Village where half the population are sex offenders

| 01/08/2013

(BBC): Miracle Village lies deep in a sea of green. This is sugar cane country, south Florida. At the edge of the everglades, and over two miles from the nearest town, around 200 people live in the small, neat bungalows. More than 100 of them are registered sex offenders – people who were found guilty, and have usually served a prison sentence, for a sex crime. There is one woman, the rest are men. Some of them viewed child pornography, or molested their own children. Others abused minors when they were in positions of power – there is a teacher here, a pastor, a sports coach. There are those who have been to prison for exposing themselves. A number of residents were convicted because they had sex with underage girlfriends.

Under Florida's state law none of them can live within 1,000 feet of a school, day care centre, park or playground. Cities and counties have extended those restrictions up to 2,500 feet – about half a mile. And in some places swimming pools, bus stops and libraries are out of bounds too. The effect has been to push sex offenders out of densely populated areas.

The laws of Florida have made Miracle Village an attractive option. It was set up in 2009 by the late Dick Witherow, a pastor with Matthew 25 Ministries. He saw the difficulties sex offenders faced when trying to find a place to live. Although they can travel pretty much anywhere during the day, at night they must be at an address that complies with the residency restrictions.

Applications to Miracle Village from potential residents arrive daily. "We get between 10 and 20 a week", says Jerry Youmans, the intake co-ordinator for the ministry, and also a registered sex offender.

"We try not to accept people with a history of violence or drugs, or to take any diagnosed paedophile – that is, someone who can only become sexually aroused by a child. We want to protect the people who are already here and those who were living here before us."

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  1. Anonymous says:

    “Miracle” Village?? What kind of a “Christian Group” is conspiring to augment this “Final Solution” against the mostly innocently-arrested & illegally convicted victims already made by your dishonest out-of-control Court systems in Florida which also further illegally punishes law-abiding singles & parents of children, by attempting to further segregate or banish them? Anyone conspiring to the segregation or banishment of non-criminals from society is punishably INHUMAN, and punishably ILLEGAL in America, especially in America!

    JESUS CRIST himself would angrily FORBID the ‘power’ you greedily attempt over your helpless American victims under your disquise of supposedly “helping” them with your “Ministry”!

    SHAME ON YOU !!

    *(please read below)*

    Haven’t you all learned anything from Hitler, Stalin, the Dark Ages, the Winatchee Witch-Hunts,Guantanamo Bay? Here in civlised Europe we HAVE learned from centuries of dishonest Monarchies, leaders of Witch Hunts, etc., therefore we don’t have ‘your’ American hysteria & problems here, no ‘Witches/Frankensteins’ (no falsely-made ‘sex-offenders’) nor your supposed ‘crime’! Do the math!

    >Travel warnings against America: For us Europeans, we stay away from America or me could be innocently in your prison too but no crime done,known fact about America.

    >Witch Hunt: A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice, by Kathryn Lyon<

    The only way to finally stop this? Your Country's infatuation with 'creating' innocent 'Sex Offenders' needs to STOP somewhere, then it's countless victims and their suffering children/families paid to for their permanent damages, and those who hatefully conspire to further hurt the innocent lives of such innocently convicted responsible singles & parents MUST be forced to pay for all damages which they have knowingly caused (starting with much of your criminally-mined 'Social-workers & Police', your 'PERVERTED, LYING PROSECUTORS' AND ESPECIALLY PUNISH YOUR VAST REGION OF INTENTFULLY "DISHONEST JUDGES" in West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale & Miami, etc – then making a public example out of THEM by giving them L-I-F-E in prison!)

    History: Around late 1980's sadly marked the enormous outbreak of the widely publicized false sex-abuse cases in America (& especially the illegal / wrongful / false criminal convictions, often ending in suicide or permanent expatriation). Since then the vast majority of these so-called 'sex-offenders' are, in reality, truly NOT guilty of their 'described charges' and likely may have never committed ANY crime in their productive lives. The majority were 'represented' by your "public defenders" who usually have ties with dishonest prosecutors / police / judges, etc. The vast majority of these common injustice victims were knowingly 'rail-roaded' into making false plea-bargains (scared into admitting to something where there was a much, much smaller incident, and/or often where there was no crime at all!) by cruel threats of inhumanly-long prison sentences (or death), often when the Prosecutors & Judges personally know NO such crime ever existed!!! My God! What the H*ll has happened to America, especially out-of-control Florida?

    You hysterical people can now be SUED by your victims for everything you will ever own for attempting your 'personal power' by persecuting & defaming such good people who are doing nothing wrong (and who has likely never committed ANY crime!)

    SHAME ON YOU ALL for conspiring to continually rip apart innocent families and children in your illegal & highly inhuman wake of further persecutions against people who are doing nothing wrong, and who have the very same Rights to survive & pursue happiness as we all do!

  2. Anonymous says:

    Not all sex offenders are the same. This reminds me that just 10-20 years ago how different people felt about gay people . Some were born that way some were introduced, some are bisexual . Some were abused some came out of prison and couldn't cope with their new life . So,so many ways how you came to be gay. Today they got more rights . Human rights. These men and women are all different to put them in one classification is not achieving anything. 

    • Anonymous says:

      First was the catholic priests and page boys……now this !!! what sort of society are we allowing these days ?

  3. Anonymous says:

    Mmmmm….I support a Sex-offenders registry! But, I can't say I'm impressed with the approach that Florida seems to take, sounds kind of like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly! The thing about this approach is, it will always kill whatever the hammer hits, but it does not always hit the fly! I sense (and hope) that there is more to the story then we're being told! There certainly seems to be no mention of any rehabilitation attempt!

    • Anonymous says:

      Reading some post on the sex offender registry I dont know if it is a sex offender registry or not , It's looking like a fued to me, Heck I even see people personal facebook post on there , I do not think that is professional.. She better mind she don't lose the few dollars she going to get from Govt before she gets it..

       

  4. Justified is an oxymoron says:

    Should be a tax free zone as well. After all, you push them out, why should they have to pay county, state or whatever taxes. But they do. All about the money, honey. 

  5. Anonymous says:

    I think they should be twinned with bits of West Bay.

  6. Slowpoke says:

    While the idea has some initial appeal, i.e punish, isolate and keep the general population safe, it may actually have exactly the opposite effect. 

    By socially isolating offenders, effectively making it impossible for them to develop healthy interpersonal relationships, increases their risk of re-offending.  Inital incarceration, combined with treatment, is a much better alternative and leads to significantly better and safer outcomes.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Hmmm…  an interesting story indeed. As for a registry for sex offenders, it wouldn't work in this british territory. We have too many lawyers here that would make a profit from the so many lawsuits and bill of rights. 

    • Anonymous says:

      Cleveland's Castro won't be moving there anytime soon…he just got life plus 1000 years. How the hell they gonna keep him alive that long???

      In the meantime, is that place gonna be renamed "Village People"?

  8. Anonymous says:

    Paddle faster……………………………………I hear banjos!

  9. Anonymous says:

    i believe in miracles…..

  10. Anonymous says:

    It's too nice.    Should've been a dry, hot desert.   With a tin roof.  No a/c.   No internet.  No cable tv.   Just lots of time to contemplate. 

  11. Anon says:

    Sounds like some parts of Cayman.