Sex-offender laws reevaluated

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04/23/2007

State lawmakers have started to wonder whether strict restrictions on sex offenders are working out as planned.

TALLAHASSEE -- State officials are worried that two years of local crackdowns to register sex offenders and ban them from living in certain areas are proving so counterproductive that it's getting tougher to find the convicted rapists and pedophiles in the first place.

"The fundamental question is: Is what we're doing now, has it gotten us where we want to be?" said James McDonough, secretary of the state Department of Corrections. "And the answer is, apparently not."

Citing the cases of several sex offenders who have been living under Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway, legislators, the attorney general and even the governor are reevaluating the hodgepodge of local laws passed after the 2005 death of Jessica Lunsford, the 9-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Homosassa in 2005. The Miami sex offenders told reporters they ended up living under the bridge when local residency restrictions kept them from finding other housing.

Experts who treat sexual offenders have long criticized laws banning convicted offenders from living within a certain distance of where children gather. And as lawmakers are starting to point out, city and county laws that go beyond the 1,000-foot state standard not only have created housing complications like the situation in Miami but also might make sex offenders more likely to avoid state registry requirements.

"The misconception is that the tougher the ordinance, the less likely it is that sex offenders will live in a city," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat. "In reality, the tougher the ordinance, the much more likely it is for the sex offender to live underground. The sex offender will still live in the city. We just won't know where they are."

OFF LIMITS

Aronberg and Rep. David Simmons, a Maitland Republican, are sponsoring a proposal that would expand the statewide restrictions to 1,500 feet in exchange for eliminating the more stringent local restrictions that often leave cities and counties off limits to sex offenders. Many cities impose their own restrictions of as much as 2,500 feet. The Aronberg-Simmons bill also would require convicted offenders to agree to electronic monitoring.

The Senate version of the bill is scheduled to have a hearing today in the Criminal Justice Committee.

Aronberg said he also is looking at options that would leave the local rules in place but give convicted offenders the option of following the new statewide standard in exchange for agreeing to electronic monitoring.

Another possibility would create "no loitering zones" that would prohibit convicted sex offenders from hanging out near schools, parks or other places children congregate. A similar no-loitering law passed earlier this year in Hillsborough County.

McDonough met with Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa in Tallahassee last week to discuss creating a possible task force to examine the problems created by city and county restrictions. Already, Miami-Dade is looking at repealing residency restrictions barring sex offenders from living near bus stops.

"That doesn't mean I want to ease, in any fashion, zero tolerance to sexual predators in our community," Sosa said. "But I do realize we have a problem."

The more measured approach to residency rules is an attitude change compared to previous sessions where state lawmakers last year considered a proposal to expand statewide residency restrictions to 2,500 feet.

"There have been a lot of our colleagues who want to put tighter and tighter restrictions," said Sen. Nancy Argenziano, chairwoman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and the Crystal River Republican who sponsored the Jessica Lunsford Act cracking down on sex offenders in 2005. "But we could be creating a bigger problem."

OPPOSITION

State lawmakers warn that finding a solution could be logistically difficult and legally complicated, which is why the state probably won't see changes until next year.

And any effort to repeal broad local restrictions likely will face stiff opposition from city and county leaders who want to keep sexual predators out of their community.

"Personally, I don't think 2,500 feet is enough for someone with a violent past," Weston Mayor Eric Hersh said. "I don't care if they don't have any place to live in the state."
- Ok, so what would you think if all criminals like murderers, gang members, drug dealers/users, DUI offenders, thieves, etc all had no place to stay? Would you want to even go outside? Why are you picking on sex offenders when there is other criminals who harm children as well? I guess murdering someone is ok as long as it's not a child and sexual abuse is done. This is sick, fix the damn laws.

In the end, changes will likely come from some sort of compromise.

"Nobody wants a sex predator in their neighborhood or around their children," Attorney General Bill McCollum said. "But under the circumstances, those that are released and are in society need to be able to work, need to have a place to live."