10-19-2010 Iowa:
DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The same home address has been given to the Scott County Sheriff’s Department this year by 18 registered sex offenders.
West Kimberly Park, 4847 W. Kimberly Road, Davenport, is one of the few rental places in the county that is at least 2,000 feet from any school or day care, which means it complies with state law as an eligible place for certain sex offenders to live.
The trailer park owner could prohibit sex offenders from renting there, but he does not.
Ken Miller, the park owner, declined to be interviewed for this story, saying, “I don’t want to get involved in anything like that.”
At one point this summer, 12 sex offenders were living at West Kimberly Park at the same time.
“It’s like a modern-day leper colony,” said sheriff’s detective Peter Bawden, who keeps track of the 300-plus registered offenders in Scott County.
West Kimberly Park, formerly Brown’s Trailer Park, has about 40 mobile-home lots, and several of the residences are occupied by children.
“Some sex offenders do have children of their own,” Bawden pointed out. “There’s nothing in the law that prohibits them from being around their children. We have several sex offenders who are parents.”
And what about the children living at the park whose parents are not sex offenders and may not be aware that so many of their neighbors are?
“There is no way for me to know when someone who is not a sex offender comes and goes from there,” Bawden said. “There’s probably a waiting list for sex offenders out there.”
A female park tenant said she was made aware through word of mouth the number of sex offenders living there. A woman who lives in a nearby neighborhood said she learned of the makeup of the park by searching Iowa’s Sex Offender Registry.
Both women declined to be quoted by name, saying they are fearful of speaking critically of neighbors with a criminal history.
But the woman who lives on the outskirts of the park said her young daughter never is allowed outside the house alone because she and her husband are fearful of what could happen to her.
Experts who study public-safety measures geared toward sex offenders say residency restrictions like Iowa’s 2,000-foot rule are among the laws that don’t work. Critics do not quarrel with efforts to keep track of offenders but say zoning laws are not only ineffective but may actually increase public risk.
In situations like the one at West Kimberly Park, some say, having as many as a dozen sex offenders living in one small area can be dangerous to neighbors and to offenders who are trying to stay clean.
Learning as they go
Jill Levenson, an associate professor of psychology and human services at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., is regarded an expert in sexual violence and concluded in a nine-page paper on residency restrictions that Iowa is among the states that should consider changes.
Told of the sex-offender cluster at West Kimberly Park, Levenson replied, “We shouldn’t be surprised this becomes a consequence. Residency requirements really don’t reflect anything we know about sex offenses and sex offenders.”
In her report, which often refers to Iowa law, Levenson said 2,000-foot rules and other restrictions may have made sense at first. In practice, however, the good intentions of protective measures may actually be backfiring.
“Decreasing access to potential victims seems, intuitively, to be a reasonable strategy for preventing sex crimes,” she wrote. “However, there is no evidence that housing restrictions achieve this goal.”
The law was flawed from the beginning, she said, citing three “myths” about sex crimes.
-- The first is that all sex offenders will re-offend: “In fact, several large studies by both the U.S. and Canadian governments have found that sex offense recidivism rates are much lower than commonly believed.”
True offense rates are difficult to count, however, because so many sex crimes are not reported. But Levenson said all crimes are underreported, adding, “The only crime reported 100 percent of the time is bank robbery.”
-- The second myth is that sex offenders cannot benefit from treatment. In fact, researchers have found a relationship between offenders who successfully complete treatment programs and a decline in subsequent offenses.
-- A third myth thrives today and resulted from the “panic and urgency” created by a few high-profile child abduction/murder cases, Levenson said.
“In reality, such cases are extremely rare,” she wrote. “A study reviewing sex crimes as reported to police revealed that 93 percent of child sexual abuse victims knew their abuser.”
Removing sex offenders from areas where children congregate is not proving to spare victims, Levenson said.
“Offenders do not molest children because they live by a school,” she said.
The unintended results of residency restrictions, such as the “cluster” at West Kimberly Park, may be putting kids in peril, she said.
“The disproportionate number of sex offenders in one place produces an inequitable level of risk in that area,” she said. “Being around a bunch of unsupervised children in a trailer park can be more dangerous for an offender than living with family in a supportive environment.”
