92 ex-cons among DSHS staff
4,000 background reviews still to do of those who care for the vulnerableBy ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTEROLYMPIA -- State officials have identified 92 ex-cons who care for the developmentally disabled and other vulnerable Washingtonians, bringing the tally of front-line social-service workers who may lose their jobs because of prior crimes up to 166. The recent review found dozens of convictions for assaults, several sex crimes and one vehicular homicide.
In the Division of Developmental Disabilities, 89 workers -- or about 2.4 percent of those checked -- have serious criminal records that include manslaughter, assault, theft, forgery, arson, prostitution, indecent liberties and drug offenses. "Even one is bad," said Sue Elliott, director of ARC of Washington, an advocacy group for the retarded.
But she said it's about time the state took a good look at who is caring for the vulnerable, particularly in institutions. The state opened its first institution for the mentally retarded in 1915, she said. "Eighty-seven years later, we now think it appropriate," Elliott said. "It's incredibly tragic that it's taken 87 years."
"Most of the general public believes that if someone's in the state's care, that people might be presumed to provide more safety," Elliott said. "And they're not, unfortunately." The latest figures are an update to a report the Department of Social and Health Services released last month. Pursuant to legislation passed last year, DSHS is reviewing the criminal history of more than 13,000 social-service workers who have unsupervised contact with the vulnerable.
No one has been fired yet, said Ken Harden, DSHS assistant secretary for management services, and he knows of no one who has quit. "People have been placed on home assignment or have been put in other jobs where they don't have access to vulnerable adults or children," Harden said. DSHS still must review the background of more than 4,000 workers, many of whom care for abused children and juvenile offenders. Workers with a serious criminal history can appeal to two state boards, or directly to DSHS Secretary Dennis Braddock.
Many convictions on the latest list of reported crimes must still be verified, Harden said. "We have found at least two people that I know of that were totally different people than the people we had information on," Harden said. Once convictions are verified, officials decide whether the crimes warrant job action.
Employees with criminal convictions can quit, be demoted or be transferred into a position without unsupervised contact or can be fired. "We do have some discretion, and we look at it in the totality about that particular individual," Harden said. Nearly all the employees identified have requested a hearing to explain mitigating circumstance around their records, Harden said. The first group of seven hearings was held last week.
The recent checks found, among 89 workers who care for the developmentally disabled, convictions for:
One manslaughter and one vehicular homicide
Two convictions for indecent liberties and one for communication with a minor for immoral purposes
37 assaults and two vehicular assaults
Two convictions of reckless endangerment and five for malicious mischief
Six robberies, five burglaries and 14 thefts
One arson
Two drug offenses
Four prostitution convictions
One forgeryThe earlier report found 74 with records among nearly 5,300 employees who cared for elderly, disabled, poor, deaf, mentally ill and addicts, sex offenders and other vulnerable adults.
That review found workers who had been convicted of manslaughter, rape, prostitution, vehicular homicide, burglary and drug offenses. Among mental-hospital workers, those convictions included 57 workers with convictions for murder, rapes, manslaughter, vehicular homicides, robberies, indecent liberties, arson and 30 assaults.
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