Image of nurses' hands at computer keyboard

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has ordered state corrections officials segregate sex offenders staying in nursing homes with the other residents. Pawlenty made this statement following a lawsuit filed last week by Attorney General Mike Hatch charging sex offenders living in the 94-bed Concordia Care Center in Minneapolis allegedly victimized women on a third-floor locked ward. He ordered they separate them as soon as possible.

Each year, the department sends two or three inmates with severe mental or physical problems to Concordia or Ah-Gwah-Ching, the state-owned nursing-care facility in Walker, MN, said Chris Bray, assistant corrections commissioner, to the Associated Press. Hatch said other kinds of offenders may have been placed in nursing homes.

Sen. Linda Berglin, chairwoman of the state Senate Health, Human Services and Corrections Budget Division, said that top officials from corrections and the Health Department and Human Services will be asked to testify about the placements at an upcoming committee hearing.