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Suffolk Notebook: County Eyes New Plan to House Sex Offenders

Meanwhile, trailers in Westhampton and Riverside stay open.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone this week said he plans to close two controversial homeless sex offender trailers in Riverside and Westhampton as soon as a new plan is developed for housing, though critics had hoped he would shutter the shelters by the Jan. 1 deadline he set himself.

Bellone said that he has directed the Suffolk County Police Department to work with other agencies of county government, advocacy organizations and mental health experts to review existing county laws and to submit a plan to reform the county's approach to dealing with sex offenders by the end of January.

A new approach is necessary, Bellone said, because current laws intended to protect communities from sex offenders are being successfully challenged in jurisdictions across New York.

There are more than 1,000 registered sex offenders throughout Suffolk County, he said. But, Bellone added, county policy has been disproportionately focused on about 40 sex offenders who are homeless. Suffolk County is obligated under New York State law to pay for the housing of the homeless, including homeless registered sex offenders, he said.

Last year, Bellone vowed at a press conference to have the two trailers closed by Jan. 1. And in December, local elected officials urged him to keep that promise. Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said last month that if the trailers were not closed by Jan. 1, he would organize a large community meeting in Riverhead and ask that Bellone come speak directly to community members about why.

"I'm disappointed," Schneiderman said Wednesday. "I was hoping the county executive would be able to make his own Jan. 1 deadline."

Sandy Disaster Recovery Centers to Close

More that two months since Superstorm Sandy devastated much of Long Island, Suffolk County said it will close Disaster Recovery Centers in Islip and Mastic at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

More than 3,400 locals who survived the hurricane have visited the centers since they opened.

The Disaster Recovery Center at the Lindenhurst Library in Lindenhurst will remain open.

