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The People Under
The Bridge
City of Miami Beach Left Powerless As Sex Offender Shanty Town Grows
By Lee Molloy
As visitors driving over I-195 to Miami Beach reach the peak of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, they are treated to a breathtaking view of the glistening waters of Biscayne Bay, with yachts cruising past multi-million dollar mansions on the right and pleasure craft mooring at idyllic islands on the left - truly a world-class welcome to a world-class city.
One of South Florida’s dirty little secrets, however, once tucked neatly out of sight and mind under the causeway, has outgrown its confines, and spilled into view.
Now, when visitors crest the bridge they see the pretty boats and islands, but they also see rows of tents and makeshift dwellings along the road and wonder who lives in them.
More than 50 sex offenders and sexual predators give their official home address as being under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) records show.
“I’ve been getting quite a lot of complaints,” Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower told The Lead. “People want to know what it is, and why they are there … the concern is that [the tent city] is growing and growing.”
Commissioner Deede Weithorn has also received e-mails from concerned residents.
“They think it looks terrible,” Weithorn said. “You come to Miami Beach, and this is what you see.”
Thomas Rockwell, President of the Alton Road Homeowners Association, thinks the current situation is damaging to the city and unfair to residents.
“We’re not allowed to camp out there overnight,” Rockwell said, “and we pay thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes.”
Why are they there?
Florida State law dictates that sex offenders cannot legally live within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, day care centers, or anywhere else that “children congregate.” However, the City of Miami Beach passed an ordinance in 2005 that further restricted the residency of sex offenders by stating that they could not live within 2,500 feet of places where children often gather. Due to the size of Miami Beach, the ordiance effectively banned sex offenders from living in the city — in reality, no residence is more than 2,500 feet from such a place.
“We were looking to have a safe community,” Bower said, with reference to passing the ordinance.
One result of the Miami Beach ordinance, however, was that other municipalities across the country, including Miami, followed suit, leaving sex offenders with nowhere to go. Some were unable to return to a condo or house that they owned.
“I think this is the perfect case of unintended consequences,” Weithorn said. “I think we want to protect our children, but we’ve created a new problem.”
Because the Department of Corrections (DOC) has to keep address information on file for those in the system, parole officers gave offenders with nowhere else to go approval to live on the State-owned land under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. There, sex offenders must adhere to a curfew of between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. each night.
“They have a curfew — during those hours we have to know where they are,” DOC Director of Communications Gretl Plessinger said. “They do have to have an address, but does the address have to be a brick and mortar structure? No.”
Some Miami Beach residents believe the situation to be retaliation for the City of Miami Beach’s 2,500 feet ordinance.
“I think, clearly the DOC is punishing us for this law,” Rockwell said. “This is clearly just a slap at the City and it’s hitting some of the finer neighborhoods.”
Plessinger, however, is quick to refute that allegation.
“We do not place people under that bridge, it’s up to an offender to find a place to live,” Plessinger said, adding that “the Julia Tuttle Causeway is widely known by offenders.”
Does the law work?
“People are worried about safety,” Commissioner Jonah Wolfson said. “Which is why we had the 2,500 feet rule in the first place.”
The 2,500 feet ordinance does keep sex offenders from sleeping in the city, but it does not necessarily keep them away from some potential victims. The registered offender is obliged to be at their ‘address’ overnight - a time when many children, and especially younger children, are likely to be safe in their homes. During the other 16 hours of the day, however, when kids are going to and from school, the offender has the freedom to move throughout the city.
“I think [the law] does give people a sense of security,” Weithorn said, although she did concede that “perhaps, it’s a false sense of security. But it’s better that than nothing.”
Wolfson suggested that there could be a law that “protects those schools during the day and gives [offenders] a daytime address.”
There is a loophole in the 2,500-feet rule. If a person established Miami Beach residency before July 1, 2005, when the city passed the ordinance, the prior conditions of their release may have been grandfathered in.
Not counting the offenders sleeping under the bridge, at press time, there were actually more than a dozen known sex offenders living in Miami Beach. Two of them, FDLE records show, live fewer than 2,500 feet from Miami Beach Senior High School. According to Plessinger, they were grandfathered in.
And according to FDLE records: with their current location unknown, any of more than 250 local sex offenders who are either homeless or have absconded from the law could potentially be living somewhere in the city.
After studying the effects of residency restrictions on sex offenders, the California Sex Offender Management Board released a report in December 2008 concluding that the bans increase the number of homeless offenders, and further found that homelessness increases the risk of a sex offender committing another sex crime.
The report offered a potential solution, referencing a study by the State of Colorado, which concluded that community treatment received in shared living arrangements — out of sight of a school or other place that children play — significantly lowers the risk of re-offending.
Commissioner Victor Diaz agrees that Tallahassee should consider other solutions.
“The State,” Diaz said, “has a responsibility to look at alternative modes of post-detention housing - places for treatment. [Punishing] sex offenders without rehabilitating them is not a solution.”
What can be done?
Although Miami Beach residents want to see a solution to the problem of those living under and around the Julia Tuttle Causeway, the hands of city officials may be tied.
The area also falls outside of The Miami Beach Police Department’s jurisdiction. “We have nothing to do with people that are living under there,” Detective Juan Sanchez said.
After receiving a call from one Miami Beach resident about “16 tents” along the causeway, Mayor Bower went to see the problem for herself. However, she found herself without a solution.
“What can we do,” Bower told The Lead, “if it’s not in [the City of] Miami Beach?”
City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, however, has decided to take action. Via a letter from the city manager, Sarnoff led the Miami City Commission to demand that Governor Charlie Crist stop the State from allowing sexual offenders to live under the causeway.
Although Bower has not yet spoken to Sarnoff, she is in general agreement that it is a good idea to “let the State know that we are having a problem and something should be done,” she said.
Sarnoff is clear that Tallahassee should step in, and thinks the issue will likely end up settled by the courts. A change “shouldn’t be done by municipalities,” Sarnoff said, “and shouldn’t be done at a county level.”
There is a real possibility, however, that a legal battle could result. The 2,500-foot residency restriction could be ruled unconstitutional by the State — which has happened with similar ordinances in other states, such as New Jersey.
On May 7, the New Jersey state Supreme Court ruled that towns cannot restrict where sex offenders live, because the state’s Megan’s Law already protects children from sexual predators by informing citizens about offenders who live in their neighborhoods. Parole officers determine where offenders can live in New Jersey. There the 2,500-foot rule was overturned. Georgia and Iowa also overturned similar laws.
No matter who arrives at a solution for Miami, it’s clear it won’t be easy.
“Courts are used to making very unpopular decisions,” Sarnoff told The Lead. “Elected officials are not used to making unpopular decisions.”
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