LEBANON, Ind. (WTHR) – The Boone County Sheriff tracks 93 sex offenders who live or work in the county. If those offenders don't have a place to call home, Sheriff Mike Nielsen wants the Boone County Jail to be their home address.
“About a week ago, we made a rule here that basically said all homeless sex offenders should reside here on Boone County property,” said Sheriff Nielsen. “The reason that we did that is they bring their cars here, they're under constant surveillance."
Five homeless sex offenders parked their cars in the jail parking lot, and another is living in a tent on jail property. The tent is set on the north end of the property, about 100 yards through the woods to several homes. Building security cameras monitor the tent 24 hours a day. The jail is 1,011 feet from Stokes Elementary School, meeting the legal distance requirement of 1,000 feet for a registered sex offender.
One father who did not want to be identified can see the tent from the back porch of his home. He lives with his wife and daughter, who turned five Thursday.
“Honestly, I was appalled,” said the father. “I was very unhappy about it. We all have children. To us that presents a risk. The gentlemen in question is a multiple-time convicted pedophile. That's not something that we're comfortable with being so close. Everybody's on edge. Again, there's multiple kids that live and play in this general vicinity that are within 100-150 yards of where he's sleeping."
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The father says he has installed cameras at the back of his home and is staying up later than normal to protect his family.
The sheriff told Eyewitness News Thursday that he will move the tent behind the jail, further away from neighbors. Five other homeless sex offenders that were living in cars have relocated. Two moved out of the county. Two moved in to residences in Boone County. Another offender planned to move into a residence Thursday night. That leaves just the man in the tent, who the sheriff says checks-in daily and has a full-time job.
“The problem is I'm trying to get him to a homeless shelter,” said Sheriff Nielsen. “Most of the homeless shelters won't accept him because of his past history and that he is a sexual, violent predator. It makes it very hard on them."
Homeless advocates know this problem all too well. The law requires many sex offenders to register a home address to be tracked by the sheriff. The sex offenders are not allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare, youth program center, or public park. The offenders must check-in with the sheriff once a week.
“There are a lot of limitations on someone with a sex offense about where they can live, so that frequently leads them into homelessness,” said Alan Witchey, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP). “What we don't want is for more people to be homeless regardless of what they've done, regardless of their situation, because that means we don't always know where they are. We don't always know what they're doing. I think this is kind of an innovative solution, right? The reality is there are people with sex offenses all over this state that are homeless, and somebody has to start finding solutions. While I think it's good to solve a crisis of having somebody not be homeless, it can't be our goal. Our goal still has to be to get people housed and to understand where they are, stabilize their life and get them on track.”
The sheriff posted an open letter to the citizens of Boone County Tuesday on Facebook.