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Oldvet January 10, 2013 at 12:27 am
Send them to the Hamptons!
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 12:56 am
Come on, do you REALLY think that it's in their DNA? REALLY? So answer me this then, since it's in the DNA, then you MUST think that the rest of the offender's family has the same criminal DNA? That if one guy is a sex offender, then his whole bloodline is? Because quite frankly, that's the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. You've got serious issues...
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 12:58 am
...and furthermore.
Just the fact that you need to resort to the default "You must be one of them" schtick when somebody doesn't agree with your oblivious Nazi-istic views speaks volumes about your intellect, or lack thereof...
highhatsize January 10, 2013 at 01:18 am
[An hour after I posted the following, it is still held for censoring marked, "Pending Approval", so I'll try reposting it and hope that the additional sentences within these brackets cause it to sidestep the censorship column.]
1 hour ago I don't believe that any previous thread has contained defamatory accusations by so many different right-wingers. It would seem that ad hominem attack correlates directly with intellectual bankruptcy. They cannot proffer a feasible plan to remove the trailers so they accuse everyone who DOES have a plan, but one that they don't like, of being sex offenders themselves. EG: No, we CANNOT move the trailers into the prison. It's illegal. But don't let the inanity of your suggestion stop you from beating your chest.
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 01:33 am
I don't think it's a censor thing, High Hat. I think it's more a slow server thing. I've had many of my posts stuck in "Pending Approval" mode even after I posted the exact same thing just moments later. It seems the longer the post, the more it's liable to do that...
EG January 10, 2013 at 02:08 am
HH, I said prison grounds or similar. Similar meaning an area that can be monitored (not illegal) instead if dispersing the animals into the general population. Throwing more money at them so that they can infiltrate neighborhoods and wreak more pain and anguish on society is moronic. What's intellectually bankrupt are the laws that allow them to be released in the first place and the people th.at refuse to realize it and fix it.
Fixing those problems is my plan. Your plan borders between insanity and fantasy, fixes nothing, makes things worse and will ultimately cost more in pain, anguish and money
John Gruber January 10, 2013 at 02:10 am
aside from the fact that sex offenders often have been sexually assaulted themselves and only start AFTER being victimized, which completely disproves your logic, if you could prove it was in their DNA you should be able to tell me which gene it is and therefor be able to identify it in other people. Otherwise you have very little to back up that theory
highhatsize January 10, 2013 at 03:05 am
It's not MY plan. It was the plan set to begin two years ago before public outcry axed it. If the goal is to get rid of the trailers, THIS is feasible. If you prefer having the trailers to having the sex offenders dispersed, then the status quo is the alternative. NO other feasible plan has been proposed.
Homeless sex offenders who have completed their sentences have all the civil rights of anyone else except for the additional statutory requirements of sex offender status. The state can't ORDER them to do anything that it can't order anyone else to do.
ViralGrain January 10, 2013 at 03:08 am
Why do I think it is in their DNA and their is no chance that that kind of criminal can be rehabilitated. All insects and even plants exist for a few basic reasons. Sex happens to be instinctive. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't. What drives those types of criminals to seek out young children or innocent victims is something more than just fun for them. It's a necessity to them. Of course they understand the consequences and know it's wrong however they cannot help themselves and are overcome by the emotions to commit the crime. Its so compelling the impulse for allot of them that that is the reason they sometimes do such brandish things such as abducting their victim or using sheer forse to satisfy their impulse. I don't believe that they can be rehabilitated and the only reason they may reframe or suppress those impulses are not because of rehabilitated but because of consistent outside pressure. In the meantime while they being monitored and controlled to some degree they are looking for ways to continue their behavior but without getting caught. Therefore I think it is in their DNA. As for Nazi-istic views I don't have any. I believe that people can change. I believe in forgiveness and understanding. I think our jails and prisons should do far more than they're doing in turning out productive law-abiding citizens through educational programs. We have more people in prison or involved in the criminal justice system than any country in the world by hundreds of percent.
ViralGrain January 10, 2013 at 03:13 am
Obviously somethings very wrong there because I don't think we are the most evil nation in the world by any means. One thing that is wrong is prison is too good for some too harsh for others. Rapists and child molesters are among the prisoners I feel prisons is too good for them. it makes me wish sometimes I lived in the country that handled those types of criminals in a way that would ensure sure the rest of society that they would not repeat their criminal acts. However I don't so I can only exercise my freedom of speech. And I say its possible its in their DNA. Prove me wrong.
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 03:43 am
Prove you wrong? That's very easily done, Viral. Watch this.
My Brother is on the registry. Yep. He screwed up his life but good, spent time in Dannemora, the whole bit. I share his DNA. I'm a normal, productive member of society with a wife & kid & absolutely no visons of kiddie-fiddling going on in my head. My Father shared his DNA. My father was a great guy, may he rest in peace. Wouldn't hurt a fly, NEVER hit us kids. My Sister shares his DNA. My Mother shares his DNA. His kids share his DNA. Nothing wrong with any of them. Just him. DNA has nothing to do with it. If anything, sheer stupidity has more to do with it than DNA... Theory debunked.
