House bill seeks warning when sex offenders stay in motels

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Until the state can find another solution for housing high-risk sex offenders, the Department of Corrections must continue placing them in motels, a department spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Since February 2000, the department has used hotels and motels throughout Washington as temporary housing for Level 3 sex offenders after they serve their sentences. Level 3 offenders are those considered most likely to reoffend.

The House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee on Wednesday heard comments on a bill by Rep. Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, that would require hotels lodging sex offenders to notify other residents.

"To me, it’s absolutely inexcusable to put high-risk sex offenders in motel rooms next to unsuspecting families and their children," said Ballasiotes, who has been active in issues involving sex offenders since a work-release inmate killed her daughter in 1988.

"At the very least, guests should be notified and aware so they can take precautions."

But with the Legislature facing the challenge of a $1.6 billion budget shortfall and less than two weeks remaining in the session, it’s unlikely lawmakers will vote on Ballasiotes’ bill, said Rep. Al O’Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace, committee chairman.

O’Brien said he plans meetings after the session to discuss with state officials and community leaders options for housing the state’s sex offenders.

"We have to find some type of solution," O’Brien said after the hearing. "The alternative is they’re going to get dumped out of prison and we won’t have a handle on what they’re doing."

Ballasiotes argued last week that the state was irresponsible in its placement of sex offenders in hotels. At the time, the department had 12 high-level sex offenders staying at hotels or motels, with another 18 in other types of housing throughout the state.

But some of those hotels have now stopped accepting sex offenders, eliminating the state’s last option for housing them, said Victoria Roberts, a Community Protection Unit administrator for the Corrections Department.

Ballasiotes’ proposal is at least bringing attention to the lack of housing for released sex offenders, Roberts said. But more must be done at the community level to ensure offenders are not left homeless and the state is left with no means of tracking their movements, she said.

"The ultimate goal is no more victims (of sex predators)," Roberts said.

Several at the House hearing spoke in favor of developing watchdog groups within communities where sex offenders live. People would be more accepting if they were better informed about the offenders in their neighborhoods, said Jeanie Peterson of the Hilltop Action Coalition in Tacoma.

"Nobody really wants them, whether they have treatment or not," Peterson said. "But if we don’t find housing, they’re predators without a tracking system."