Will need to give officials lists of people they call
Convicted sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences but who remain in civil confinement have been bombarding the state's Justice Center with calls, complaining that a pending new phone policy violates their patient privacy rights (HIPAA).
That's because these offenders, who are confined in secure state hospitals, under a new policy will have to provide officials with a list of up to 15 people they wish to call from the facility's phones.
Those people may then be notified by the hospital and asked if they want to keep receiving calls from a sex offender.
"This is, like, the most blatant violation of the HIPAA law that there is,'' said Charles Gerena, who since 2013 has been confined at the state Office of Mental Health's Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy, near Utica.
