These stories become sicker every passing moment. As to those on parole or probation they are NOT ALLOWED to move without PRIOR approval of their Agent, and Agents normally will not allow a move without first checking the place these folks want to move to. Who will win, Transportation or Corrections? If it were me on P/P I'd sit there, get arrested and force everyone into court, let the judge slam ALL the state workers, because it is not the fault of the men living in the tents. Thats the only way to generate proper documentation for any Corrections Hearing as to a violation of P/P.
9-29-2009 Georgia:
COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- Members of the Georgia Department of Transportation accompanied by the Cobb County Sheriff's Department walked into the woods at a nearby business park and told the dozen sex offenders camped out there that they had to leave.
This happened just hours after it was reported in print publications that homeless sex offenders were living in the woods in Cobb County because they couldn't find any other place for them to go.
"That flood was ridiculous." 11Alive's Jaye Watson talked to a sex offender who wanted his name withheld. He said he lived here for a little over a month. That he had had a home and a job, but lost both because they were within a thousand feet of a church.
The state's law that prohibits sex offenders from living with a thousand feet of a church, a school, bus stop, or any place children congregate has made it virtually impossible for some sex offenders to find homes or work.
For homeless sex offenders, the problem is compounded. They cannot seek shelter at a church, or sleep in a park, because those are placed from which they are barred.
The sex offender Watson interviewed said his probation officer directed him to this spot of woods.
Watson asked, "Did she say there's a place in the woods you can go?"
"Yeah, she said there's a place by this address that is compliant," he replied.
The other sex offenders tell the same story, that their probation officers told them this was only place left. The men in the woods visit their probation officers once a week and weekly visits were made to the men in the woods.
"We're putting them in a place where they have no restroom and winter is going to be coming. This is not a solution," said attorney Gerry Weber.
Weber is with the Southern Center for Human Rights -- and he says it's also hard for police to keep tabs on the offenders.
Some police showed up while 11Alive was filming, saying they had read about it and that citizens were already calling, concerned.
A few hours later, the men were told they had 24 hours to get off the property or be arrested. Within another 72 hours they must be registered with a new address.
None of the men know where they can go next. ..Source.. by Jaye Watson
September 29, 2009
GA- Sex Offenders Thrown Out of Woods
September 28, 2009
GA- Homeless Sexual Offenders Fear Jail After AP Article
9-28-2009 Georgia:
On Monday morning, the Associated Press published a report about nine sex offenders living on state owned land in Marietta.
By the afternoon, news organizations from CNN to the local paper came through the camp, looking to pick up the story. And all that scrutiny is making campers nervous.
“I’m very worried I’ll end up in jail because of all this attention,” Marque Miechurski, told GPB. The 30 year old continued, "CNN has been here, WSB [TV] has been here. People aren’t going to be happy.”
The concern is that officials, both state and local, will kick them out of the camp. With no where else to go, they could end up in jail for violating their probation, Miechurski and others say. According to court documents, Miechurski was convicted of child molestation in October of 2008.
With four years left until he can remove himself from the registry, Miechurski says he is just trying to get through this period of his life and move on.
“This is the last place I can stay, I’ve been everywhere else, and if this is taken from me, I’ll have no where to go but jail… Although, being stuck here is a lot like being in jail, just on the outside,” Miechurski says.
In Cobb County, registered sex offenders are barred from living within 1,000 feet of schools, churches and parks where there might be children. Out of work, broke and without family, Miechurski says a probation officer told him about the camp.
“I won’t say who, but I came to them and told them I couldn’t find a place in compliance, and they told me about this place. The sheriff’s office can check up on us, they come three to four times a month, and my probation officer knows I’m back here.”
County and city officials did not return calls for comment. The AP article quotes Ahmed Holt, manager of the state's sex offender administration unit, as saying the camp is a “last resort” for homeless sexual offenders.
According to signs at the edge of the land, the men and woman at the camp are trespassing on state property. But Miechurski is worried he is violating his probation by living there with other homeless offenders.
“They told me I can’t associate with felons. Well, what do you call it when I’m camping out every night with them?” ..Source.. by John Sepulvado
GA- Homeless Ga. sex offenders directed to woods
Two points are important here: 1) It is state land; -and- 2) It is state employees (probation & parole officers) who are approving former offenders to live there on state land. Obviously that legalizes the tent encampment. Right?
9-28-2009 Georgia:
A small group of homeless sex offenders have set up camp in a densely wooded area behind a suburban Atlanta office park, directed there by probation officers who say it's a place of last resort for those with nowhere else to go.