Start over or salvage some?
While pressure increases to reconsider some sex offender laws, portions of the statutes are working as they should, according to some who work in law enforcement.
When a child is reported missing, for instance, one of the first weapons police pull from their arsenal is the sex offender registry. Viewed in map form, the data instantly gives police (and anyone else) a geographic relationship between a victim and those who might have use for a victim.
As Levenson pointed out, those cases are rare. Much more common is the need for parents to keep tabs on neighbors, especially since most sex crimes are committed by offenders who know their victims.
As the deputy in charge of Scott County residents on Iowa’s Sex Offender Registry, Bawden has an appreciation for its potential as a public-safety measure.
“I’m a firm believer that keeping kids safe is a parent’s main role, main objective,” he said. “The registry is a tool that allows parents to check on a person. It does help keep children safe, allowing parents, teachers and day care operators to be aware of people with this kind of history.”
Scott County Attorney Mike Walton agreed, saying the sex offender registry “is a good thing, and I don’t think anyone disputes that.”
What Walton and other members of the Iowa County Attorney Association have pushed for is a repeal of the 2,000-foot rule, based on the same discoveries cited by Levenson.
“The problem is it (residency restrictions) doesn’t address the reality of child sex abuse, which is that an overwhelming majority of the offenders are relatives or friends of the family,” he said Thursday. “It drains resources away from investigation and prevention and into tracking, measuring and putting pins in a map.
“The other problem is that it creates clusters like this situation (at West Kimberly Park).”
The trailer park is not the only place in Scott County where offenders can live, but many of the rentable properties outside the 2,000-foot rule do not accept offenders.
“At 4847, they are OK renting to persons with that record,” Bawden said. “It’s entirely up to the property owner — as long as the address complies.”
Change considered
Scott County Sheriff Dennis Conard remembers when the sex offender registry and residency requirements were enacted by the Iowa Legislature.
In the beginning, there were high hopes that the measures would advance the cause of public safety. But the laws are imperfect, he said.
“The way these laws came about is law enforcement went to the legislature, along with county prosecutors, and asked for change,” the sheriff said. “I believe it’s time again for law enforcement to go back to the legislature.”
The resistance by some lawmakers to make changes, he said, comes largely from current economic conditions. Iowa cannot afford to spend more money treating, classifying, housing and tracking one group of criminals, he said.
“Until more resources become available, sex offenders are going to have to have restrictions and burdens placed on them,” Conard said. “Public safety has to come first.”
Walton said the Iowa County Attorney Association “pushed” in 2006 for the repeal of the 2,000-foot rule, but the matter is “too political” to gain ground.
He agreed with many of those who work most closely with sex offenders and say restrictions are not working and public safety would benefit from change.
Asked whether residents of Scott County would be safer if the 12 sex offenders living at West Kimberly Park were spread out in neighborhoods closer to the city center, Scott County probation and parole officer Diana Danielson said, “It would be better if that happened, yes.
“They would be closer to where they need to be — work, probation and parole, treatment programs, transportation. How much harder can we make it? We’re increasing their risk of recidivism, and that’s what we don’t want.”
By isolating offenders in rural locations with little or no access to jobs and social services, Danielson said, the “stressors” that lead to recidivism are on the rise.
“We’re also forcing some of them to be homeless,” she said. “Do we want them out wandering around?”
As sex-offender laws have changed in Iowa, the desire to monitor the actions of the most dangerous offenders has remained the bottom line.
“It used to be that anyone convicted of a sex crime against a minor had to comply with the residency restrictions,” said Ross Loder, legislative liaison for the Iowa Department of Public Health. “We went from 4,300 to 1,200 (offenders who have to comply with the restrictions) when the law changed in 2009 to include only those who commit the most serious crimes against children.
“Instead of just restricting where a person sleeps, a bigger concern was where they go when they’re awake. There was strong legislative will to restrict residency among those committing the most serious sex crimes — a more tailored approach.”
As sex offender laws get more use, and the people charged with enforcing them evaluate their effectiveness, more changes seem likely.
