A Dilemma Over Sheltering Sex Offenders
Public concern over sex offenders has led Florida to open its 59 prisons as hurricane shelters and require registered sex offenders on probation to report there if they don't have anywhere else to go. Registered sex offenders can't go to a public shelter because their probation bars them from being around children. Some sex offenders on probation say the requirement is being punished twice for their crime. Judith Smelser of member station WMFE reports.
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If another hurricane hits Florida this year, some sex offenders may be heading back to prison. The state has decided to open its 59 prisons to offenders who can't go to storm shelters because their probation forbids them from being around children. From member station WMFE in Orlando, Judith Smelser reports.
JUDITH SMELSER reporting:
Brian Kassel(ph) lives in the Tampa area on Florida's west coast. He says he has nowhere to go if a hurricane comes.
Ms. BRIAN KASSEL: If a hurricane comes and hits dead center on Hillsborough County and comes barreling right through my little apartment complex, then I don't know what's going to happen to me.
SMELSER: Kassel is a registered sex offender, and he's still on probation. Like most people in his position, he can't go to a public storm shelter. He's supposed to give his probation officer a secondary address where he can go in case of an emergency. But Kassel says that's just not possible for him.
Mr. KASSEL: I don't have anyone to make those kinds of arrangements with. I have a very small circle of friends, and I just don't have that opportunity to go somewhere else.
SMELSER: Florida's new policy is aimed at people like him. Robbie Cunningham is a spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections.
Mr. ROBBIE CUNNINGHAM (Spokesperson, Florida Department of Corrections): If the secondary address is either not approved or if it's also in an evacuation zone, we're allowing them to come to a prison for shelter as an option of last resort.
SMELSER: The policy applies only to sex offenders who are under Department of Corrections supervision and whose probation forbids them from being around children. But for those people, the policy is mandatory. They must be at an approved location, and, unlike average citizens, they're not allowed to stay in their own homes if their area is evacuated. Thomas Haggerty, another Florida sex offender who's on probation, feels the policy punishes him a second time.
Mr. THOMAS HAGGERTY: `Because you're a sex offender, I'm going to go ahead and punish you and put you back in jail, you know, while this thing's going through.' If, you know, there's such a big concern, I agree that maybe you should open up a separate shelter for sex offenders, and that way, you know, everybody's taken care of.
SMELSER: But Robbie Cunningham with the Department of Corrections says the state is not trying to punish sex offenders.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM: We're offering them a safe place to go, where they're not going to be going back to prison, they're not going to be going behind--you know, into the population or behind locked doors. They're going to have a safe place, as if they were going to a shelter, which it really is. It's just they're going to be in either the visitor park of the prison or a meeting room or something like that.
SMELSER: But they will have to adhere to a few rules: They can't bring family members with them; they can't smoke; they have to wear name tags; and they're asked not to leave. Again, Robbie Cunningham.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM: We're not going to physically hold them there, but what's going to happen is if they leave and they don't--you know, they don't go to a place that's approved, then they're going to be violating their terms of their probation, and they'll be violating and they'll be arrested.
SMELSER: The state policy comes after a string of local policies concerning sex offenders in hurricane shelters. It's part of a statewide crackdown that was sparked by the recent murders of two young Florida girls, allegedly by convicted sex offenders. One of the strictest policies is in Hillsborough County on Tampa Bay. The county wants to ban all of its more than 1,300 registered sex offenders from public shelters, even those who aren't on probation. All seven county commissioners voted for the measure and voted not to provide alternate accommodations for offenders during a hurricane. The driving force behind the policy was county Commissioner Ronda Storms.
Ms. RONDA STORMS (Commissioner, Hillsborough County): In a balancing test, if on the one hand you have these alleged ethical obligations on behalf of this person to keep them safe during a hurricane and, on the other hand, you have the ethical obligation to keep other people safe from a sexual perpetrator or a sexual predator or offender, the greater weight of that ethic would be for protecting the innocent person from the person who's willfully chosen to violate the law.
SMELSER: Sex offender Brian Kassel lives in Hillsborough County. Despite the policy, he says he's not too concerned for his own safety if a hurricane comes.
Mr. KASSEL: Sometimes, you know, with the way the society is champing at the bit to vilify and crucify all of us, you know, sometimes I think it would be a blessing to have an accident like that happen to me.
SMELSER: For NPR News, I'm Judith Smelser.
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