Nine sex offenders live in tents surrounding a makeshift fire pit in the trees behind a towering "no trespassing" sign, waiting out their probation sentences as they face numerous living restrictions under one of the nation's toughest sex offender policies.
"It's kind of like a mind-game, it's like 'Survivor,'" said William Hawkins, a 34-year-old who said he was directed to the campsite two weeks ago after being released from prison for violating probation by failing to register as a sex offender in Georgia.
The muddy camp on the outskirts of prosperous Cobb County is an unintended consequence of Georgia law, which bans the state's 16,000 sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and other spots where children gather.
It's not the only place in Cobb County where offenders can live — there are hundreds of other sex offenders throughout the county living in compliance with the law. But Ahmed Holt, manager of the state's sex offender administration unit, calls the camp a "last resort" for homeless offenders who can't find another place to live that complies with the law.
He said probation officers direct them to the outpost if other options fail, such as transferring to another county or state or sending them to a relative's place that meets the requirements. Homeless shelters and halfway houses are often not an option, he said, because of the restrictions that bar them from being near children.
Critics say it's an example of how laws designed to keep Georgia's children out of harm's way create a hazard where penniless sex offenders live largely unsupervised at the government's urging.
"The state needs to find a responsible way to deal with this problem," said Sarah Geraghty, an attorney with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights who represents another man living in the camp. "Requiring people to live like animals in the woods is both inhumane and a terrible idea for public safety."
The outpost also illustrates the unique dilemma the law creates for homeless sex offenders, who unlike other homeless people, cannot take shelter in a church or curl up in a park because they are barred from both.
Geraghty said she has found only one homeless shelter in the state that meets the residency requirements for homeless sex offenders. The shelter, she said, is in the northwest Georgia city of Rome and has only two beds, which are often unavailable.
The tent city is similar to one in south Florida, where dozens of sex offenders moved under a remote bridge because it was among the few places that complied with local ordinances. Florida officials say the sex offenders found the bridge on their own, while some residents of the camp dispute that.
In Georgia, however, Holt said state probation officers have directed homeless offenders into the woods.
"While having an offender located in a camp area is not ideal, the greater threat lies in homeless offenders that are not a specified location and eventually absconding supervision with their whereabouts unknown," he said.
Several of the sex offenders in the camp said they did a double-take when their probation officers told them about the outpost.
"Even the probation officer, he looked at me and said there's nothing he can do," said Levertice Johnson, a 52-year-old who moved to the woods after he couldn't find a job and couldn't afford $60 a week for rent at an Atlanta shelter. "He knows it's wrong."
Holt said the sex offenders at the camp were monitored closely by their probation officials, adding public safety is a chief concern. He said sex offenders at the site are required to report once a week and the office sends a field agent to the camp at least twice a week.
He added two of the sex offenders at the camp have landed jobs and are now moving toward more permanent housing, which he said is the department's "goal for all the offenders residing at this location."
Some of the homeless sex offenders living in the woods say the rugged conditions make life seem hopeless.
"I'm living like an animal. It's just bad," said Johnson, who was convicted in 2002 of child molestation. "You can't clean up, you can't clean yourself, you can't do nothing. I'd rather be dead. I'm serious. I'd rather be dead."
For Hawkins, it feels like an extension of his prison time.
The former truck driver has been on the registry since he was convicted of attempted sexual battery of a 12-year-old in 1991 when he was 15. He said after he emerged from his latest stint behind bars without a place to live, he was directed to the forest despite pleas from his wife to allow him to live at the couple's home in Swords Creek, Va.
"I don't understand how the state gets away with it," Mindy Hawkins said from her home in Virginia. "This is ridiculous — especially when he has a family, a home, a support system here. It's inhumane."
Her husband has tried to make the meager outpost feel as much like home as possible as he waits for his probation to end early next year.
He wakes up each morning to brew coffee on a donated gas grill tied to a tree near his tent, showers under a bag of water he fills up at the office park and then treks into the suburban sprawl to search for a job. At night, he prepares meals like "hobo stew" — rice, sausage and veggies — purchased with food stamps.
Hawkins and a few others have begun preparing for winter, with little hope that they will find an alternative place to live. They are gathering a supply of firewood to keep a blaze going for the coming cold and have requested warm clothes from their family.
"You just live for the day, you live for the moment," said Hawkins. "It's not living, though. It's surviving." ..Source.. by GREG BLUESTEIN
