Florida housing sex offenders under bridge

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

The sparkling blue waters off Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway look as if they were taken from a postcard. But the causeway's only inhabitants see little paradise in their surroundings.

Five men -- all registered sex offenders convicted of abusing children -- live along the causeway because there is a housing shortage for Miami's least welcome residents.

"I got nowhere I can go!" says sex offender Rene Matamoros, who lives with his dog on the shore where Biscayne Bay meets the causeway.

The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.

Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/05/bridge.sex.offenders/index.html

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Sex offenders are the scum of the earth - but if you housed animals in these conditions the Humane Society or the ASPCA would bust your butt!

[bluerum]

1. Florida - leading the way in criminal rehab technology. eom

[derby378]

2. I notice they don't have the same rigid standards for murderers or adult rapists...

:mad:

[seriousstan]

17. An adult rapist isn't a sex offender?

:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. You know, it's things like this...

that I'll bet leads to further child molestation.

[Vidar]

19. Adding bitterness, hatred & recrimination to their pathology is

sure to help.

[Miss Chybil]

20. I sincerely doubt living under a bridge induces the desire to molest children

or to commit sexual offenses on anyone. People throughout history have lived under - and on - bridges and I doubt doing so turned any of them into sex offenders.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Housing prisoners in the tradition of trolls in a fairy tale is beyond

my comprehension of criminal reform.

[Orsino]

5. You know where this ends.

Someday, there will be two kinds of people: those that live in the dome, and the rest of us stuck outside.

[ret5hd]

6. I'll take "outside the dome" any day of the week.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. "outside the dome"

will mean a totally toxic environment with unbreathable air and undrinkable water, of course. The ultimate population control solution.

[ret5hd]

11. But the company will be much better.

[Orsino]

12. They'll still hold the carrot...

...of relatively cushy jobs servicing the Domed class. Their media will tout that golden work permit as a status symbol, and what the hell's the matter with you, Jack?

[AlCzervik]

8. Jessica's law and all the other new ones--have they proved to be a deterrent yet?

Has anyone seen any evidence that these laws cut down on the molestation rate? I would really like to know because i'm wondering if these laws will have the same effect the death penalty has and as far as i know the DP hasn't been a deterrent.

[LostinVA]

9. You are exactly right

That's why I believe in life without parole.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. There's evidence to suggest...

these various draconian public notification laws and such are leading to more sex offenses.

[depakid]

14. That would not surprise me in the slightest

basically, that's the law of unintended consequences at work. Happens all the time with emotional public policy.

[AlCzervik]

18. i believe it.

[Zynx]

27. Deterrance isn't the point. Incapacitation is the point.

You can't deter sex predators.

The point of all the "no get out of jail" and "can't live here" and "sex offender moving in down the street" laws are to keep them away from potential future victims due to the extremely high recitivist rate.

[slackmaster]

13. I did a major double-take on that one

I had to make sure I was really looking at CNN and not The Onion.

[ProudDad]

15. The frontiers of modern penology

Damn.

Stupid Human Tricks of the authoritarian right.

[ryanmuegge]

16. A result of the larger's culture obsession with sex and giving lip-service pretenstion...

to caring about children.

I mean, why don't we have convicted robbers register on a list in every zip code they decide to reside? Once you do something like that, especially in a small area, there's no way you're going to be able to get a job.

Yeah, the ones that sexually abuse children are pretty disgusting, but sex offenders get treated unequally. I'm surprised it's even constitutional to make them register.

[Up2Late]

21. Still waiting to see if someone tries to defend this as good or practical.

Come on, I know you trolls are out there...

Oh wait! A Troll would defend this, it's his nature.

Btw, I don't want to be sexist, so I need to ask, are all trolls male? (I'm asking about the mythical kind, not the internet kind)

[slackmaster]

22. Nothing good will come of it

It's a very ugly class action lawsuit waiting to happen.

"Convicted sex offenders v. State of Florida"

:puke:

[Miss Chybil]

23. I won't say it's good, or practical, but I will ask how many here are willing to

have a sex offender move in next door to them and their families? I had one move in across the street, into his father's house, the day he was released from prison. (The father is and always has been a good neighbor.) I live four doors from an elementary school. I did a little research on the guy after I received a letter from the school saying he was there. All of his info was on the Internet. It turned out he was a flasher. He liked to flash little girls on their way to school. I had two sons at home at the time - teenagers. I told them about the guy and they knew to keep an eye out. I didn't panic about it. Maybe, I should have, I don't know.

Other families felt differently. Other families had little girls that had to walk by his house on the way to school. Apparently, the state felt differently, as well, because state officials knocked on my door one night to assure me, the sex offender would be moving soon. They said there were laws about him living so closely to a school. They canvassed the neighborhood. He moved out within a week. He was still on probation, so they had a lot of say over where he could live.

All of this happened several years ago. Long before Jessica Lunsford was dragged from her home, raped, tortured and buried alive by a registered sex offender. I might panic the next time a sex offender moves onto my street. I don't think anyone should be asked to trust a sex offender to live among their children, or other family members, friends and neighbors, just because they don't want to be "mean" to them. Putting them under a bridge may not be the answer. I'm sure it will not be a long term arrangement. In my opinion many of these people should be housed in prison for the duration of their lives. Of course, there are always exceptions and shades of gray that must be considered when dealing with anyone who has been convicted of a crime - including sex crimes. However, the risk to the community must be weighed, and the rage from the community after the horrors inflicted upon Jessica Lunsford and too many others like her must be considered as well.

So, again, as I said... I won't defend the bridge strategy - I will just ask, who of you will welcome a sex offender moving in next door to you?

[cap]

24. nobody wants a sex offender to live next to their kids but..

where is there housing with reasonable job opportunities without children?

The only answer can be placing them on a "leper's island" without children near workplaces. Aka specialized housing without children. I dont think you mean that.

Children need to be protected. These crimes are incredibly damaging.

I dont have a good answer. But, are they forever to be outcasts from society without hope of redemption? I dont hear any calls for research into this type of disorder so that their can be a reasonable hope of a cure. I just hear condemnation.

The reality is that these offenders get pushed out of middle class neighborhoods and into lower class ones where the police aren't called and dont come when they are. So poor kids get molested and middle class ones dont. So the guy just keeps moving until he hits a neighborhood where the police arent called.

I really think there needs to be a big push for research for a cure. We have no good solution.

[slackmaster]

26. Since I no longer have kids in the house it wouldn't bother me

I know one in my 'hood actually - He lived next door to a woman I was seeing for a while. The guy had been convicted basically of fondling an underage girl.

I think a cultural clash may have contributed to the incident, not to mention alcohol. The man is a Greek immigrant. My experience with Greeks is they are more touchy-feely than most Americans.

Anyway, he seems like a decent guy as long as he's sober.

The police map shows a "high-risk offender" one street over. The guy is scary looking, but I wouldn't be afraid to have him next door.

OTOH if there was someone convicted of abusing cats, that would be a different matter.

[saigon68]

25. Plenty of trolls here

But tomorrow the compassionate conservatives among them will be parading down the aisle in their best easter finery

[VegasWolf]

28. Okay, I'll call it a good thing!

Knowing how crazy those Christofacisit compassionate conservatives truly are, I am surprised that they put them under a really nice bridge like that where they can go fishing all day long. I am surprised they didn't stick them under a 10 foot bridge along the Tamiami Trail somewhere with alligators nipping at their asses all day long. The Florida Reptilians are really getting more compassionate!

:evilgrin: