Where should sex offenders live after prison?
Chelsea King, a 17-year-old girl from San Diego, was raped and killed last month by John Gardner, a man with a history of sex crimes. Gardner was previously incarcerated for molesting a 13-year-old girl in 2000, but was let out of prison early in 2005. The case has sparked a heated national dialogue about the strength of laws intended to protect children from sex offenders. And the question of where sex offenders should live has come up in Florida, as offenders there struggle to adjust to society after prison sentences.
We talk with Grier Weeks, the executive director of PROTECT, a national organization lobbying Congress to enforce stricter predator laws. And for a closer look at how legislation is playing out locally, we talk with Julie Brown, a senior staff writer for the Miami Herald who has been covering sex offender communities that have been created in Florida.
Read Julie Brown’s articles, “Julia Tuttle Causeway sex offender enclave being dismantled,” and “Some Julia Tuttle sex offenders find housing.”
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