Miami-Dade Commissioners Want Cops to Arrest Homeless Sex Offenders on Sight
Florida Sex Offender News
For 12 years, Miami-Dade’s registered sex offenders have been barred from living within 2,500 feet of any school, playground, or daycare. They’re effectively homeless by law, and today hundreds live in squalor in makeshift “tent cities” under bridges, near trailer parks, and on roadsides. After New Times reported on a camp near Hialeah, county officials called these encampments inhumane and unsanitary and promised a solution.
That solution, though, apparently isn’t to amend the law or to find transitional housing. Two commissioners now want to simply put the offenders back in jail.
This morning, the county commission considered an ordinance that would change Miami-Dade’s policy on what to do with homeless people who are found sleeping on public property. Currently, police are required to offer homeless people the chance to go to a shelter before arresting them, but under the proposed change, homeless sex offenders would be immediately arrested.
Members of the local American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida Action Committee (FAC) have already called the measure excessive punishment and are demanding that commissioners vote against it.
“Instead of building affordable housing, [the county] would rather spend money on incarceration and criminalizing homelessness,” says ACLU attorney Nancy Abudu, who is defending three homeless sex offenders in a lawsuit against Miami-Dade.
Effect of Florida Sex Offender Registry
Since the county passed its restrictive laws in 2005, sex offenders across Miami-Dade have struggled to find permanent residences. Because the majority of the county is off-limits, dozens were forced to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway until a national backlash resulted in their relocation. By 2014, the colony had been moved multiple times, eventually to a set of railroad tracks near Hialeah, where at least 233 offenders have lived in tents since then.
This past August, New Times investigated the encampment at NW 71st Street and NW 36th Court, which local business owners say has scared customers away and made them worry for their safety. Soon after, Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book declared the site a “health crisis” and promised the county would shut it down as soon as possible. In spite of his remarks, the camp is still there months later.
Critics have long demanded that the county relocate sex offenders to legal housing. However, many commissioners disagree. One, in particular, has offered his own solution: placing offenders back behind bars.
Recently, Commissioner Esteban Bovo drafted a proposal to amend the county code governing overnight camping on public property. The code states that law enforcement is required to offer homeless people the opportunity to go to a shelter before arresting them. Bovo’s ordinance, however, would eliminate this safeguard for sex offenders, claiming it has been an “unworkable, unduly [burden] on law enforcement” because sex offenders are ineligible to stay at homeless shelters anyway.
Bovo’s ordinance, cosponsored by Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, passed its first hearing this morning and is scheduled to go to committee in December. If it’s approved, homeless sex offenders would be vulnerable to immediate arrests, while other homeless people would continue to be protected under the code.
Bovo says that “as commissioners, we are tasked with identifying ways in which to keep the residents and families of Miami-Dade safe, and this item accomplishes this goal.”
Many homeless advocates, however, insist the ordinance would not improve public safety.
“It’s ill-informed, uninformed policy,” says Gail Colletta, president of the FAC. If anything, the ordinance would put sex offenders, who are trying to be compliant with the county law, between “a rock and a hard place,” she says.
“Either they stay in the area and risk violating the [ordinance], or they leave and risk arrest for violating the county’s [residency restriction],” she says. “It’s a lose-lose situation.”
Abudu says the ordinance might also violate the state and federal constitutions because it would add time to sex offenders’ criminal sentences retroactively. “It’s unfair to set these people up for incarceration, where they’ll be subject to poor mental-health services, overcrowding, and limited resources,” she says.
Of particular concern, Colletta says, is the motivation behind the ordinance: “It seems like a pointless move on [the county’s] part. Either it’ll push [sex offenders] to go underground or, if they’re arrested, taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill.”
Instead, the ACLU and the FAC urge the county to do away with its harsh policies.
“[The county] should be getting rid of the residency restriction,” Colletta says. “These people shouldn’t need to live on the street in the first place.”
What’s is really pathetic is that the State legislature could easily and simply resolve this issue once for all by enacting a statute with the necessary languate to supercede all county oridinances once for all. Other states have done this. The multitude of varying county ordinances is a moral indictment against Florida politicians who do nothing but grandstand for the sake of garnering votes while pretening they actually care about public safety. It is a dark stain on the State that I certainly would not want happening on my watch if I was an elected public servant.
This case in New York is interesting as it refences the right to shelter based on “social dysfunction”. If ever there was a class of individuals suffering from a social dysfunction, it is RSO’s:
http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/our-programs/advocacy/legal-victories/the-callahan-legacy-callahan-v-carey-and-the-legal-right-to-shelter/
Here is a petititon that apparently went nowhere:
https://www.change.org/p/florida-state-legislature-enact-florida-s-homeless-bill-of-rights
And here is a sad but interesting report on the right to shelter in the United States:
http://www2.nycbar.org/pdf/report/uploads/20072632-AdvancingtheRighttoHousingIHR2122016final.pdf
And:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2821&context=nlr
I also wonder in the Miami-Dade oridinance is in direct violation of Florida Statute 420.624 ?
Article: Florida’s unsheltered homeless population is rapidly disappearing
http://www.aei.org/publication/4-charts-expose-invisible-side-homelessness/
The Miami Dade commission is and has long been the most corrupt and incompetent board I have ever witness. They can’t even give their city/county mass transit for over decades now. They are just plain idiots in the very sense of the word. Just research their other works and you’ll see. You really don’t need to be smart or have a degree to be an elected official. Just put your name on a ballot and campaign in any way you can, then when you get elected, sit in your office playing Xbox or tweeting for most of the day. Couple of meetings here and there, some press conferences to smile at people telling them everything is ok and you’re done. Pfff!!!! Politicians are an impracticality that truthfully do nothing.
