05-bloodsxx-krane-naso-b987837b3c35d8a5.jpg
Inside the courtyard at Northern State Prison in Newark. (Jon Naso | Star-Ledger file photo)
Experts weigh in
NJ Advance Media put the question to two experts in the field: Jackson Tay Bosley, who developed sex offender treatment programs for the state, and attorney Fletcher Duddy, who manages the state Office of the Public Defender’s Megan’s Law Unit.Both hypothesized that the legal requirements, living restrictions and notoriety that come with being a tier 2 or 3 sex offender can channel people to certain cities.Those issues make sex offenders more likely to be homeless and thus find themselves living in halfway houses or other temporary housing, Duddy said, and some communities have more of that housing than others.
Living with the label
It starts with sex offenders having trouble getting jobs because they show up in the online registry, Bosley said.“They have to find relatively inexpensive places to live,” Bosley said in a phone interview. “It’s a hit to their economic viability that they have this label. They earned it.”Bosley said landlords in lower-end places often can’t afford to turn sex offenders away, so registrants are more likely to settle there.But many landlords won’t rent to offenders who appear in the online registry, Duddy said. “This then results in homelessness, which then results in the offender being shuffled off to a halfway house by his parole officer,” he said, because being homeless would be a violation of parole.
Parole for life
Almost all defendants convicted of sex crimes in New Jersey are subject to parole supervision for life. Duddy said residency restrictions set by their parole officer can cause homelessness and thus channel offenders to halfway houses.“For example, a parole officer may impose a ban on the offender living with children — even if the offender’s underlying sexual offense was not against a child, and even, sadly, if it means the offender cannot reside with his own children,” he said.