Inside Miami’s Hidden Tent City For ‘Sex Offenders’

[KamaAina]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/10/23/3583307/in-miami-dade-sex-offenders-are-relegated-to-outdoor-encampments/

In 2009, Miami-Dade County drew national criticism when reports emerged that more than 100 individuals on the sex offender registry were camping under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in the middle of the Biscayne Bay with the blessing of the corrections department, because a patchwork of restrictive laws made it so they had nowhere else to go. In response, officials cleared out the camp and changed the law, in a shift that was supposed to give these offenders a habitable place to live.

But four years after that new law was passed, those on the sex offender registry who consider Miami-Dade County home are just camping somewhere else — in makeshift encampments on the outskirts of the county near a railroad track. There is no sanitary water source, no bathrooms, and no shelter from the elements. Many of them used to sleep in an empty warehouse. But after the owners complained, they moved north to a small strip of land, where the only shelter they can find is from their own tents or cars, and sometimes another abandoned warehouse.

Officials and probation officers know they are sleeping there. In fact, they often direct sex offenders there who have no other place to go, according to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

How does this happen? Like many places, Miami-Dade County has restrictions on where those on the sex offender registry can live, often known as “child safety zones.” In their case, they cannot live within 2,500 feet of a school. Miami-Dade’s law was passed two years ago after several even stricter laws that created buffer zones around a range of facilities were deemed too restrictive. But since the law was passed, more and more places have been classified as “schools.” And the significant radius — much greater than the 1,000-foot requirement in the state law — has left those on the sex offender registry with few options for affordable, habitable living space. For a time, these individuals were living at River Park mobile home. But residents lobbied to have a youth emergency homeless shelter defined as a “school” under the law, and dozens of those on the offender registry were ejected.

A similar encampment sprung up in a wooded area outside a town in Georgia.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. 'sex' related crime laws often are created more out of emotion

than sanity. We don't have national 'murderer registries' or force arsonists to tell neighbours when they move into a neighbourhood. (I have a former arsonist in my neighbourhood, but I didn't know thanks to the police. We simply recognized his name, because the crime got a lot of attention locally back in the day. So we took it pretty seriously one time when he made a comment about 'blowing up our house' when he didn't like the colour we painted it, making a comment that also involved both racial and homophobic slurs, and we made sure that if it happened, his would be the first door police would be knocking on. Instead, he planted several fast growing evergreens so he wouldn't have to see our house.)

It's only when 'sex' is involved that everyone suddenly decides there's no way for anyone to ever 'pay their debt to society', and that such offenders must be tracked forever, because they'll always be recidivists and treated like lepers forever.

[maced666]

2. What bothers me is 18 year old boyfriend with 16 yr old girlfriend

Gets lumped in with 60 yr old man who molests 6 yr old girls.
Sex offender is not one size fits all.

[KamaAina]

3. In some states, indecent exposure will do it

e.g. peeing outside a bar after closing time.

[lpbk2713]

4. Or taking a leak in a public place.

Not that I am one to do so but the application of the law isn't always uniform.