Five convicted sex offenders are living under a noisy highway bridge with the state's grudging approval because an ordinance intended to keep predators away from children made it nearly impossible for them to find housing.
Some of them sleep on cardboard raised slightly off the ground to avoid the rats. One of the men beds down on a pallet with a blanket and pillow. Some have been there for several weeks [...]
The conditions are a consequence of laws passed here and elsewhere around the country to bar sex offenders from living near schools, parks and other places children gather. Miami-Dade County's 2005 ordinance - adopted partly in reaction to the case of a convicted sex offender who raped a 9-year-old Florida girl and buried her alive - says sex offenders must live at least 2,500 feet from schools.
"They've often said that some of the laws will force people to live under a bridge," said Charles Onley, a research associate at the federally funded Center for Sex Offender Management. "This is probably the first story that I've seen that confirms that."
Am I asking for sympathy for sex offenders? Absolutely not. But putting people into desperate situations like this only exacerbates their despair and will do nothing but lead to more crimes.
Statistics show that it doesn't matter where sex offenders live relative to where their sex crimes are committed. Laws like Prop. 83 are pieces of feel-good legislation that does nothing to actually protect minors and does violate the civil rights of the perpetrators, if we care about that anymore. And last year's sex offender initiative, passed by the voters last year and subsequently ruled partially unconstitutional, will lead to this kind of scene in urban areas.
