IN 2 TRAILERS, THE NEIGHBORS NOBODY WANTS

The New York Times/Michael Schwirtz

Two trailers in this wealthy beach town stand as testament to an increasingly intractableproblem for localities across the country: where to let sex offenders live after prison. About 40sex offenders in all are living in the trailers in Southampton within walking distance of aretirement community and the other is in the parking lot of a prison.  A bus service financedby the county transports the men between the trailers and pickup points, including train stations,in Suffolk.  County Executive Steve Bellone, had vowed to remove the trailers by January 1 butmissed the deadline.  Bellone has said he would work with the Suffolk police, which unveiled aplan last week for dealing with the county's more than 1,000 convicted sex offenders that officialscalled the toughest monitoring, verification and enforcement program in the nation.  Underthe plan, the trailers would be removed and the sex offenders place in homeless shelters around thecounty.  When you propose a law restricting sex offenders to 1,000 feet from any bus stop,that's just not going to work, said Laura A. Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Lawand the Crime Victims Center, who lives on Long Island.  You have to bereasonable.   By law, convicted sex offenders in Suffolk County must have a permanentregistered address there while on parole or probation. If they do not, they can be arrestedagain.  After they finish parole or probation, they can move away — though they would besubject to the sex offender registration rules wherever they reside.
(New York)