New Bedford, a Magnet for Sex Offenders?

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Michael Silvia
by Michael Silvia

Would you invite a convicted sex offender that you’ve never met to your house for dinner with your wife and kids? No? How about inviting them to become your neighbor? Or a resident of your city? You may not be inviting sex offenders to your neighborhood, but as a city, New Bedford is doing just that that through handouts and a passive court system.

According to the National Alert Registry, there are over 374,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States. The problem with this number is only 1/2 of those sexually assaulted report their crime and that number is likely conservative. Taking that into account, there are likely 500,000 to a million sex offenders in America today. Other organization report as many as 637,000, so these numbers are likely much higher!

According to the Massachusetts’ Public Safety website, there are 95 sex offenders in New Bedford (as of 10 Sep, 2012), but only 3 in Fairhaven. That’s more than a 31 to 1 ratio of sex offenders that reside in New Bedford compared to Fairhaven, even though New Bedford only has 6 times the population (95,000 compared to 15,000). Compared to Dartmouth’s 5 sex offenders, New Bedford had 19 times the offenders with less than three times the population (95,000 to 34,000). Comparably, with 88,857 residents, Fall River has roughly the same size population as New Bedford , but has 110 sex offenders in their city. Taking these stats into account, there must be a reason why so many sex offenders reside in cities like New Bedford and Fall River, but avoid towns like Dartmouth and Fairhaven.

New Bedford Sex Offender Map
New Bedford has 95 registered sex offenders compared to just 3 in Fairhaven and 5 in Dartmouth.

If we take into account that 1/2 of sexually assaulted victims don’t report the crime, this would mean there are likely about 200 sex offenders residing in New Bedford today. That doesn’t include the unregistered sex offenders. According to a 2003 report by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, 5.3% of sex offenders were rearrested for another sex crime within 3 years of being released. This means that of the likely 200 sex offenders in New Bedford, 10 will likely commit a sexual assault again within 3 years of being released.  The number gets much higher once you account for crimes after three years and there are studies that report long-term recidivism rates at 43% to 88%.

The obvious question that comes to mind is, why do sex offenders live in or migrate to cities like New Bedford and Fall River, but not towns like Fairhaven and Dartmouth? It’s not easy to distinguish between sex offenders that grew up in New Bedford or those that moved to New Bedford after being released from prison. Here are the reasons I feel New Bedford attracts so many sex offenders.

1. Low Rent – According the City government, 22,770 residents New Bedford were defined as “low-income” with 5,164 living in affordable housing units provided by the government. Section 8 vouchers and state MRVP vouchers provided rental assistance for another 1,739. What’s my point? When a sex offender comes out of prison, he (or is rare cases she) likely doesn’t have a lot of money and needs to live where the rent is cheap, or where the government can provide him housing. High rent prices and the lack of government assistance in towns like Marion, Fairhaven, Dartmouth simply place housing out of reach to most people leaving prison.

State and federal government housing programs do help New Bedford residents in critical need of affordable housing, but the programs also attract the neediest from other towns and cities.  In the migration of perfectly fine, less fortunate citizens are criminals that simply can’t afford to live anywhere else. Besides attracting the wrong kind of citizens, this migration puts a strain on scarce resources. “State and federal housing policies and other government subsidies are effectively encouraging a dependent population to migrate here from elsewhere.  Their decision to locate here rather than elsewhere places a tremendous demand on a variety of city services including our schools and public safety agencies,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell.

2. Free Food – New Bedford also has tons of government services, food/homeless shelters and other organizations that provide meals daily. You do NOT have to be homeless to use these services. For example, Our Lady’s Chapel in Downtown New Bedford provides several meals a day to anyone that shows up to their door at scheduled times. Several organizations provide a free meals for anyone that shows up to their kitchen. These are all great organizations that provide caring services, but they also ensure people with limited income move to New Bedford instead of an area without government housing/assistance and services. I’m not saying that all homeless or impoverished people are sex offenders, but almost all sex offenders that come out of prison have few means to take care of themselves, and they won’t go hungry in New Bedford. While with good intention, the government and other organizations set up to help the poor and homeless, in fact attract many sex offenders to New Bedford.

RAINN reporting and prosecution matrix. Sources: 1) Justice Department 2) FBI 3) National Center for Policy Analysis 4) Department of Justice

3. Catch and Release – Our court system doesn’t take unregistered sex offenders seriously. By law convicted sex offenders must register their address with local law enforcement. Just a few weeks ago the New Bedford police arrested someone for having an open alcoholic beverage in public. The man turned out to be an unregistered sex offender. The New Bedford Police Department processed the man, but the court released the man onto our streets the very next day. I talked to the leadership at our downtown New Bedford Police Department and they stated that this catch and release policy is common practice. Our courts should be here to protect us and take sex offender registry laws seriously, but for whatever reason they fall short. Overall, our court system fails women that are sexually assaulted. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, (RAINN) reports that only 3 of 100 rapist ever spend a single day in prison (see graphic).

