Today, at 1:30 PM, the Public Safety and Health Committee of the Miami-Dade Commission will meet to consider an amendment to a County Ordinance that would allow police to arrest homeless sex offenders on sight.
The Florida Action Committee is in strong opposition to the proposed amendment and to the Miami-Dade County Sex Offender Residency Restriction itself.
In anticipation of today’s meeting, and for the record, FAC has sent its position on this matter in a statement to the Committee.
A copy can be found here: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Letter-To-M-D-County-Commissioners-12132017.pdf
The text of the letter can be read below:
December 13, 2017
RE: STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION OF THE PROPOSED
AMENDMENT TO SECTION 21-286 OF THE COUNTY CODE
Dear Ms. McBride:
I respectfully request this letter be submitted to the members of the Public Safety and Health Committee in anticipation of today’s meeting and be made part of the public record.
The Florida Action Committee (FAC) is a not-for-profit public safety advocacy organization. Our concern is both for the individuals who were legislated into homelessness and forced to live there, as well as the community in those areas in which they are clustered. Our membership comprises your constituents and citizens of Florida in other Counties, who have an interest in the above-referenced Amendment.
On Augusts 25th, this organization wrote to the County Commissioners concerning the homeless encampment on NW 71st Street and 36th Court in Miami. Last month we wrote to the Commissioners in opposition of this proposed amendment.
Today, we write to reinforce our position on this matter and to ensure that our concerns are brought to the Committee’s attention.
Roughly one-third of sex offenders on probation are homeless and more than one-quarter those not on probation are also homeless. These alarming statistics are the direct cause of the Miami-Dade County Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORR), which has excluded these individuals from living in most of the County.
The overwhelming majority of the four-hundred plus individuals who are homeless would have someplace to live but-for the SORR. Undoubtedly, the overwhelming majority of the two-hundred-fifty plus individuals who are living without shelter or running water along the railroad tracks at NW 71st Street and 36th Court would not be there, but-for the SORR leaving that location as the only place for them to go. Most, in fact, were directed there by their probation officers!
As previously stated, if the proposed amendment passes, these individuals will be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either they stay in the area and risk arrest for violating 21-286, or they leave that designated location and risk arrest for violating the County’s SORR. In either case, to merely exist they have no choice but to violate a law, subject themselves to arrest and potential violation of probation.
It is inequitable to remove a protection afforded the homeless, all because an individual is forced to live someplace involuntarily and bear a designation they are saddled with involuntarily.
The proposed amendment will not solve any problems, only create new and more complicated ones. The County’s Sex Offender Residency Restriction (SORR), which legislates these individuals into homelessness, will now, further, legislate these individuals into law-breaking.
After over a decade of not achieving it’s intended objective, numerous studies proving it counter-productive and creating significant unintended consequences, it is time the County repealed its SORR!
We implore you to reject the proposed amendment to 21-286 and take steps to repeal the SORR!
Sincerely,
Gail Colletta, President
The Florida Action Committee, Inc.
|
|
all these lovely people will rot in HELL!
The unsubstantiated fear of ex-offenders raping woman and children is how we got to this point in the first place. I think it much better to leave that part out of the letter could be used as ammo against us.
This has got to be a winnable challenge How are going to legislate someone into committing a crime.
http://miamidade.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=4704
it starts at about 45 mins.
