Crime & Safety

Stern and D'Amaro Want Trailers Housing Sex Offenders To Stay on East End; Reject Voucher System

Suffolk County Legislators Steve Stern and Lou D'Amaro, both Democrats from Huntington township, introduced a bill to maintain an existing trailer system to house sex offenders.

In the midst of a battle to determine where homeless sex offenders should be housed in Suffolk County and for the funds to pay for it, Legislators Steve Stern and Lou D'Amaro introduced a  resolution in the county legislature Tuesday, March 2 calling on the county to keep two trailers currently being used open.

Legislators from the East End want to switch to a voucher system to get the offenders out of the trailers and, perhaps, out of their constituents' neighborhoods.  Money to pay for a $90 per diem voucher would  come from within the Department of Social Services's $520 million annual budget. The legislature tabled the resolution that would have funded it.

Read the article in the Riverhead News Review here.

Another story, this one  from the Riverside News, can be read here.

Meanwhile, Leg. Jack Eddington (I-7th), issued a press release advocating a GPS system for sex offenders, similar to that the county has used in the past for those on probation:

"According to Parents for Megan's Law, the average sexual offender is 31 years old, white, and male. Less than half (about 42 percent) report having never been married. Roughly the same percentages (35 to 40 percent) are repeat offenders. Furthermore, fully 93 percent of sexual assault victims know their attacker as either family members or acquaintances. That means that only seven percent of sexual predators are actual strangers, a fact that at first glance would appear to be good news, but not really.

In all, the statistics are unsettling, especially when you consider that these numbers represent only the predators that have been caught.

It is our job to protect the most vulnerable members of our families and communities, and as Chair of
Public Safety I take that responsibility very seriously. For this reason, I have written legislation to provide GPS monitoring of homeless registered sex offenders in Suffolk County. Homeless offenders are a problem for two reasons.

First, by law, once a sex offender is released back into the community, he (or she) must register his
address with the local police department. The goal is for law enforcement to know an offender's location and in certain instances to be able to inform neighbors should a high risk offender move in close proximity to them.

Second, if our County Executive is successful with his proposal to cut costs and eliminate the trailers in
Riverhead and West Hampton, where homeless offenders are now being housed, there will be a clear need for GPS monitoring. As part of the County Executive's proposal to shut down the trailers, homeless sex offenders will instead be given a $90 daily voucher to find their own shelter. The move essentially sets offenders free to find temporary and transient housing where women and children are located, often alone.

Monitoring homeless sex offenders with a GPS ankle bracelet will help to circumvent this loophole,
besides being a cost-conscious alternative to the trailers. Our own Department of Social Services
Commissioner has noted that the county spends nearly one million dollars per year in transportation costs alone to shuttle homeless offenders to and from the trailers. On the other hand, the estimated cost of monitoring 35 offenders with GPS bracelets is $451,000, and we know already that GPS monitoring is effective. It is why I funded 100 GPS ankle bracelets, along with the necessary personnel in 2008, to allow the county's probation department to track in real time the whereabouts of high-risk sex offenders.

Together, my fellow county lawmakers and I have been proactive when it comes to enacting legislation
designed to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities against sexual predation. GPS
monitoring of homeless sex offenders is the next logical step."

Go here to search for New York State registered sex offenders via zip code in the Division of Criminal Justice Services database.


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