Corrections Victoria has moved to reassure the community that sex offenders undergo extensive risk assessment before attending Ballarat health services.
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Former prisoners on court-mandated post-sentence supervision orders face heavy scrutiny while at Ballarat health centres.
Concerned community members contacted The Courier about a sex offender housed with vulnerable patients following a dementia diagnosis in July.
The former prisoner was moved back to a supervised residential home.
Corrections Victoria Offender Management Deputy Commissioner Larissa Strong said a number of factors were always assessed.
“If we thought in any facility there were any risks, we would not place an individual there,” she said.
“We would not place an individual near a cohort similar to their victims.”
Ballarat often receives sex offenders from units at Ararat’s Hopkins Correctional Centre and supervised residential home Corella Place for health and other services. A new 20-bed home for violent and sex offenders released from prison is also planned for Ararat.
Post sentence supervision orders are used on sex offenders after release, when courts deem the person likely to reoffend. The offender would not be monitored to the same level without an order.
Environmental scans assess the suitability of health care centres to house former prisoners on supervision orders. The scan considers an offender’s history, such as someone who offends while drunk, and therefore cannot be placed near liquor stores.
Corrections Victoria also notifies the centre’s management and nursing staff are informed.
The offender will have the same conditions as their supervision order, which can include ankle bracelets and curfews.
Staff also have access to a 24 hour emergency number and a Specialist Sex Offenders Response Unit. However other patients and their families are not informed, due to court suppression orders and medical confidentiality.
Ms Strong said there only a small number of elderly sex offenders who needed long-term medical care.
“They are not prisoners, the post sentence supervision order is a civil scheme,” she said.
“It means there is a clinical concern they will reoffend. These would be people who would all be living in the community, they have done their times and there would be no supervision.”
