gone on far too long,” she said.

Kentucky law says that 180 days before sex offenders are to be released from prison, they must provide in writing their planned residence during their five-year period of conditional release.

State Sen. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, sponsored a bill creating the conditional release for sex offenders — originally for three years and later amended to five — in 1998. It was the year after an inmate who had recently been released from prison after serving time for sexually abusing two young cousins abducted, assaulted, stabbed and drowned 16-year-old Sarah Hansen, who lived in Yonts’ district.

Yonts said in an interview that his primary goal was to keep something over the heads of offenders who disputed their crimes and didn’t complete sex offender counseling in prison. He said he also wanted to ensure all sex offenders registered at a legal address.

Keeping infirm inmates in prison because they can’t find places in nursing homes “is not what I originally contemplated,” Yonts said.

Lowe said that providing medical treatment for prisoners in custody is also far more expensive for the state. Lowe would be eligible for Medicaid, which is paid largely by the federal government, but isn’t available as long as an inmate is locked up.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said that is one of the reasons he is pushing for the state to contract with a secure nursing home that would treat sex offenders and other former inmates who require medical care. He said the state could save as much as $8 million to $10 million a year in reduced medical costs.

Wolfe was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison in two cases, including one in which he improperly touched a 9-year-old girl over her clothes and another in which he had sexual contact with a girl under 12 through forcible compulsion.

He is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, although he had those infirmities when he committed the crimes. Lowe said he has “trouble remembering anything,” and department records show he is unable to move from his bed to the bathroom.

McCracken Commonwealth’s Attorney Dan Boaz, who took office after Wolfe was prosecuted, said there should be somewhere he can go.

But Boaz also said that sex offenses have a profound impact on children, and that there is a “legitimate concern about re-offending.”

Lowe said Wolfe is too ill now to pose a threat and that inmates like him should not remain behind bars.

“It is so frustrating that they are just stuck,” she said.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189