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 03:45 am
Seek help. An encyclopedia should be your first stop...
Tod January 10, 2013 at 05:02 am
The greatest flaw with our prison system is that it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to change the behavior that landed people there in the first place. Most convicts, regardless of what they were convicted of (robbery, theft, assault, rape, murder) are actually there because of drug and alcohol addiction. It was there addictive behavior that led them to commit those crimes. Prison is like the penalty box in the game of hockey. Commit a foul, spend some time in the penalty box, then you can go back into the game. If prison were more based on recovery and not just a 'penalty box', more convicts would emerge with a better chance of making it in the free world and not return to their old ways.
One of the top myths about sex offenders is they are some kind of demon spawn and can never change. Well first of all, a guy having sex with this girlfriend when he was a teenager does not need to be 'cured'. He also does not need to be on a sex offender list. I doubt that he even needs to go to prison. Of those that truly are a threat to society, treatment has been very effective in giving them the skills to become non-threatening contributors to society. But this treatment is lacking in prison. I'm about to run out of characters, but I hope you get my point.
Tod January 10, 2013 at 05:04 am
Excellent put, John!
ViralGrain January 10, 2013 at 07:51 am
Your brother screwed his life up good?? What about his victim or victims. How did he screw their life up? I'm sure there is nothing "good" about it. I have no sympathy for you or take offense to your lame attacks on my character. Your brother and criminals like him are a cancer society could do without. Don't attack me. My tax dollars have been supporting your brother. If I had a brother like that I don't know what I would do. But I certainly would not be advocating for him or others like him. I had a girlfriend who was the sweetest girl in the world. Little did I know that she was raped when she was 8 and that she suffers from a split personality disorder because of the trama that was inflicted on her. She had to break with reality at the time to cope with the trama. So sad to see a beautiful good person hurt for life because of scum bags like your brother. Hope one day his conscious leads him to where he should be.
DirtyBarry January 10, 2013 at 11:21 am
Whoever stated that nonsense about how to measure a society was an opportunist who came up with a clever line that unfortunately gets repeated under stories like that. Don't fall for it and don't feel guilty about wishing (and rightly so) that these guys could all get loaded into a rocketship and blasted off into space for eternity. They deserve it and don't let any freak tell you that you need to pay more $$ to support these ''victims''. Puhlease.
Elizabeth K January 10, 2013 at 01:15 pm
I am not interested in their "road to redeption"..these abusers are on their way to hell anyway. I'd like to see them locked up. That's right Tod...Locked up. This is not my "fear" as you say... it's my disgust.
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 02:38 pm
1. I couldn't tell you where his conscious is leading. I haven't spoken to him since 1989. We never got along even before he screwed up.
2. Your tax dollars did nothing for him. He was never housed in one of those trailers. He had a place to go immediately after getting out. 3. Not really interested in your story about your hypothetical "friend" 4. I wasn't attacking you. I was attacking your ignorant, obtuse remarks. 5. I'll bet you thought I was going to defend my brother, didn't you? Where am I "advocating" him anywhere? I'm "advocating" myself. You claim that if he's a child molester, then I must be too due to DNA sharing. I claim that you're insane. I dubunked your entire theory. Kinda ruins your whole argument when all you have left is name-dropping & prosecuting people that nobody else is defending...
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 02:43 pm
Let me ask you something, Viral. Seriously.
What is your answer to the problem? What would you do with them?
ViralGrain January 10, 2013 at 04:40 pm
If I had the money I would build parks where ever the were being housed now, that way they would be forced out of area's that general population reside. There would be camps along side jails for them to be housed for our protection and theirs where they could be better monitored and controlled and receive programs. I would charge them for their prosecution, prison stay, housing, meals and and treatment they received and will receive. They would repay this by working maintaining government buildings such as painting, maintenance garbage removal and washing emergency vehicles. Manufacturing uniforms for government and private sectors. The private sector income would be used to help pay for this. If they refused to participate then they would be put back in prison swiftly.
EG January 10, 2013 at 04:46 pm
Of course you can't tell offenders that have completed their sentence what to do. I never implied that
However if we are obligated to provide housing we can provide it in a secure remote location. Those trailers can be moved to a remote industrial area, away from residential homes. Perhaps near the Medford Waste Facility or similar. If the offenders don't like it, they can leave since they are free, but their housing will be on their dime if they do.
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 04:59 pm
Okay, now back to reality...
What is your answer to the problem? What would you do with them?
highhatsize January 10, 2013 at 06:08 pm
They WON'T go and they will become homeless. Without a fixed abode they will be able to act anonymously and will have fewer incentives not to reoffend. But that IS a feasible solution, of sorts.
Tod January 10, 2013 at 06:12 pm
John, I'd start by returning the sex offender registry to what it was intended to be. A tool that citizens could use to identify violent sexual predators in their neighborhood, for the protection of themselves and their families. Anybody who has not committed an aggravated sex offense does not need to be on this list, and doesn't deserve to be kicked out of their home for the sack of what the others have done.
