Escapees get legislative attention

St. Peter lawmakers criticize Human Services

By Mark Fischenich

The Minnesota Senate is likely to hold hearings during the final weeks of the 2006 legislative session investigating recent escapes from the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center, according to Sen. John Hottinger.

A joint hearing involving two or more Senate committees will look into the reasons for two escapes in 13 months from the St. Peter facility, including the Saturday break-out by four men committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital, according to Hottinger, DFL-St. Peter.

“There’s some question about the management at the very highest levels,” he said of the state Department of Human Services. “And I hope that is explored at the hearings the Senate is almost certain to have.”

Residents of St. Peter and Moose Lake, which is home to another large facility housing court-committed sex offenders, deserve to know everything is being done to ensure their safety, said Hottinger and Rep. Ruth Johnson, DFL-St. Peter.

While the Legislature is expected to adjourn by mid-May or earlier, Johnson said there’s still time for lawmakers and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty to provide additional funding to boost security at the facilities. Staffing levels, the adequacy of training and the physical security of the buildings all need to be looked at, she said.

“Essentially, it’s a hospital that is functioning like a prison without the security provisions a prison would provide,” said Johnson, who suspects that budget shortfalls of recent years exacerbated problems with security.

“I would bet that lack of adequate funding is part of the problem here as we look at cutbacks in health and human services in recent years,” she said.

Department of Human Services Assistant Commissioner Wes Kooistra strongly disagreed that the Pawlenty administration or the Legislature has failed to properly fund security at the state hospitals.

“There are no facts that support that,” Kooistra said. “The issue of security and addressing the growth of the sex offender population has been a budget priority since the population took off.”

Kooistra said he believes lawmakers and the governor have been entirely responsible in dealing with the growing number of psychopathic personalities locked up by courts indefinitely at the state hospitals.

He noted that both the Senate and House bonding bills include the governor’s recommendation of $2.5 million in security improvements at the facilities.

That recommendation came after the Department of Corrections found security concerns at the Security Hospital in 2005 and recommended improvements to windows, fencing, surveillance systems, control centers and other areas, according to a summary of the bonding request included in the governor’s Capital Budget Requests.

Originally a $5 million request, the security provision was broken into two parts by the Pawlenty administration earlier this year with St. Peter to be addressed in 2006-07 and other facilities waiting until 2008-09.

“The final report from the DOC audit found that there were specific security issues on campus that required upgrades and new equipment,” the governor’s budget summary states. “These changes recommended by DOC will be completed as time and funding allows.”

Whether or not more immediate funding is an answer, there’s an obvious flaw in state criminal law that the administration and the House have attempted to address, according to Kooistra. The administration has been pushing a bill to make it a felony to escape from a security hospital, the Republican-controlled House has passed it through committees, but it failed to clear all committees in the DFL-dominated Senate.

“I’m sure they’ll find a way to move that policy bill through the Senate,” he said.

Hottinger, who said he and other senators will amend that provision on to a larger crime bill later in the session, called it “ridiculous” that the most severe charge available to the Nicollet County attorney in the recent escape is “conspiracy to destroy public property.” The four escapees, one of whom was still at large Tuesday night, broke a window as part of the escape.