Sheriff wants hurricane shelter for sex offenders

The Seminole County sheriff says sex offenders and predators should be separated from the public during a hurricane evacuation.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 3, 2005

SANFORD - A sheriff has proposed banning sex offenders and predators from public hurricane shelters in his county.

Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said sex offenders should be evacuated to a separate shelter where they can be monitored.

Eslinger told the Orlando Sentinel that he has proposed using a 50-bed work release center at the Seminole County Jail in Sanford as an emergency shelter for sex offenders.

Deputy sheriffs would be sent to the home of each known offender who fails to report to the shelter, Eslinger told the newspaper.

Unless they are home or in another approved location, they would face arrest for violating their probation, he said.

The state Department of Corrections handles evacuations of sex offenders on a case-by-case basis, spokesman Robby Cunningham said.

"There are certain places they have to go," such as a correctional facility or with relatives, he said. "They are not allowed to go to (public) shelters."

Officials said 41 of the 211 sex offenders and predators registered in Seminole County do not have emergency evacuation plans.

Last year, officials said two sex offenders were sent by their probation officers to Lyman High School in Longwood, one of several Seminole County schools designated as public shelters.

The men were isolated from each other and other people at the shelter, Longwood police investigator Herb Stewartson said.

Outrage over the arrests of sex offenders in the separate killings of two Florida girls this year prompted some communities to toughen their laws governing where sex offenders can live.

Jacksonville officials also approved legislation requiring sex offenders who seek emergency shelter during a hurricane to disclose their sex crime conviction to shelter operators upon arrival.

[Last modified June 3, 2005, 13:51:02]