Hospital recommends unsupervised visits for Hinckley

Tuesday, April 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Officials at St. Elizabeths Hospital are recommending that presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. be released for unsupervised day-long visits with his parents, according to the Washington Post.

Hospital officials say their examinations show Hinckley has "sufficiently recovered from his mental illness" to justify the brief releases, said the newspaper in its Tuesday edition.

If the hospital gets its way, Hinckley, 44, could venture off the grounds unescorted for the first time since he was confined t the facility in 1982 for shooting President Ronald Reagan.

The U.S. attorney's office, which opposes letting Hinckley out, has asked Senior U.S. District Judge June L. Green for a hearing. Green turned down a similar request from Hinckley in 1997, but Hinckley did not have the hospital's support then.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 Reagan shooting. Three other people, including White House press secretary Jim Brady were also wounded.

Doctors attributed the attack by Hinckley to mental illness. Officials at St. Elizabeths say the illness is now in remission, and that Hinckley requires no medication.