“I don’t know that there is any perfect solution,” Loder said. “There is ongoing, very important policy discussion. We’re all speaking the same language now.” ..Source.. BARB ICKES, Quad-City Times Sioux City Journal
October 19, 2010
Iowa law clusters sex offenders in Davenport trailer park
November 11, 2009
WA- Bremerton Neighbors Question Cluster of Sex Offenders
11-11-2009 Washington:
by Josh Farley
For Libby Parins, having eight sex offenders as neighbors has not only decreased the quality of life on the 900 block of Washington Avenue, it has hurt the value of her home.
She understands the need for housing ex-convicts like sex offenders once they’ve done their time. But she doesn’t get how so many can pile up in a home so close to her own.
Parins and about 40 of her neighbors and other residents came to Kitsap Community Resources’ Park Avenue offices Tuesday night to express to authorities their frustrations that someone on their block is renting to sex offenders.
Authorities from Bremerton Police and the Department of Corrections explained that they can monitor certain offenders while they’re on probation. They encouraged residents who see suspicious activity to call 911 so they could investigate it.
But ultimately, authorities told the crowd, that they don’t have the power to say where the offenders live, or with how many other offenders.
That came as a disappointment to Parins and others.
“I want to know my neighbors,” Parins said.
Such sex offender concentrations are common around the state, according to Washington Department of Corrections Secretary Eldon Veil. Veil prefers sex offenders to have homes, which provide stability and reduce the chance they’ll re-offend, rather than live on the streets.
He added that in such group settings, “they’ll snitch” on each other — because they don’t want to lose the housing — and such monitoring helps keep them from re-offendeing.
Bremerton Detective Sgt. Kevin Crane told the audience Tuesday night that the number of Level 3 sex offenders in Bremerton has doubled in just a few years, by 20. There are a total of 211 in Bremerton, 792 in Kitsap County and about 20,000 in the state.
Such offenders live in a city like Bremerton because they have access to buses, their community corrections officer, counseling and otherwise, Crane said.
“This is where all of the services are,” Crane said.
Department of Corrections officials pointed out that there are about 15 landlords in Kitsap County that will rent to sex offenders. Without them, many more would be homeless — and more likely to re-offend, they said.
Still, such pockets of offenders gives the area a bad name, some told authorities.
“This is a concentration that’s making us a sex offender neighborhood,” said resident David Farr, who added that he’s contacting lawmakers about the situation.
There’s also residents like Jessica Fox, who have to face such convicts on a daily basis while watching her children go to the school bus stop, which is not far from the house that is rented by the offenders.
Robbyn Myers, an area landlord, came to the meeting to tell residents to try and keep an open mind.
“These people want a second chance,” she said of sex offenders. “They’re trying to make things right.”
Andrew Oakley, Bremerton’s community resource officer, extended to audience members the idea they could start a block or neighborhood watch, which resonated with residents like Parins.
Jan Clayton-Bryant, who had just moved her family from Port Angeles to Bremerton three weeks ago, said she hasn’t gotten much sleep lately, worrying about her seven children and four grandchildren.
When she found out about the sex offenders on the 900 block, she said her first instinct was “to cut and run.”
She decided to stick it out, feeling empowered by having knowledge, and attend Tuesday night’s meeting.
“You can go into any neighborhood and there will be some sex offenders,” she said. “Better to have knowledge of them than not.” ..Source..
September 11, 2009
CA- Growing Pedophile Clusters are Shelters for Sex Offenders, Danger Zones for Public
This article is riddled with innuendos that the facts simply do not support! Ex: Garrido lived in a cluster of registrants. Look at the picture, upper right yellow square is Garrido, does anyone see a cluster?
9-11-2009 California:
When police raided the home of convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and freed Jaycee Lee Dugard, a girl who'd been kidnapped 18 years earlier, they were astounded to learn that more than 100 other sex offenders lived is the same area.
What they discovered is a trend that has been raising concerns among cops, local officials and experts across the country who study efforts to rein in sex offenders.
It is called clustering -- and it is raising alarms from coast to coast, from Florida to Iowa to California.
As states and municipalities have enacted laws that bar registered sex offenders from living near schools, playgrounds and other places where children congregate, they have been forced to settle down in more remote, often rural, areas where restrictions haven’t been imposed or there is enough space to avoid them.