We need actual scientists and engineers to be leaders, not average “Joe” who rides his motorcycle to the keys while intoxicated. :::cough::::::wink::::
Hopefully the U.S. district court of the southern district of FL can fix this with a simple bang of the gavel to the favor of the RCs.
That intoxicated Commissioner you refer to, Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who was arrested for DUI, asked to add his name as a sponsor on this bill.
The solution to me seems simple. Go be homeless somewhere else. I know that’s simplistic and giving in to their abuse, but unless you’re willing to go to jail on principle then get the heck out of there.
Those who are on probation in Miami-Dade cannot leave the county.
There are many who have families – children of their own, who live in the County, go to school there and want to be near their homes and family.
Go be homeless somewhere else ? That’s your solution ?? You should run for Miami Dade county commissioner and go break DUI laws with Jose Diaz.
The solution is simple, get rid of residency restrictions. If it was never part of Smith v. Doe, then it shouldn’t exist. Even the Solicitor general of the DOJ said something similar when he wrote his opinion on Snyder for SCOTUS.
Furthermore, they have been proven ineffective and useless.
These band-aid solutions perpetuated by these career politicians in Miami are nothing more than a “Cobra Effect”.
“Rock and a hard place” words of the last Lawyer I went to.
district13@miamidade.gov
The above is the email to the district of Commissioners for Miami Dade. Instead of just commenting on this website which doesn’t do much, I suggest you all who are reading this paragraph send an email to the above email address expressing your thoughts. The below is what I emailed them, and you can use it for ideas:
“Good Day Board of County Commissioners,
With all due respect, based on the latest news regarding passing a law to jail homeless US Citizens, as a member of Florida Action Committee and Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offender Laws, I demand a mental health evaluation for Commissioner Esteban Bovo.
The Commissioner is pushing laws that would have Homeless US citizens arrested, citizens who are banned by law for a past crime committed and which time has been served for in full. These US Citizens have repaid their dues to society and should not be forced into BANISHMENT due to the Commissioner’s own personal (and frankly irrelevant) feelings about such people.
Why is Commissioner Bovo ignoring crimes that have actual high recidivism rates and place citizens in IMMEDIATE danger such as gang affiliations, violent crime, firearm offenses, armed robberies, and other crimes with high recidivism rates?
It is clear that a commissioner who is trying to commit Tyranny in this way is unfit to be serving the public. To try to pass a law this Inhume, Un-American and Un-Constitutional for Homeless US Citizens that have the lowest recidivism rates and have already SERVED THEIR TIME AND REPAID SOCIETY, should require the Commissioner’s immediate resignation and those who support his efforts.
I hope this is 100% clear to the commissioner. I will be pushing more members, especially In Florida, to demand a Mental Health Evaluation and resignation for Commissioner Esteban Bovo due to intentions of passing atrocious laws that are a blatant Cruel punishment to US Citizens in an effort to BANISH them from the community.
Please note that lawsuits will hit your county in droves if you try to pass such heinous laws.”
Do people really think that they are safer the farthest away from ” RSO’s as they can get? The news lately shows that the offenders are right next to them every day…just like many of the RSO’s are right next them as well, yes, everyday. The majority of people who don’t want a “sex offender” living close to them fail to realize that sex offenders can work at places where they are interacting with those same people,”sex offenders” that are forced to live so many feet from the “protected”. One day , some “protected people” may discover the very people that they are protected from have been side by side , interacting and living life with is a “SO”…. Then and only then will that “protected citizen” wonder how do I Judge this sex offender…by how I know and feel about him/her now, or by his/her past .
So when is someone going to pull their thumb out of their ass and challenge the STATE law that allows the city and counties to do this? How can the Legislature pass a law that allows local governments to do what the state cannot do? The state knows that it can’t impose these residency restrictions on anyone convicted before 2005. THEY realized that it is the date of conviction, not the date of establishing residency that controls. They also SHOULD know that they can’t give permission to the cities to enhance a criminal penalty. How is it constitutional for the LEGISLATIVE branches of the local governments to enhance what is is clearly punishment, especially now with these latest Federal court decisions? Could Dade county enhance a sentence from 5 to 10 years? Could they extend probation? No.
Question if your crime was committed in 1999 but your plea deal was August 2004 what law does the person fall under ?
As I see it any law made in 2000-2004 would be null and void
Depends where you are looking, but for ex-post-facto arguments it’s date of offense.
Where do you see that “any law made in 2000-2004 would be null and void”?
Sorry what I meant was that any law made after 1999 should not legally affect me
How do find out what the law was back then ?
There are many registered citizens that have been grandfathered in because they showed proof of established residence before 2005. I know of one that has been living in his place since the late 80’s without any moving whatsoever, and the law protects him there and therefore was grandfathered in by Police and dept of corrections when he was on probation. He still lives at his residence with his family without any incident whatsoever before and after his arrest. He has been long done with probation. Just a normal regular guy with a family like any other. So I don’t understand what the big deal is for all RSO to live with their family or anywhere they want. You give people a normal productive life and they will be law abiding productive citizens. These restrictions are punishment and shouldn’t even be impose on people long after they finished their sentences.
Another point to consider. Technically, the RSOs living there are not homeless in a legal definition. Isn’t their “address” registered officially on the registry for all to see? Did not an official of law enforcement enter that into the list as an “official address”
By default the state accepted it as an address so then subject to eviction? They have legal proof of residence as they all have florida id cards. Theyre not homeless are they! They can prove residence and its been verified by visit and leo verification
More of a question what happens to people that go to Miami on vacation such as south beach ? Do they violate the law by staying there for like a weekend ?
stay less than 5 days
Maybe not a good idea to be homeless in the Banana Republic (a/k/a Florida):
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/11/08/fort-lauderdale-homeless-serial-killer/