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 06:48 pm
Absolutely right, Tod. The sex offender registry as it sits right now is obsolete. I've read somewhere (wish I could remember where) that at the least, 30% & at the most, possibly as much as 60% of the registry is filled with cases that don't belong on the original version of the registry.
Here's a few examples: FL resident Wendy Whitaker has been listed as a sex offender for 12 yrs & is in danger of losing her house because back when she had just turned 17, she performed oral sex on a classmate who was 3 weeks shy of his 16th birthday. Boulder, Colorado's annual Naked Pumpkin Run participants could be charged as sex offenders & forced to register. A 15 year old girl was arrested on child pornography charges for taking nude pictures of HERSELF. This girl could be forced to register as a sex offender for a very long time, possibly the rest of her life. An 18 yr old male carnival worker was convicted of “Indecent Assault & Battery on a Child” when THE BACK of his hand brushed against a young girl's buttocks while buckling her into a carnival ride. He spent 9 months in jail & is now on the registry for Life. Another 18 yr old male was convicted of “Visual Sexual Aggression Against a Child” after a confused young girl burst into the men’s room while he was using the urinal. He spent six months in jail and has also been placed on the Registry for 10 yrs.
Jaguar-Guy January 10, 2013 at 07:29 pm
John K. Happy New Year. I'd like my increased tax dollars go to paying down the debt.
Tod January 10, 2013 at 07:31 pm
Also, there are children as young as ten years old on the list. Here's another atrocity of the shame list. If a guy has sex with his girlfriend when he was a teenager, the conviction in some states will be listed as 'Sexual assault of a minor' (because minors can not consent, so it must have been rape). Then 20-30 years later all his neighbors know about him is that the web site says he sexually assaulted a minor. NOBODY is going to buy his story that he just had sex with his girlfriend at an age when neither one of them knew what they were doing. AND, it's always the guy who gets this noose around his neck. The girl is the 'victim'.
Politicians have turned the list into a three ring circus, so that it can no longer be used for anything worthy. It can only be used as a way to make ourselves feel better by hating somebody else that we've agreed it's okay to hate. If we could replace the sex offender registry with a registry of people who have committed violent crimes (of any kind) and where it has been determined that they may reoffend, who could be against that?
John K Massaro January 10, 2013 at 07:41 pm
Probably the smartest post I've read on this entire board. You hit the nail directly on the head...
Preliator January 10, 2013 at 08:39 pm
I think these ideas merit more discussion. Good job.
Pamela Fowler January 11, 2013 at 05:52 pm
*"Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members".~Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), My Several Worlds [1954].
*"A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." has also been attributed to Mahatma Gandhi although the complete quote i actually: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man" *Aristotle has often been quoted as saying you can judge a nation by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. If we consider the atrocious crimes committed against children and the way the elderly are treated as second-rate citizens in our so-called civilized countries, I would have to say that whoever came up with the quote was, and still is, right on the money. I sought definitive attribution and the above represents that which is undeniably relevant.
Note Article
Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
localgirl June 18, 2013 at 01:15 pm
You are right Jennifer. My mistake.
localgirl June 18, 2013 at 01:19 pm
@ J.P. Miller.. Why do you feel bad for the residents who live near the proposed catering hall onRead More Edgewood, but don't care that my neighbor and I will have to endure the same if this assisted living facility goes up. Is one a little too close to your backyard ?
P. J. Miller June 18, 2013 at 02:36 pm
Assisted living is a good thing - they are not filled with drunken people, loud music....noise!!Read More Sit in a parking lot of an assisted living you will see that first they are not filled with cars. Honestly, having been through the system with parents and relatives, it is sad what happens to some of the people at assisted living or nursing homes. Relatives just drop them off and never visit. You'll get the occasional visit on maybe Christmas or Mothers / Fathers day, but for the most part they get very little foot traffic. And the people that work there tell the same story. But it is quiet. I would prefer an assisted living over a catering hall any day of the week.
Vick w June 18, 2013 at 08:18 am
how is this allowed!!! I thought sex offenders were not allowed to live or be within a certainRead More amount of feet from a school or park or playground???? This "person" is young also, born in 1990 so he might blend in by the high school. he raped an 11 year old girl and only got 2 years in prison.
Vick w June 18, 2013 at 08:22 am
to see the pig, click or copy link belowRead More http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/SomsSUBDirectory/offenderDetails.jsp?offenderid=34309
Nick June 18, 2013 at 04:06 pm
2 years in prison!!....I think a zero should have been added to his sentence.... If I were theRead More father of the 11 year old he would not be walking around today!
knee jerk June 17, 2013 at 09:02 am
Nice. While waiting for the gates to go up, you could have viewed some of the direlect buildings inRead More town.
knee jerk June 17, 2013 at 08:58 am
Creten?
The Smithtown Avenger June 17, 2013 at 12:19 pm
I don't think the town has a say in it. That is the good old MTA.
June Kempf June 13, 2013 at 09:14 am
As past president of the Sufolk County chapter of MDA and 30 year volunteer, I would like to urgeRead More young men in the community to take the challenge and enrich your lives as well as the families of vicitms of this dread disease. You have no idea how much you will be needed and appreciated. Go for it!