Policy and Procedures for Name Removal from
the Arkansas Adult Maltreatment Registry
The Arkansas Adult Maltreatment Registry maintained by the
Adult Protective Services (APS) division within the Department of Human
Services (DHS) will retain all "Founded" reports of maltreatment indefinitely
to assist APS in the safety and protection of endangered and impaired Arkansas
adults.
Records of all cases in which allegations are determined to be
"Unfounded" will not be included in the Adult Maltreatment Registry; however,
the information from "Unfounded" reports included in the APS data system will
be retained indefinitely to assist APS in assessing future risk and safety of
endangered and impaired adults.
APS staff will ensure that all assessments with a "Founded"
disposition will be securely stored and will verify and respond to all valid
requests for information from a Prosecuting Attorney who is prosecuting a case
related to any APS report or case.
No offender who is placed on the Adult Maltreatment Registry
will be "automatically" removed from the registry.
Any adult maltreatment offender who qualifies for consideration
for removal may apply for consideration of removal through DAABHS. Requests
that qualify per time and offense requirements will be reviewed by the Adult
Maltreatment Registry Review Team in the order in which they are
received.
Consideration for Removal by Review
Team
The Adult Maltreatment Registry Review Team shall operate as
follows:
A. The Director of the
Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services (DAABHS) will appoint
the members of the Adult Maltreatment Registry Review Team.
1) The Review Team will be made up of APS
central office and field staff.
2)
There will be five (5) members with five (5) alternates in case of scheduling
conflicts.
3) A representative of
OCC may provide legal advice and assistance to the team but will not be a
member of the Adult Maltreatment Registry Review Team.
B. The Review Team will select an alternating
chairperson for each quarter.
C.
The Review Team will determine a regular meeting schedule for the review any
requests that meet all criteria but shall meet no less than on an annual,
quarterly basis.
D. Review requests
must be received sixty (60) days in advance of the review meeting, and all
Review Team members will be provided with the case information fifteen (15)
days prior to the review team meeting. All decisions will be determined by a
majority vote of the team members.
E. All team decisions will be sent in writing
by the DAABHS Director or designee.
1) Denials
will be sent to the applicants by certified mail within fifteen (15) days from
the review team's decision.
2)
Approvals will be sent to the applicants by regular mail within fifteen (15)
days of the review team's decision.
Name Request
Removal
An offender may request his or her name be removed from the
Adult Maltreatment Registry when:
A.
The individual has not had a subsequent true report for one (1) year;
B. More than one (1) year has passed since
the offender's name was placed on the Adult Maltreatment Registry;
and
C. More than one (1) year has
passed from the completion of any court-imposed sentence.
However, the offender may not request removal from the Adult
Maltreatment Registry if any of the following apply:
A. The offender was placed into the Adult
Maltreatment Registry for any type of maltreatment that resulted in a fatality
as a direct result of the offender's act or omission;
B. The offender is still involved in an open
criminal court case based on the same underlying facts for which he or she was
placed onto the Adult Maltreatment Registry; or has not completed the terms and
the conditions of any sentence arising from the conviction based on the same
underlying facts for which he or she was placed onto the Adult Maltreatment
Registry.
C. The offender was
placed onto the Adult Maltreatment Registry for any of the maltreatment types
or type involving any of the injury characteristics or details listed below:
* Abuse with deadly weapon;
* Bone fractures;
* Brain Damage/Skull Fracture;
* Burns/scalding;
* Human Trafficking
* Immersion;
* Interfering with a person's breathing;
* Internal injuries;
* Malnutrition;
* Oral sex;
* Poison/noxious substances;
* Restraint of the liberty of another involving threats or
violence;
* Sexual exploitation;
* Sexual penetration;
* Sexual Violence;
* Subdural hematoma; or
* Suffocation; or
D. The offender is convicted of a criminal
offense for an act or omission listed above in C that constitutes adult
maltreatment and for which the offender is named in the Adult Maltreatment
Registry regardless of any subsequent expungement of the offense from the
offender's criminal record, so long as the offender's conviction has not been
reversed or vacated.
