Do we really want sex offenders to live like wild animals?

Feuer Frei! · 06-26-11, 08:44 AM

From some Bleeding Hearts, comes this:

For more than a year, Quinton Smith has lived beneath a bridge overlooking a canal, on a slope peppered with glass shards. For nearly two years, JJ has camped out in the woods, a bucolic setting shattered by the constant roar of traffic from nearby Interstate 595.
"I'm lonely, but I'm at peace out here," JJ said as he gave me a tour of his setup, complete with latrine, tarp-covered kitchen with propane grill and a tent with an army cot and fan.
Welcome to the feral existence of South Florida's registered sex offenders.

They've done their crimes and served their time, but can't re-enter society like other criminals. Instead, they face an oppressive array of residency restrictions upon their release from prison.

After a wave of get-tough local ordinances banning offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, playgrounds, day-care centers and school bus stops, there's virtually no place left for them to go.
"The whole thing is just insanity," said Jill Levenson, a clinical social worker who headed a Broward County task force two years ago examining the issue. "I know some of these people have done bad things, but this is not a sound criminal justice policy. It's a recipe for failure."
Last week, 24 sex offenders got evicted from a Fort Lauderdale motel after the Sun Sentinel inquired about their presence.
Some offenders find rooms or homes outside the restricted areas. Some live in flophouses and cheap motels in commercial zones. A minister in Palm Beach County has set up a group village for offenders known as Miracle Park.
And then there are offenders like Smith and JJ, who have taken up residence beneath bridges and in hidden camps with the approval of their probation officers.
"From a human point of view, can you imagine telling someone their only option is sleeping under a bridge?" Levenson said.
How this makes us safer, I have no idea.
"It's stressing everybody out big time," said Smith, 43, whose bridge near State Road 7 in unincorporated Broward is now home to four offenders. Smith spent nearly eight years in prison for a sexual assault on a minor.
"This is like a life sentence," said JJ, 46, who has to wear an ankle bracelet and a GPS monitor on his belt as part of his 35-year probation. He spent three years in prison for a host of charges in 2003 stemming from a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old.

J didn't want his full name used because he fears getting attacked or evicted from his makeshift camp. Sex offenders' addresses are posted on the Internet by the state – he lists the closest street."In the public's eyes we're monsters, but not all of us are monsters," said JJ, 46, a former computer technician who now makes use of the skills he learned as an Eagle Scout in New Jersey.
JJ has neat piles of firewood at his campsite entrance. He catches fish and crab in a nearby pond with a trap he made from chicken wire. He has planted citronella bushes to repel mosquitoes, and has tried to cultivate a vegetable garden to supplement his $200 monthly food stamps.

The strangest part of the residency restrictions: They only apply between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The rest of the time, offenders are allowed to be out and about. Smith and JJ spend most of their daylight hours at friends' homes, where they shower, watch TV and use computers. JJ also has to spend 10 hours daily recharging his GPS system.
I met Smith and JJ last week when I went looking for another sex offender named George Horne. I wrote about him two years ago, when he lived under the same bridge as Smith.
At Christmas 2009, Horne told me he was tired of living "like an animal" and was considering willfully violating his probation so that he could go back to prison.
Sure enough, he violated probation one month later. He's now housed at the South Bay Correctional Facility, where he will live at taxpayer expense through September 2014.
So we all pay for a system that seems utterly barbaric. In a civilized society, there has to be a better way.

SOURCE
Okey-dokey, so this article is either badly written/edited or just plain stupid.
Why? Well:

Quote:

"The whole thing is just insanity," said Jill Levenson, a clinical social worker who headed a Broward County task force two years ago examining the issue. "I know some of these people have done bad things, but this is not a sound criminal justice policy. It's a recipe for failure."

Quote:

"From a human point of view, can you imagine telling someone their only option is sleeping under a bridge?" Levenson said.

Both quotes are moot. Why? Because (and the article says so):

Quote:

And then there are offenders like Smith and JJ, who have taken up residence beneath bridges and in hidden camps with the approval of their probation officers.

Telling someone? And prior approval. 2 different things.
Now if it isn't true, then the article is reporting the wrong stuff.
We move on:

Quote:

"This is like a life sentence," said JJ, 46, who has to wear an ankle bracelet and a GPS monitor on his belt as part of his 35-year probation.

Oh yea, the drama of it all. Dear oh dear.

Quote:

"In the public's eyes we're monsters, but not all of us are monsters," said JJ

No, that's right, there is a clear definition and line between repeat offenders or one-time offenders, right? Wrong!
Next,

Quote:

The strangest part of the residency restrictions: They only apply between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The rest of the time, offenders are allowed to be out and about

Interesting. Looks like a fail-proof system.
Why the hell have them even under the bridge outside those hours?
Why? What's the point? Ok, so it's like checking in with your parole officer, who will meet you under the bridge, or in the makeshift camp, complete with neatly-stacked fire wood and ample supplies of Mosquito repellent.

So then, this comes up again:

Quote:

In a civilized society, there has to be a better way.

The old bleeding heart question, if we treat these 'erred citizens' like this does this make us any better?
Treating them like what?
Like the linked article? Living in the outdoors, free time btw the hours of 22:00 and 06:00. Or, in jail with all sorts of benefits, at the bereft of us, the tax payer.
Hmm...