Laws to Track Sex Offenders Encouraging Homelessness

Sex offenders called this makeshift camp under a Miami causeway home after they were kicked off a vacant lot adjacent to a children's center. (By David Adame -- Associated Press)

Crucially, the ballot measure provided no legal grounds to enforce its provisions on the 75 percent of California's convicted offenders who have completed their sentences, unless they are arrested anew. At the Carson meeting, a senior parole official displayed maps showing scores of convicted offenders living adjacent to schools, despite the nominal assurances of Proposition 83.

"You've got a law that says you can't do it, and it's happening," said Robert Ambroselli, deputy director of adult parole operations. "I have a sex offender who lives in my neighborhood. I'm as upset about it as anybody is."

In reality, the restrictions are enforced only on parolees, because their freedom can be revoked. But GPS tracking of 6,300 parolees will cost $60 million next year, and with the housing contortions, parole officers will have less time for surprise drop-bys and other work.

"We're probably using 60 to 70 percent of our resources managing 10 percent of our population," said Alfred Martinez, a state parole official based in Los Angeles.

The state lawmaker who championed Proposition 83 said he was not bothered by homelessness resulting from the initiative because every transient offender is supposed to be wearing an ankle bracelet.

"We knew the consequence from the very beginning; that's why we included GPS as well as residency requirements," said state Sen. George Runner, a Republican who represents an L.A. exurb. "We don't need to re-debate what the people of California asked for."

Professionals in the field disagree. The California Coalition on Sexual Offending, a professional group grounded in treatment, issued a report in December saying that residency restriction "should be recognized as a well-intentioned failure" and repealed, a move also advocated by New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

"It boils down to that perception of safety, which is as powerful if not more so than actual empirical data," said Todd Rogers, who sees the conundrum from both sides as a captain in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and a City Council member in suburban Lakewood. "Jessica's Law is the third rail of state politics."