July 22, 2009

FL- The Sex Offender Bridge Probably Isn't Going to Be Shown on 'Miami Social'

7-22-2009 Florida:

Bravo TV has a new show out this season called Miami Social which follows thirty-something year olds living, working and partying in Miami Beach. The show is full of shallow people we wouldn't want to be friends with in real life and yet there's not one totally outrageous diva character that would keep us tuning in again. Not even the regular appearance of the Gansevoort South which serves as the group's de facto Peach Pit After Dark has us interested in the slightest.

Instead we find the Sex Offender Bridge in Miami far more fascinating. It turns out Miami-Dade County has a rule that bans all sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school, playground, public park or even bus stops. Since there options are so restricted, sex offenders have been told by the state's corrections department to park their stuff under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, a bridge that connects downtown Miami to Miami Beach.

NPR's All Things Considered reports:

There are half a dozen wooden shacks, some with cooking and toilet facilities. It's a village of tents, campers and cars — also a dock with a few small rowboats. Shared generators provide power for a CD player — also to recharge cell phones and electronic monitoring units required for sex offenders on supervised release.

It's gone so far as the corrections departments have actually given offenders upon release from prison driver's licenses that say "Under the Julia Tuttle Causeway." The encampments have been hotly debated amongst local and state officials but the Miami Herald reports there could be a deal struck that would relocate the 70 or so offenders into proper housing.

Maybe if that happens the entire cast of Miami Social can relocate under the bridge in a sort of localized "Survivor" type of show. Now that would make for some interesting TV! ..Source.. by Jaunted.com



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