Experts call that a recipe for disaster that could create far more danger to the public and undo all the work that imposing restrictive living measures for offenders has tried to accomplish.
That certainly was the case when police rescued Dugard, who was abducted in 1991 when she was 11 years old. Garrido, who lived in an unincorporated area near the run-down city of Antioch, Calif., just outside San Francisco, allegedly held her in a warren of tents in his back yard and fathered two children by her.
But Garrido wasn't the only one who was drawn to Antioch. It was the legal void that unincorporated areas provide -- a place where isolation and “a mind-your-own-business” attitude are cherished -- that attracted more than 100 other sex offenders to that one zip code, 94509. And it was that attitude that many say allowed Dugard's captivity to go on for so long.
And Antioch isn’t the only place where such a cluster can happen.
Notice that, in every area already mentioned and those below, there is absolutely no mention of any -increase of sex crimes- or that the sex crimes committed in those areas -are committed by former registrants-, the entire premise is hypothetical, without evidence to support it. This is Houdini-ism at work!
In Iowa, transient hotels outside Des Moines and other cities have largely been taken over by sex offenders who can no longer find legal housing inside the city limits. In addition, there are sex offenders who work and stay in Iowa cities during the day and simply drive out of city limits to sleep in their cars ar night.
In Florida, according to Prof. Jill Levenson, there are more than 100 sex offenders living in a 1-square-mile area of Broward County.
Levenson didn’t name the area, but Broward County has become famous for its inability to find homes for released offenders. Instead it houses them under a bridge on the Julia Tuttle Causeway. The only other location, according to local newspaper reports, is a swampy, isolated trailer park on the far west of the county.
In San Francisco, experts say, sex offenders are making up an ever-growing portion of the homeless population because there is literally nowhere in the city where they can live legally. “One hundred percent of San Francisco’s sex offenders are homeless,” says Robert Coombs of Calcasa, the California Coalition against Sexual Assault, “There is just nowhere they can live in the city.”
There are no national data on clustering. The few cases that are known have usually been found after a crime has been committed, or in the case of the Florida causeway because they were so blatant. This is partly because it is a new trend, and partly because restrictive laws are so new that just keeping up with enforcement has been a problem for police.
There are 674,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States. An estimated 100,000 of them have failed to register. And their sheer numbers are overwhelming police efforts to keep track of them, according to police and experts in the field.
But the prognosis for the future is grim as more and more states, counties and municipalities pass ever stricter sex-offender laws.
“The simple fact is that wherever restrictive laws are enacted, there is a good chance that clustering will occur,” Levenson said.
The irony of the situation is that efforts to rid towns of sex offenders may actually be making the situation worse. Experts say that as more governing bodies pass laws restricting where sexual offenders can live, the more inclined they are to find "cluster" areas where they can legally settle.
“Packing them away from cities means there are fewer treatment options, less oversight and less support,” say Miai Christopher, executive director of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. “And stability is the most important element in keeping sex offenders from committing further crimes.”
“In neighborhoods near the clusters,” according to Levenson, “there is increased fear, people feel unsafe and they worry about whether they are more likely to be the victims of an offense.”
“It is not where they aren’t living that is the problem, it is where they are,” says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "If you put these guys together it will lead to a higher incidence of sex abuse as they talk about this stuff. I see it as a dangerous trend.”
It is absurd to claim that, sex offender living in close proximity -i.e., within miles of each other- will gather to discuss -as implied- how to commit further sex crimes. Experts, including Mr. Allen, have claimed for a long time that, sex crimes are crimes committed in secrecy (isolation). Now we see a new spin, a new bending to garner more followers, even when experts and evidence prove this new spin is not how such crimes are committed. Further sensationalizing circumstances created by lawmakers.
..Source.. by Edward Barnes
August 31, 2009
CA- Sex offenders move to Antioch area 'because they can'
Important about this article is the general description of the community, generally a distressed one with lower rents and affordable housing. Most would say thats all former offenders deserve, if that much. Whatever your feelings on that topic are, here this, forcing folks -ostracizing them- into such areas by residency and proximity laws sets up circumstances under which many sex crimes occur, in isolation.
