Posted at: 03/09/2010 5:49 PM | KSAX.com
By: Megan Matthews

Level 3 Sex Offender Calling Wadena County Jail Home

WADENA COUNTY, Minn. - Matthew Stites, 25, will be released from Wadena County Jail Thursday, but he won't be leaving permanently, according to Wadena County Attorney Kyra Ladd.

Stites will technically be a free man on March 11, 2010, but his corrections agents won't have a hard time keeping an eye on him since home sweet home will be a room at the Wadena County Jail.

This is the first time in Wadena County that a level three sex offender will live at the jail after he's released. Stites will be able to come and go to find work, go to church and find a permanent place to live, but his schedule is highly restricted. There are certain times when he can leave, and he can only be gone for an allotted period of time.

When Stites leaves he has to wear a GPS tracking devise, according to Ladd.

"It tracks where he is at any given moment, and there are places in the communities, especially here in Wadena, that are called 'exclusion zones,'" Ladd said.

Exclusion Zones include places like schools and any other place with vulnerable adults that could become victims. Stites is not allowed in these places, and his GPS devise will alert law enforcement if he steps into one of these zones.

"I think it's...a reasonable method of handling it," Wadena resident Floyd Hansen said.

Stites will also be monitored by four different corrections agents.

"He is going to be intensely monitored by both electronic and person means, and because he's going to be staying temporarily at the county jail he will also be having those monitoring processes in place as well," Ladd explained.

This is one of the first times this type of temporary housing has been done in the state of Minnesota, according to Ladd. Stites will live in a jail cell for up to 90 days. Wadena Community members think this is a step in the right direction.

"Either that or lock him up permanently. I think it gives him the opportunity to move around," Hansen said.

Jail housing costs about $55 to $65 a day, which the Minnesota Department of Corrections will pay for in Stites' case.

Hansen thinks this might be a good way to help all sex offenders get mainstreamed back into society.

"I don't know...let's see how it works," he said.

Stites will also have to go to sex offender counseling, take random lie detector tests to prove he's looking for employment and a more permanent place to live.

He will be under Intensive Supervised Release until January 2012. If he breaks any conditions he could face more prison time.

There are 39 sex offenders in Wadena County; however, Stites is the only level 3 sex offender, which is the highest risk level of re-offending.

Written for the web by Megan Matthews

megan@ksax.com