Associated Press

North Dakota's state mental hospital should hire another eight employees for its sex offender treatment program, which will help bolster security for its workers, a legislative committee decided.

In the last four months, Alex Schweitzer, the hospital's superintendent, has received permission to hire 19 workers. The eight additional employees approved Wednesday will bring the treatment program's work force to 64.

Schweitzer said the staff additions are needed to increase supervision and safety measures, and allow for quicker evaluations. The program provides therapy for patients who are considered sexually dangerous, and they can be confined indefinitely by court order.

"We're running a unit that is a fine balance between providing therapy, and working with people on recovery, and also managing very violent and aggressive patients," Schweitzer told the Legislature's Budget Section on Wednesday. "It's nothing like we've seen before."

The Budget Section is a legislative interim committee that includes legislative leaders and members of the House and Senate appropriations committees. The panels write the budget for North Dakota government.

In March, a sex offender in the treatment unit, Jason Buckley, allegedly attacked a medical assistant who was escorting him to his ward. Buckley has since been charged with attempted murder, attempted rape and aggravated assault.

Another offender, David Johnson, escaped from the unit in August 2005 and was captured a day later.

Last year, the Legislature agreed to spend $3.1 million over two years to increase the number of beds in the sex offender program from 22 to 42. Schweitzer said the hospital expects to open a third unit in July, with another 20 beds.

Schweitzer said Wednesday that 37 people have been indefinitely committed for treatment. The sex offender unit now has 49 patients, including nine who have been recommended for commitment and three patients who are being evaluated, he said. In addition, the hospital is expecting seven more referrals soon.

Of the three units in the sex offender treatment program, one has the most aggressive patients, while patients in the other two are generally less troublesome, Schweitzer said.

"We're following what is considered to be industry standards," he said. "We need to do that, because we're very concerned about potential incidents on that particular unit."