If you have been following this story you know that, those living close to Phillip Garrido -knew he was a properly registered sex offender- and some called him "Creepy Phil" and the nearest neighbors maintained their distance. Garrido's demeanor and actions were his method of keeping folks at a distance, to keep his secret, a secret; whether he did this purposfully or not, we will never know. But the community needed to be far more involved with him, rather than distancing themselves.
It is very likely, that if the community was closer, and the failures of law enforcement and parole officials (Federal, State, and those in Nevada too) hadn't occurred, Jaycee's circumstances would have been uncovered much earlier.
FInally, therapy -as we know it today, which is effective at reducing recidivism- was not available in the 70s and early 80s and I can find no article which shows he had any in the community. I do know that neither California nor Nevada -at his parole time- had any in-prison therapy program.
This case is an example of many failures that allowed his demons to fester rather than be put in check.
See CrimeReports expanding on "Isolating Sex Offenders."
8-31-2009 California:
A small, scruffy, unincorporated area largely surrounded by the city of Antioch is home to more than 100 sex offenders. It's also where Phillip Garrido allegedly held Jaycee Lee Dugard for 18 years.
Reporting from Antioch, Calif. - Dawn Cordy always knew her neighborhood was an easy place to hide -- a semi-rural San Francisco suburb where housing is cheap, sheriff's cruisers rarely appear, residents don't snoop and registered sex offenders have found a refuge.
It's a small, scruffy, unincorporated island largely surrounded by the hard-knock city of Antioch, a region synonymous with the foreclosure crisis in the Bay Area but now linked to yet another outrage.
This is where Phillip Garrido, who was charged last week with rape and kidnapping, allegedly held Jaycee Lee Dugard for 18 years and fathered her two children in a warren of tents and soundproofed outbuildings behind his gray cinder-block house on Walnut Avenue.
Garrido's and Cordy's 94509 ZIP Code is home to more than 100 registered sex offenders, according to the Megan's Law website, and officials say the region has a higher concentration of offenders than other areas.
At least four sex offenders, including Garrido, live within easy walking distance of Cordy's house; they move to the area "because they can," said Cordy, 52. "We're mostly an older bunch, and we don't pay that much attention. This is Boonieville."
Besides, she said of her unwelcome neighbors: "Honey, I collect knives. I wouldn't mind doing them harm."
On Sunday, Dugard remained secluded with her mother, daughters and half-sister in Northern California, where her stepfather said the family is working with counselors to overcome the last 18 years.
"They are doing fine -- not fine, but fine for the situation," Carl Probyn said. "My wife says that Jaycee is an excellent mother, and they are bonding, playing little games like checkers. They are doing OK for the situation."
Law enforcement officers with saws and cadaver dogs swarmed Walnut Avenue looking for clues that might link Garrido with a host of unsolved crimes in the region, including four slayings in Pittsburg in the late 1990s.
The main focus was the house next to Garrido's, where Damon Robinson, a 38-year-old driving instructor, now lives. Garrido cared for the property before Robinson moved in and lived for a time in a wooden shed behind it, according to sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee.
Three of the people whose killings remain unsolved were prostitutes. The fourth was a 15-year-old girl named Lisa Norrell, whose body was discovered a week after she left a dance alone on Nov. 6, 1998, and disappeared.
Capt. Daniel Terry of the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department said Friday that investigators were looking at Garrido because "several bodies were dumped at an industrial location where the suspect supposedly worked."
Minnie Norrell, 66, said a Pittsburg homicide detective contacted her Saturday about her daughter's slaying and called Garrido a person of interest.
"They said they didn't want to get my hopes up, but this guy was of interest," said Norrell, who lives in Pittsburg, where she spends her days on oxygen and in a wheelchair because of advanced emphysema. "He said they were going to be [in Garrido's neighborhood] for days. . . . I am hopeful."
Under recently passed laws, sex offenders' movements are severely circumscribed.
They generally must stay away from schools, parks, churches and places where children congregate, said Joan Petersilia, a law professor and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
Such laws, combined with the high price of housing in California, "push sex offenders to less populated and more rural areas," Petersilia said. "They want a place where they can remain anonymous and people leave them alone."
