FL- Picture Depicts Kids Present At Sex Predator Camp

Hey world, even former sex offenders have family and likely someone was visiting!

8-6-2009 Florida:

There are fresh worries and renewed anger about the camp under and around the Julia Tuttle Causeway--one populated by more than 70 sexual offenders--after a new picture was revealed at a commission meeting Thursday.

Miami's code enforcement board showed pictures of children playing under the causeway at their city hall meeting Wednesday night. There was worry the children were living with relatives in the squalid camp, but those concerns appear to be unfounded.

Still, its cause for louder outcry that the state do something about offenders it is supposed to supervise upon their release from prison—something more, that is, than let them set up camp on Biscayne Bay.

Miami commissioner Marc Sarnoff said, "It is an abject failure of the State of Florida to continue to have sex offenders under the bridge."

The failure has blame being spread in many directions. That includes the critics of the Miami-Dade ordinance that say sexual offenders and predators must stay at least 2,500 feet away from any place where children congregate, including schools, parks, and daycare facilities. The state rule requires offenders to stay at least 1,000 feet away from such places.

The critics argue local restrictions make it doubly tough for sexual offenders who have served their time to find a place to live. The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust chairman, Ron Book, keeps pressing for an answer but a lot of help is not forthcoming, at least not yet.

Book says that whatever one's view of the people under the Tuttle causeway, it is not serving community safety to have them living there. What's more, he worries about legal action to force them out, without first making sure there is housing available somewhere. Book says, "Having 71 offenders running around the community without knowing where they are is a worse solution."

The frustrations keep growing and the national—indeed international—coverage keeps building. It is not a pretty picture, but from the governor's office to local government halls, no one has stepped up yet to embrace a solution. ..Source.. by Michael Williams