Sure, I may be a little groggy from my Thanksgiving gluttony, but this story regarding the placement of former inmates into nursing homes and assisted living facilities caught my eye. The Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) is holding a series of meetings with nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other organizations for the purpose of recruiting them to house criminals who have served their jail time and need housing or specialized care.

I’m sure many of these felons genuinely need medical assistance and psychological support after serving time in jail, but this just seems like a recipe for danger. Feel free to tell the residential coordinator for the DOC, La Trese Schofield, how you feel about placing felons in nursing homes. Telephone: (404) 463-2947 / Email: schofl00@dcor.state.ga.us

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Rebecca Young says:

November 27, 2009 at 8:11 am

Deserve? So… what, once they’ve served their sentence and justice has been done they shouldn’t have the same range of choices available to them as to any other citizen? Is being institutionalised supposed to be a privilege now? How about appropriate care in the least restrictive environment?
We are after all talking about people who have done their time – prison inmates with ongoing care needs receive that care behind bars. You make a bad decision (or many), you get caught, brought to justice… at that point a non-disabled ex convict gets to (ty to) resume normal life and rejoin the community. Why should ex cons with high level care needs not receive the same choices and freedoms?
If there are concerns that a resident may pose a risk to others then the first question surely needs to be: What is the institution doing to maintain the safety and wellbeing of all its residents?

Gaviota says:

December 6, 2009 at 4:10 pm

“Why should ex-cons…not receive the same choices and freedoms?”
Because they can’t pay for it. Who is going to pay the nursing home for this care? The overburdened taxpayer, of course. The residents in my nursing home have worked all of their lives, and now they are using their accumulated assets to pay for their nursing home care. What does the ex-con bring to the table? A Medicare/Medicaid bed that pays less than 2/3 of the costs of care? Not to mention the potential security risks?
“What is the institution doing to maintain the safety and wellbeing of all its residents?”
Refusing to admit violent ex-cons, to start with.