4. Weak Sexual Assault Outreach Programs – This is a national problem that is not exclusive to New Bedford. If 50% of sexual assaults go unreported, then there is obviously a barrier for victims to report the crime against them. Common sense tells you that if sex offenders are allowed to get away with their crime, they will likely become repeat offenders. Fear and the lack of information will cause a victim to keep their crime silent. New Bedford does have great organizations like The Women’s Center, but as a city we can do more. Sexual assault victims must feel that they can be removed from their hostile environment after reporting their crime and that the courts will punish the offenders. Victims must be provided with the information needed to report the crime and be armed with the local resources available to them.

Final Thoughts

The vast majority of people living in low income conditions are not sex offenders, but statistics show that most sex offenders are attracted to places of low rent or government provided housing. How do we ensure New Bedford is not a magnet to sex offenders? First, we need to stop providing resources that welcome them to our city. It’s great that local organizations provide a hot meal and bed to those in need, or our government takes care of our poorest with housing and services, but we need to do it in a way that doesn’t invite sex offenders to come live in our city. Second, we need a court system that punishes sex offenders that do not register their address. It’s the law and we have a right to know if a sex offender is living next door to us. Finally, we need to arm EVERYONE with the knowledge of how to report a crime and where to find resources. We should strive to be a city that doesn’t attract sex offenders, works to make sure no crime goes unreported and prosecute the offenders to the fullest extent possible.

References

About Michael Silvia

Served 20 years in the United States Air Force. Owner of New Bedford Guide.

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9 comments

  1. I am criminal defense attorney, I can tell you that it is not my experience that many sex offenders spend no time in jail – at least those who are caught and charged. I cannot say anything about the crimes that go unreported. In the Bristol County system, it has been my experience that sex offenses are treated seriously, many alleged offenders being held prior to trial as dangerous persons or on very high bails.

    The issues that you raise about low cost housing and free food are not unique to sex offenders – they are common in fact to all criminal defendants, especially those who are poor and have no ability to obtain jobs. In 26 years in the New Bedford Court System, handling both District and Superior Court cases – dealing primarily with the poorest defendants – I have found that these issues are prounced amonst this population. I have handled literally thousands of indigent defendants and I would estimate that 85-90% of them are unemployable – either due to their criminal records, or due to their lack of education. Most of my clients did not graduate from high school and have never held a decent paying job in their entire lives.

    Part of this issue has to do with the fact that when a person applies for section 8 in any part of the state – they are given an amount which would reflect the area rents in the area they make the application. This voucher however is transferable to any area of the state. Therefore if someone applies in Boston and gets a voucher of $1000 per month, they are going to get a nicer place for that money in New Bedford or Fall River – so they are actually encouraged to relocate to this area.

    Having my office in downtown New Bedford, it is very painful to see the crowds of people lining up for lunch at Our Lady’s Chapel or the food wagon, or at the Old New Bedford Hotel when it is food pantry day.

    The poor are also the most vulnerable to the traps of alcoholism and drug abuse. Most criminal activity is the result of substance abuse – crimes are committed either when people are in a state of intoxication, or when they are looking to make money to buy and use drugs. As defense attorneys we spend a great deal of our time trying to assist our clients by getting them into appropriate treatment facilities – whether as in-patients, out-patients or even during periods of incarceration.

    This circular argument then goes back to say people are unemployable because they aren’t educated well enough… they are not educated because of the high drop out rate … we have a high drop out rate because poor families don’t value education and allow their kids to leave school.

    We all know the problems, but none of us seem to know the solutions and I am not claiming to know them either. It’s easy to say -” just stop the give away programs”, but when does our humanity come into play? Can we in this country – the greatest country in the world – just stop feeding and housing the poor? Whether the funding comes from government or private charities – a civil society CANNOT do this.

    • Great response Michele! I appreciate the insight.

