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Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Saturday, February 16, 2008

Records: Wis. agency slow to stop sex offenders from getting aid

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s financial aid agency has been slow to develop a policy designed to stop sex offenders in state custody from wrongly receiving extra aid for their room and board, records show.

The Higher Educational Aids Board learned in April 2007 that people living at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, which houses some of the state’s worst child molesters and rapists, were receiving state and federal aid for living expenses.

Some received up to $1,000 more than they should have because taxpayers already cover their housing, clothes and food, according to an Aug. 1 memo from the Department of Health and Family Services, which runs Sand Ridge.

Others signed up for courses to receive aid and then dropped them, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the open records law.

Connie Hutchison, executive secretary of the aids board, promised to form a committee to write a policy to make sure sex offenders and other incarcerated citizens do not receive aid that exceeds their needs.

But 10 months later, the committee has only met once, does not have a draft policy and the earliest any changes could be approved is August at the next board meeting. E-mails show Hutchison has repeatedly missed her own timelines for action.

“It is well past the time I had intended to get the group together,” Hutchison wrote July 23, three months after learning of the problem but before the committee’s only meeting on Aug. 1. After that meeting, Hutchison was to take steps to get the policy in place last fall but she did not, records show.

Hutchison said Friday the response has been slower than anticipated because her agency is small and had to deal with “more pressing” issues such as the state budget. She said universities are aware of the issue and some are tightening procedures on their own.

But the problem is that universities have no way of identifying sex offenders who are in treatment centers so they can reduce financial aid awards accordingly. The offenders are committed under civil law after serving prison sentences because the state deems them too dangerous to be released.

Some sign up for correspondence courses and can qualify for aid for tuition and educational expenses like books. But they do not have to disclose they are living in state-run facilities on the application and some have taken advantage of that loophole to obtain a windfall.

“This feeds criminal thinking and scams where they are signing up for the courses for the aid money and not the education,” DHFS wrote in a memo shared with the committee.

One sex offender received a $4,300 Pell Grant to take courses through Adams State College in Colorado but planned to drop the courses and use leftover money to pay off debts.

“He did not do any work for the courses and had not even purchased the textbooks,” Sand Ridge teacher Stephanie Joyce wrote in an August e-mail. “He also said there was no penalty and they did not require him to repay any money.”

Sand Ridge teacher supervisor Daniel Holzman warned Hutchison in August that additional patients were signing up for courses through the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Another received $3,000 in aid to take courses through an unnamed school in St. Louis but dropped out.

“He showed a letter where the school is asking him to take some more classes and get some more aid,” Holzman wrote. “They said he is eligible for another grant. Disturbing to me, especially because we contacted them and told them what was happening and got an indication it would cease.”

Last fall, Sand Ridge started requiring patients to put extra aid money they receive into an account controlled by staff to ensure it is used only for educational purposes.

But DHFS officials have resisted sharing the names of patients with financial aid officials to stop payments for living expenses. E-mails show they are concerned the disclosure would violate their privacy rights and could lead to lawsuits.

“We at DHFS have been sued so many times, it is intimidating,” Holzman wrote to Hutchison in August.

Hutchison acknowledged she has not obtained a legal opinion from the Department of Justice on whether names can be shared despite saying she would do so last August. She said she now plans to get the opinion before the committee’s next meeting this spring or summer.

E-mails show DHFS officials were aware of the potential for negative publicity from the beginning.

“My initial contacts with DHFS have made it clear that they want us to try to take some action, and at the very least not have it appear that we did nothing while this was occurring,” Sand Ridge Director Steve Watters wrote last April. He added: “I think that the current practice (which results in large checks being sent to the patients for living expenses) is pretty much indefensible.”