92% of Nursing Homes Employ Ex-Convicts

92% of Nursing Homes Employ Ex-Convicts


Placing a relative in a nursing home means putting them in the hands of businesses that often hire convicted criminals.

A report from the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 92% of all nursing homes employ at least one worker with a criminal conviction. In total, ex-cons make up about 5% of nursing home workers in the country, the IG estimated after checking with a random sample of 260 nursing homes certified by Medicare.

Of those workers with convictions, 44% had committed property crimes (i.e. theft, vandalism, writing bad checks), 16% had drug-related crimes and 13% had committed crimes against people, including sexual offenses.

The report also noted that eight states—Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming—don’t require operators to conduct background checks before hiring employees.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/92_Percent_of_Nursing_Homes_Employ_Ex_Convicts_110306

99% of corporations employ people at the top who should be convicts :)

What harm has occurred? I am not willing to shun someone due to a felony. Now I do draw the line on sexual assault crimes.

A 17 year-old boy who had sex with his 15 year-old girlfriend?

And do you know what the overall rate of reoffending is for those convicted of sex offenses? (Maybe 7% within 10 years after release.)

Has been clean for 12 years but was continually discriminated against because of that non-violent drug felony. When does it stop? She now has a job and is working in a field helping take care of people and she is a wonderful caregiver and a wonderful employee. If anything will lead a person return to that former life, it is the constant and never-ending penalization of their mistakes that they have paid society for. They paid the price, they did the time, they have stayed out of trouble and clean and then can never find a meaningful job to help support themselves or their families. Violent ex-felons and sex offenders are in another category and each of those should be handled on a case by case basis, and probably be excluded from certain jobs completely, but we are condemning a very large and growing larger group of people to permanent unemployment and recidivism which will cost us in the burgeoning cost of maintaining our prison systems.

I wouldn't put a bad check writer in charge of payroll, and I wouldn't put a sex offender near children. Why couldn't the sex offender work in the kitchen or something? There are many different jobs - just match them up right.