Woman Lives Under Bridge With Other Sex Offenders

Sex offenders in Florida do not have many residency options, as noted in this interesting article in the Miami Herald.  The article discusses a peculiar colony of 52 male sex offenders that live in under a bridge and a woman named Voncel Johnson who recently joined their ranks. From the article:

Forcing so many men to live like post-apocalyptic trolls beneath a bridge in the middle of Biscayne Bay wasn't quite mad enough. Now they've added a woman.

For two years, a colony of convicted sex offenders under the Julia Tuttle Causeway has lived in a public health travesty, without water or toilets or electrical service. They sleep in tents, shacks, the back seats of cars in the last realistic address in metropolitan Miami unaffected by city and county sex-offender residency laws.

The numbers have been growing steadily as more convicted sex offenders emerge from prison and are consigned to finish out their wretched lives under a bridge.

In a peculiar nod to gender equity, the Florida Department of Corrections informed her last week that she too had only one residency option in Miami-Dade County -- the Tuttle. ''They just give me a blanket and a pillow and sent me . . . here?'' she asked, talking over the incessant thump-thump-thump of the freeway traffic overhead. ``I just broke down.''

I'm not sure if it is a good sign or bad sign that the bridge communities of Florida are re-forming and growing. It certainly isn't an ideal situation, but it might be better than being on the street. The problem of homeless sex offenders is not going to go away any time soon and residency restrictions will continue to make it worse.

Comments

[David Hess]

What if this woman doesn't get raped while living among this group of sex offenders? That will make it kind of hard to keep talking about how dangerous sex offenders are (and the need for residency laws), won't it?

[Dave]

Growing they might be, but reforming? Hardly. Putting a woman in with that lot is not something I would call progressive.

[George]

My bet is that she is probably safe there. Rather than "not ideal" I'd call it draconian though.

[david]

is this what we have resorted too!!! doing this to other human beings it,s a sad new low that law makers let this happen all for the sake of getting votes the day will come that we all pay for these inhumane sex offender laws

[Sex Offender Issues]

This was not good before, and by forcing a woman to live there is asking for problems. Is the state going to be blamed if she is raped by someone? I doubt it, but they are the HEARTLESS BASTARDS that are doing this. WHERE ARE THE HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS? Hell, do they even exist anymore? Also, it looks like they have given her a trailer to live in, and if she is not raped, then it will show that the people are not as dangerous as people think. So what's next? Are you going to also be sending child sex offenders to live under the bridge as well? Every RSO or anyone who cares who is reading this, email the ACLU of Florida (aclufl@aclufl.org) and bombard them with emails until something is done, this is just cruel and inhumane punishment, period!

[Dave]

They gave her a trailer? Are they trying to anger the men there or dehumanize them more? How is any of this a good idea?

[disillusioned layman]

Okay, suppose little Megan or Jessica--or even Adam--had not died but had grown up to have problems as a result of being molested and raped. Rather than get them help when they screw up as a result of their horrible childhood experiences, it would be perfectly OK just to declare them social pariahs and make them live under a bridge, surrounded by the people of whom they would be most terrified. A member of the Spanish Inquisition couldn't have devised a more perfect form of torture. We are a sick, sick people.

[Mark]

no, for what i read, it was the 'evil and heartless' sex offenders that gave her the trailer. Even some of the sex offenders are there protecting her.

But i think its going to come down to this, 52 male sex offenders. If one of them does something to her, or roughly 2% of the population of sex offenders that live there, they are going to use that as an excuse as why all the sex offenders there need to be dispersed from there, or to reinforce why they need the residency restrictions for the entire state.

Someone is going to get tons of- political cookies for her getting hurt.

[George]

That was my reading too, that the offenders themselves gave her the trailer and I think the 98% would retaliate if the 2% (one person) does anything violent to her. It may get ugly, it may not, but I think she is probably safe. The real issue is there is nothing in the SCOTUS opinions on the registries that permits this and there is much to suggest the justices did not permit this. I hope their case is making its way through the courts.

[Dave]

Can someone provide a source about the whole trailer thing? If that's the case it does put a whole new spin on the matter. Foolish me, thinking the state of Florida would provide greater protection for a woman living under a bridge. If state officials with DOC felt any responsibility for her safety they wouldn't have forced her to live there in the first place.

Of course, let's not let this matter obfuscate that no one, man or woman, should be subjected to state sanctioned homelessness.

[Dave]

Nevermind, I went and read the actual Herald article that mentions the bridge folk providing the trailer.

For the record, Voncel Johnson is a 43 year old African American who grew up in poverty and refuses to leave Miami. Ask yourself if this story even exists were she to look like Debra Lafave. The whole thing makes me nauseous.