I watched the meeting live today. They voted 3-1 to push it forward to the full commission on January 23rd. No matter what the final outcome the problem of homelessness remains. They simply refuse to undo the 2500 ft requirement – which is the only solution. I was shocked and angered at the unwillingness to listen to well articulated facts and the favoritism shown to Ron Book. The lies told by him and Jose Diaz are truly despicable. Diaz said, “i’ve seen offenders show up to the camp in a Mercedez and then they claim they are homeless. They are just looking for a hand out” And Ron Book saying that he “found everyone under the Bridge a place to live” when it was just temporary and 6 months later everyone was homeless again meanwhile he took credit for “fixing the problem of the Tulley bridge” when all he did was push it on into Hialeah. They lie about giving money to offenders for housing and help, etc. If that hall could have been filled with a bunch of us i bet they wouldn’t say those things. If they did, they would need full time body guards. It’s easy to lie in an empty room, surrounded by people who don’t know any better. On a positive note, there were several excellent speakers there on our behalf – lawyers and professionals who spoke all the right things, along with Gayle’s letter on the record. Still in the end they seem hold with greater weight the alternate view of only ONE person – Ron Book. Book has been in his position since 2004, granted automatic term-limit waivers every few years. As a result he has achieved a corrupt, unbreakable, and some say illegal influence on the commission. As Executive Director of the Miami Dade Homeless Trust he holds the purse strings and is in charge of doling out State and Federal funds to all the homeless services in Dade County. Members from groups like the Miami Coalition for the Homeless and the Religious Leaders Coalition are forced to serve on Book’s “Trust” board making them beholden to Book for their precious funding every year. Meanwhile Book, year after year boasts in front of the Commission that the Trust is helping not only “regular homeless people” but is also continually dedicated and interested in helping homeless sex offenders – a flat out lie. His glaring conflict of interest regarding his daughter, Lauren (abused 20 years ago by a longtime, beloved, live in Nanny) resulting in what can only be called vindictive revenge against his sex offender clients, of whom he has equal charge and moral obligation. The Commission has yet to realize that he is purposefully refusing to do what ANYONE who is truly passionate about fighting homelessness would do: convince the commission to remove the 2500 ft residency restriction. Instead he strong arms the commission from ever doing what it takes to solve this problem, making them all look like idiots in the process. I truly believe that the Dade County situation is one of, if not THE worst situation regarding the illegal treatment of sex offenders in the nation right now. Indeed, it is going to take a lot of muscle to bring this evil monster down but there is no doubt it will eventually happen. Already I see chinks in the armor. There are vocal members on that commission who are getting tired of looking like useless imbeciles . No matter the vote on Jan 23rd, the homeless problem will remain exactly the same and only worsen. It will soon be a decade that Dade County has been complicit in perpetuating unsafe, inhumane conditions; shamefully unwilling to create a safer Miami for ALL its citizens.
You can watch the meeting here: https://youtu.be/Poz_1b2Dazs
How’d things go?
see this week’s update coming out soon
My grandmother just wrote this letter to Commissioner Suarez…. i helped her write it. what do you think?
Commissioner Suarez,
As a lifetime resident of Miami, I am very interested in the outcome of your meeting today at 1:30. I’ll be direct and brief:
There is a homeless sex offender roaming up and down 74th Terrace every day. When I read about this issue in the paper, I went out to him one day and I asked him who he was and where is he going everyday. He said to the WOODS at the end of my street! So I asked him why he doesn’t go to the shelter. He said: Oh I have a home to go to. My family lives there, but since I am a sex offender the city of Miami will not allow him to live there OR go to the shelter.
WHAT??!
And this is keeping our district safe?? Am I missing something here?! I want this guy off my street and I don’t just want it to become somebody else’ problem or going in and out of jail. That is not an intelligent solution.
Please do what is smart and get this issue taken care of before a kid is raped in the woods on 74th Terrace!!
PLEASE!!
Great letter – she might want to email it so that it is received in time for the meeting
It is a letter that needs to be rewritten to address the facts about recidivism rates of adjudicated sex offenders. Unfortunately, it is too late. The idea that kids are going to be raped in the woods? Really?
I agree. That letter could do more harm then good. I committed my crime back in 1984. Since then I’ve done everything possible to live a life of a good and righteous man, only to be forced everyday of my life with people in dark fear that it can’t be possible. He can’t be any good it’s going to happen any day. He is going to re offend any day. Thank your grandmother for the vote of confidence regardless!
Yes. Thanks to the grandmother for being involved.
R. Karl Hanson wrote the Static-99 risk assessment tool for sexual offenders. He has been in this research area for decades and is a well known expert in the field. In a court deposition he was asked what he believed to be the rate of sexual offending for the general male population. His answer was 5%.
Adjudicated sex offenders who have undergone a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program have recidivism rates less than 5%. In my county the rate is actually about 2.5%. This means that the man sitting next to you who is not an adjudicated sex offender is more likely to commit the next offense. Not me.
To put this in other terms. There are 150,000 adult males in my county and 5% are at a risk for offending. That is, there are 7,500 men at risk from this population. There are 150 adjudicated sex offenders, and from this population, 4 are at risk of re-offending. Worry about the 4 instead of the 7,500? That is misguided and driven by ignorance and fear.
Just meeting them at their level. That’s what they think isn’t it? What do you think their reasoning is for not letting us live near schools?? So using THEIR logic, and using the logic that most people think, we have no choice but to “go in the woods.” All of sudden this residency thing don’t make no sense – WHETHER SOMEONE RE-OFFENDS OR NOT. We keep thinking that if we spout studies and facts and convince Dade County Commission that there is no need to worry that somehow we’re going to get them to say, “o, ok I guess i was wrong.” Ain’t gonna happen. So we try to get them to understand that this homeless thing as aresult of the r.r. is more dangerous. Would you rather have someone really dangerous roming the streets, hopeless and desperate who’s homeless or would it better if he had a place to live at least? All of sudden their R.R. don’t make any sense. We are NEVER going to get them to understand or give leniency, therefore we meet them at their level.