Application Format for an Offender
An application for name removal from the Adult Maltreatment
Registry shall conform to the following:
A. The offender will submit his or her
request/ petition to:
DAABHS/Adult Maltreatment Registry Name Removal
P.O. Box 1437 - Slot W241
Little Rock, AR 72203-1437
and shall also submit:
1) A personal letter describing:
a) The offender's reason for the removal
request;
b) The events and
circumstances surrounding the adult maltreatment finding;
c) The offender's rehabilitation;
and,
d) Why the offender does not
pose a risk of maltreatment to vulnerable populations, including without
limitation, children, the elderly, persons with a disability, and persons with
a mental health illness;
2) Arkansas Adult Maltreatment Registry
results free from a true finding of the same maltreatment type for the
preceding year, or for one (1) year following the completion of any
court-ordered sentence, if applicable;
3) Adult Maltreatment Registry results from
the offender's current state of residence and any state in which the offender
has resided in the preceding year free from a true finding of the same
maltreatment type for the preceding year, or for one (1) year following the
completion of any court-ordered sentence, if applicable;
4) Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC)
background check and an adult maltreatment-related check that is free from
disqualifying offenses for the preceding one (1) year, one (1) year prior to
the date of application;
5) State
background check results from the offender's current state of residence and any
state in which the offender has resided in the preceding year free from adult
maltreatment-related offenses for the preceding one (1) year, one (1) year
prior to the date of the application;
6) Description and documentation (e.g., court
records, letter from the offender's attorney, probation officer, or prosecuting
attorney) of any current pending criminal charges, if applicable;
7) Evidence of the offender's rehabilitation,
including, but not limited to:
a)
Documentation proving completion of treatment, remediation, or rehabilitation
programs as related to the specific offense if applicable.
b) For removal requests related to sexual
abuse, proof of rehabilitation must include documentation from a licensed
mental health professional that:
i) States
that the requestor has participated in therapy with the licensed mental health
professional to address the issues related to the sexual abuse
offense;
ii) States total length of
time the requestor has participated in therapy with the licensed mental health
professional to address the issues related to the sexual abuse offense and the
frequency of therapy sessions during that period of time;
iii) Indicates whether a sex offender
specific assessment was conducted during the therapy period (e.g., the Vermont
Assessment of Sex Offender Risk (VASOR), Clarke Sex History Questionnaire for
Males Revised, Hare Psychotherapy Scale) (note: the use of such an assessment
is not necessarily a requirement for removal but the presence or absence of
such an assessment will be considered);
iv) Provides the licensed mental health
professional's assessment of the requestor's participation during the therapy
period.
v) One (1) to three (3)
letters of reference from professionals, (not to include APS employees),
employers, spiritual counselors, friends, or family describing the offender's
rehabilitation and whether the offender poses a risk of maltreatment to
vulnerable populations, including without limitation, children, the elderly,
persons with a disability, and persons with a mental health illness.
vi) No more than one (1) letter of reference
can be submitted from a family member.
The Adult Maltreatment Registry Review Team may select
additional, non-adult maltreatment-related offenses which prevent name removal
from the Adult Maltreatment Registry.
Determination of Name Removal Request by an
Offender
The Adult Maltreatment Registry Review Team will consider
requests for removal of names from the Registry. In determining whether to
remove an offender from the Adult Maltreatment Registry the Review Team shall
consider any relevant evidence, which may include without limitation the
following:
A. The circumstances
surrounding the maltreatment;
B.
The seriousness of the harm caused by the maltreatment;
C. The probability of the offender engaging
in future maltreatment;
D. Evidence
of the offender's completion of training, rehabilitation, and efforts to learn
effective strategies to care for adults;
E. Information submitted by the
petitioner;
F. And any other
information that is relevant to the specific offense.
G. Input from any victim, or surviving family
member of a victim, of the underlying facts for which the offender/petitioner
was placed onto the Adult Maltreatment Registry.
If the Review Team denies the request-for-removal of the name
from the Adult Maltreatment Registry, the Review Team shall send a denial
letter to the offender explaining the reason for denial as it relates
to:
A. The circumstances surrounding
the maltreatment;
B. The
seriousness of the harm caused by the maltreatment;
C. The probability of the offender engaging
in future maltreatment;
D. Evidence
of the offender's completion of training, rehabilitation, and efforts to learn
effective strategies to care for adults;
E. Any pending criminal charges surrounding
the maltreatment;
F. And any other
information that is relevant to the specific offense.
The offender shall wait one (1) year from the date of the
request for removal before filing a new petition with the Division requesting
the offender's name be removed from the Adult Maltreatment Registry. However,
if the Review Team needs additional information from the offender in order to
make the determination as to whether to remove his or her name from the Adult
Maltreatment Registry, the Review Team may request that the offender provide
the additional information without requiring the offender to wait an additional
year to file a new petition. The Review Team shall inform the offender in
writing of the specific additional information requested. The offender shall
have ten (10) calendar days from the date of the request to submit the
requested additional information. If the request is sent via mail, the offender
shall be given an additional three (3) calendar days to submit the information.
If the requested information is not submitted within the specified timeframe,
then the offender shall wait one (1) year from the date of the request to file
a new petition requesting his or her name be removed from the Adult
Maltreatment Registry.
If the Review Team denies the request-for-removal of the name
from the Adult Maltreatment Registry, the offender may request Judicial Review
pursuant to the Arkansas Administrative Procedures Act.
Notice
In addition to the above, we propose that notice of the
petition for removal be given to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (the Unit) of
the Arkansas Attorney General's Office if the underlying conduct resulted in a
criminal prosecution and if one of its attorneys represented the State of
Arkansas in the proceeding, and that the Unit's prosecutor be given the
opportunity to provide a response/recommendation.
