Deal with, don't ignore, issue of freed sex offenders

By Sue Carlton, Times columnist
In print: Saturday, April 5, 2008

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Wondering where sex offenders out on probation are living these days?

A recent Department of Corrections' list of 38 sex offenders might surprise you.

The news first came out of Miami last year: a handful of sex offenders released from jail were living under a bridge as their state-approved residence. Local ordinances severely restricted where they could live, and the men said they couldn't find legal, affordable housing.

So their official address was the Julia Tuttle Causeway, and probation officers routinely visited there to make sure they were following the rules.

In the first news story I read, there were five of them. Today, 15 men officially list the bridge as "home." One actually lives in a mangrove area near the bridge, I'm told.

All of which illustrates the thorny question of where released sex offenders are supposed to go to live out their lives — anywhere but here being the most popular and least useful answer.

But that's in Miami — practically another planet — right?

A list of homeless sex offenders on probation obtained this week includes men living in Orlando, FortLauderdale and, yes, here.

In St. Petersburg, a probationer named Walter Phillips was living at an address listed in part as "62ND AV W. OF RR TRACKS.'' Jail records show Phillips was arrested and jailed last week after officials said he violated curfew.

Tampa previously had sex offenders officially living under the Crosstown Expressway.

The statewide list has men "residing in the woods," at homeless camps and in cars. One lives in a tent at a construction site, another "behind Wendy's."

How did we get to this?

In these days of political scare tactics and real-life horror shows like John Couey, who wants them? More than 120 Florida communities have passed residency restriction ordinances.

Miami Beach, for example, said they can't live within 2,500 feet of a school or other places kids go — close to an all-out ban.

And the list grows.

"We expect the situation to continue to get worse as society continues to restrict where sex offenders can live," said DOC spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger. The DOC, of course, would prefer real homes. It's a no-brainer that a person has a better chance of getting on his feet — holding a job, not breaking the law, being productive — if he has that structure as a backdrop.

Even if you are of the mind that no one convicted of a sex crime deserves much of anything, even a chance, surely you can see that pushing these offenders away is potentially pushing them underground. Sure makes it harder for authorities to keep track of them then.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Democrat from Greenacres, calls the disparity in the ordinances confusing, inconsistent, and "not working." He is pushing a bill that would, among other things, make the statewide buffer between where sex offenders can live and where children regularly gather 1,500 feet.

This would clear up disparities and could potentially quash any not-in-my-backyard one-upmanship between towns, as in, "Oh yeah? Well, around here, we don't let any of 'em in!"

It could be a small, sensible step toward dealing with a problem that isn't going away, only being pushed to the edges.

Just look at the list.