Terry, who heads the sheriff department's investigative division, said Contra Costa County has about 1,700 registered sex offenders. His station is responsible for about 350, "349 more than the number of detectives I have dedicated to monitoring these people."
He called the region's concentration "significantly higher" than other areas and rued that "this is the reality. These people are walking amongst us everywhere."
Antioch, with a population just over 100,000, has struggled in recent years with crime, rampant growth and foreclosures. One San Francisco Chronicle columnist dubbed the city "the finest slum this side of Stockton."
According to RealtyTrac.com, the median home price has plummeted more than 40% in the last year and the foreclosure rate is still rising. There were 699 foreclosures filed in July.
Mayor Jim Davis acknowledged the economic pressures his city has faced. But he was quick to note that Garrido's neighborhood is not part of Antioch proper, although the city would like to annex it and "be able to get out there and police it properly."
"There's a lot of building out there, violating code," he said. "If the city were out there, all the sheds and tents out there would not have been tolerated. . . . There are lower-priced rents out there. It allows those who are on probation and can't find good employment to congregate."
Betty Unpingo, a mother of 10, always knew her neighborhood was "an easy area to get lost in for a while." But until her family threw a backyard party two years ago, Unpingo didn't know exactly who was taking advantage of that anonymity.
As the party ended, Garrido stood in front of his house across the street and motioned for the teenage girls leaving the event to come on over, she said. Unpingo's daughter was so suspicious, she checked his name on the Megan's Law list.
On the list were Garrido and several others nearby, including two living in one home. Since then, Unpingo has instituted the "buddy system." None of her children are allowed to leave the house alone.
Sex offenders have "got to have someplace to go," acknowledged the 52-year-old retired businesswoman, "but not here." ..Source.. by Maria L. La Ganga, Maura Dolan and Molly Hennessy-Fiske
October 30, 2008
NY- Putnam law questioned as sex offender moves near Kent preschool
10-30-2008 New York:
KENT - A registered sex offender who recently moved to town may be in violation of a new county law that prohibits sex offenders from living in clustered housing developments or within 1,000 feet of places where children congregate.
But authorities aren't enforcing the law due to questions of its legality and because it isn't clear whether the offender's residence meets the definition of clustered housing and is less than 1,000 feet from a nearby preschool.
Meanwhile, local parents, including those whose children attend that preschool, are left worrying.
David McColl, 46, moved to a small home on Nemarest Club Road off Peekskill Hollow Road on Oct. 15, Kent police said. Nemarest Club is a community of small summer homes, off Peekskill Hollow Road near Route 301, that were later converted to year-round residences.
As required to by law, McColl notified Kent police of his new address. Police, in turn, notified local residents as well as any institution that might be affected, including local schools and the neighboring Kountry Kids Children's Center at 92 Richardsville Road.
McColl was convicted in April 2005 in New Jersey of felony sex offenses against three minor teenage girls and required to register as a sex offender. He attempted to have sexual contact with the girls, whom he did not know, according to New York's sex-offender registry. He is classified as a Level II offender, considered a moderate risk to reoffend, and is designated as a sexual predator, meaning that he has to check in with local authorities once every 90 days.
In March, Putnam legislators passed a law that, among other things, prohibits convicted sex offenders from living, working or spending time within 1,000 feet of places where children congregate. This includes schools, day cares and playgrounds.
The law also prohibits such convicts from living in a clustered housing development, defined as 10 or more single-family homes on less than one-third of an acre. It's unclear whether the Nemarest Club neighborhood meets that definition.
However, in August, the Legislature's Protective Services Committee agreed to re-evaluate legal and logistical aspects of the law and sent it back to the county's Law Department for revision.
Legislator Terry Intrary, R-Kent, who chairs the Protective Services Committee, said the revised law will come before his committee Nov. 12. He expects it will be approved and sent to the full Legislature for a December vote. After that, he said, it will be enforceable.
But that is little solace to parents living near McColl, including Peekskill Hollow Road resident Melissa Orser, who has five children ranging in age from 2 to 11. Orser said she and her neighbors want authorities to enforce the law.
McColl could not immediately be reached for comment. ..News Source.. by Terence Corcoran
