MIAMI, May 3 (UPI) — A growing colony of sex offenders says members are being forced to live as outcasts under a Miami causeway because of strict sexual predator laws.
In 2006, there were seven convicted rapists and child molesters who had registered with Miami-Dade County officials as living in tents and shacks under the Julia Tuttle Causeway connecting Miami Beach and the mainland. Now there are 65 men and one woman among the colony, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.
They say they’re forced to live there because of a county ordinance prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of where children congregate — leaving nowhere in the county to live except the airport, the Everglades or under the causeway, the newspaper said.
“People call this place a camp, like it’s pretty and fun,” Osvaldo Castillo, 29, who was convicted of molesting a 6-year-old boy, told the Herald. “It’s not fun at all. We are living like animals and trying to make the best of it.”
“Now, we gotta be our own city,” added Juan Carlos Martin, convicted of exposing himself to a 15-year-old girl. “Every attempt we’ve made to fight this has failed, so we have to make this work.”
I can think of better place to put them, but since we already have them all in one convenient location……well, I’m just sayin’.
>> amodedoma said, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:29 am
>> Exile them, there’s no cure for them so they’ll continue to be a threat to society. Maybe they’ll be welcome in France.
You base your conclusion on what research?
I think lots of experts would disagree with you, depending on the level of offense and what you define as “cured.”
How about a murderer, thief, tax cheat or torturer? Are they ever “cured”?
Probably not, but they can learn not to repeat.
But this is way too nuanced for the average black-and-white thinking conservative.
Oh, can black-and-white thinking be “cured”?
They don’t deserve sympathy but once they served their term they should have a chance to fit somehow into the society, within reason obviously. This also creates a very dangerous precedent: I can envision this type of laws extending to many other groups of convicted criminals…
# 15 Alex said, “Where are you getting your information?… But the fact is the very DoJ’s data suggests that sex offenders reoffend *less* than any other type of offender.”
#2 is correct.
“Recidivism among sex offenders is quite high, according to the United States Department of Justice. Although not all sex offenders reoffend, they are four times more likely than a criminal convicted of robbery, murder, assault or any other charge.”
http://associatedcontent.com/article/71876/recidivism_among_sex_offenders.html
The stupid things people do to get an orgasm.
#35 Paddy – I bet drunk drivers are far worse repeat offenders.
I wish we had eternal probation for these drunken pukes who have probably injured and killed more people than these sex offenders.
These are mentally ill human beings, who should be in some kind of therapy. And not outcasts for life. That’s not going to cure them. All of this “offender status” labeling is about politics, and nothing more. Politicians want to look “tough on sex offenders”, to they come up with these lame living distances ordinates. But if someone decides to set up a daycare next to the Underpass. Then suddenly, all these sex offender outcasts are the ones in violation. Not the local planners who can’t be bothered to zone an adults only community.
This is like how the politicians dealt with the cost of caring for the other mentally ill, by closing down the hospitals and dumping the crazies onto the city streets.
We can squander ten billion dollars a year, on manned space projects, which amount to just being gravy for the aerospace conglomerates. But the US can’t afford to take care of it mentally challenged citizen, in some humane way, other than making them live on the street. Or in this case, under the street.
These “offenders” were already punished once, for what they did. This sucking up to the masses’ intolerance, policy, should actually be unconstitutional! But again, judges won’t touch this, for fear of losing votes. Eventually the sex offender numbers will grow to a point where they can lobby congress to get their rights as citizens back. And big lobbyist bucks always wins the day with the politicians, doesn’t it?
#35, Cow-Patty,
A bullshit article that contradicts itself.
It claims that sexual offenders are 4X more likely to re-offend. Yet if the current recidivism rate is 60% for “common” criminal types, that would mean that sexual offenders are re-committing at about 240%, a mathematical impossibility.
The problem is the lumping of normal people charged with a sexual (or even non-sexual) crime alongside those who are truly sociopath deviants. A guy caught pissing in the bushes after a night on the town is not the same as someone who kidnaps kids for sexual pleasure.
I suspect (note, I’m not wasting my time trying to disprove it) your article has taken the sociopath rapists statistics and used that to paint a whole artificial group. And I agree that these extremists predators need serious treatment and probable life long assistance.
#35 – Dude, Paddy. The DoJ’s statistics on sex offender reoffense have already been posted (hence why I didn’t link it again.) Sex offenders, according to the DoJ, reoffend 5% of the time – that’s *way* lower than any other form of crime, short of murder. (They do have a 40% chance to commit a new, non-sexual offense, but that number is on par with the rest of the population.)
All in all – your children aren’t in danger from people who have already been tried and convicted of sex offenses. It’s the guy you *don’t* know about that’s dangerous.
Thats an interesting idea, a gated community for sex offenders. The gates and fences keep the kids out.
What should we do with sex offenders once they’ve served their time? I know this isn’t a popular subject, but it’s one that needs to be discussed. As a Christian society, we in America – especially here in Mississippi – the heart of the “Bible Belt”, are supposed to practice Christian principals, and the single, most important principle Jesus taught was forgiveness of sin. I’m not saying we should let the sex offenders get away with what they did. I’m just saying that once their sentence is completed, they should be given a second chance to enter society as an honest citizen. After all, the United States constitutional amendment to protection against double jeopardy should apply to everybody – not just the people that we like. At this point you might ask, “You mean we have to wait until they reoffend before we can punish them again?” Yes, because until they do reoffend, they have not reoffended. We’re punishing them for what they might do, not for what they’ve done. Remember, they’ve completed their sentence. The question here is, “What do we do with sex offenders once they’ve served their time?”
Imagine that you are an employer, and a sex offender comes to you for a job. Are you going to hire him? No, probably not. Most employers do refuse to hire sex offenders. I doubt that any employer at all will hire a sex offender. But what are sex offenders supposed to do if they can’t find a job? They can’t pay rent or a mortgage. They can’t buy food or clean clothes. They can’t even take a shower. They can’t just go back to prison, either. The only way they can go back to prison is to commit another crime. Even the most motivated criminal will not rehabilitate if he’s not given a fair chance. By hiring a sex offender, an employer could possibly be preventing him from becoming desperate enough to commit another crime for the purpose of returning to prison. The employer could be preventing a future crime. And, if we don’t trust the prison system to rehabilitate criminals, why do we continue supporting the prison system? Isn’t denying a sex offender employment another way of punishing them? They don’t have the ability to pursue life or liberty without gainful employment. Desperate people do desperate things.
And, doesn’t the Blood of Jesus wash away all sin? What gives us the right, as “Christians” to selectively choose whose sin is cleansed and whose isn’t? Unless we’re all a bunch of lip-serving hypocrites, that should be a decision that only the Lord Himself can make. It has been said that a sex offender can’t be rehabilitated. As a Christian, I have to believe that Jesus would say otherwise. What would Jesus do? Jesus would forgive all sinners.
I’ve read that most homeless guys are not sex offenders at all and have never committed a crime; but I’m almost sure the association of homelessness and sex offense will worsen the treatment of innocent homeless as pariahs…
good, i just brought fresh emo backgrounds at my blog
http://tinyurl.com/ydqfx5e
it’s where they belong! We should put them all on an island by themselves! Go away sex offenders!!!
#10:
Prophetic!!