    • the writer of this piece has 2 things wrong probably more but i stopped reading as i dont read untrue comments. the dept of justice webpage does show only 5% roughly recidivism rate but it gets less after 3 years not more recedivism. you need to get your facts straight. your falling into the fearmongering role.

      and your comments of free food is ugly. if it was up to you only homeless should be able to eat at a social services event and not sex offenders for sure? so let me get this right people who pay rent on low income but cant afford food well up to you they shouldnt eat rtight? or sex offenders right?
      maybe you even are a sex offender too but havent been caught. maybe you look at them 12 year olds and think oohhh nice but its hidden? possibly.

      see 95% of new sex offences are done by people like you and women or your family members who havent gotten caught yet. recidivism rate is just 5% so that leaves out the cops or do gooders that havent been caught. maybe a judge or a city councilman or god forbid a homeland security agent which happenes he was in charge in making sure no kids get luered but he was doing it himself.
      maybe its your sister wife or mother that will do it next,
      should they not eat or get any human relief? see these people are human with human rights that should not be denied out of hate or anger or a impulsive law by a polititian who wants to get elected that may molest kids himself. oh god no heaven forbid.!!!!

      so instead of hate fear mongering why not heal and fix those people instead of outcast them. very few are hiding in the bushes as its usually in the family where it was left to be dealt with in the 80’s and before.

      but we need fast laws that are not researched to make the sheeple feel safe.

      the sex offender online registries are over run with people who have alot of minor offenses that dont pose a risk, they want to move on with thier life. thier kids and family are outcasted too because their adress it posted. kids picked on in school. meanwhile the serious sex offenders the dangerous ones predators and violent offenders are hidden in a heap of sex offenders who dont pose a risk so they are all lumped into one mold.
      this is more of a threat to public safety than anything. the registries need to be abolished or changed so the baddies are only on there. the system we have now is flawed expensive overwhelming and a false sense of security. who is the next victim? who is the next offender?? is it you??

  2. Rev. Russ Chamberlain

    Mike: I still hope to see you at breakfast some day at Mercy Meals and More so that you will have the chance to discover who it is that comes to this meal and what are their stories. You said in the article “While with good intention, the governemnt and other organizations set up to help the poor and homeless, in fact attract many sex offenders to New Bedford.” While in regards to Mercy Meals and More it is the very generous people or individuals who make it possible as the government gives no monies to Mercy Meals and More and the organizations that support Mercy Meals and More consist of individuals who have taken up my offer to come and have breakfast and see what Mercy Meals and More is all about because we are developing a supportive community one meal and conversation at a time. We do not require our guests to pay for their meal that is true but what is amazing is how the guests choose to pay for their meal by doing service to others ,by volunteering to set up the tables, cook the food, serve the food, set up the clothing, reorganize the books, wait on the tables, then clean the tables, wash the dishes, take out the trash, put everything away,sweep the floors and mop them. Then they are willing to go on the bread run so other food pantries have bread and other items to give those who come to their doors looking for food, go on the supply run to get food for the next day, hold signs for the United Way for their campaign, help with various community events, provide support to the Community Foundation and SEMAP by guiding cars to where to park, passing out information about community resources at Summerfest, Whaling City Festival, Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, and three neighborhood block parties. Because they appreciate being treated with dignity and respect as their day begins they are willing to give back to the community and make it a better place. Those that come are ex-sex offenders because they have been thought the courts, spent time in jail and paid their dues. Given a chance and maybe encouraged to do something positive like volunteer at Mercy Meals and More their self esteem just might improve and they might not re-offend. There are no guarantees in life but we have had a lot of individuals come from the courts to do community service to pay their court costs or in lieu of fines and spending time in jail. In the two almost three years we have opened our doors we have not had one come back to do community service for a second time. What we have seen and experienced is a father and son reunited because the son went through rehab. got help and now has a supportive father to be there as he tries one day at a time to remain sober and not using. We have seen a young woman who stayed in an abusive relationship for protection from others while she lived on the streets ( one of your Hobos) now gone through detox, remove herself from the abusive relationship and now waiting to get into a program so she can ” get her life back on track” , We have seen a man who stayed home all day doing nothing so became depressed and who has a hearing and because of that a speech problem now found an avenue to use his cooking and cleaning skills every day and it has transformed him according to what we see and his wife tells us and finally we have seen a man who had a heart attack and was in the hospital received a card signed by the guests and he is now making better choices about how he treats others and what he does with his life.
    If we want to decrease the sex offenders who are coming to New Bedford then tell the generous people of New Bedford to quit supporting Mercy Meals and more but in choosing to do this a lot of others will be affected and other problems will surface. .

    • Russ,

      I would advocate MORE support for organization like yours, not less support. I think the solution is to be tougher on sex offenders, not cut off support to homeless or the hungry. I’m also not advocating starving sex offenders. I’d start with the courts and punish sex offenders that do NOT register when they move to New Bedford and provide more services and support for women. I think that NOT reporting sex crimes and sex offenders NOT registering when they move here is a bigger program than homeless shelters and food services attracting sex offenders.

      You do a GREAT service for the community. Keep it up!

  3. Will keep doing what I am called to do by the one who lead me to come to New Bedford. We begin our third year on October 5th. Any chance to get another article done about Mercy Meals and More. I have some guests and volunteers who are willing to be interviewed if it means it will help people become aware of why Mercy Meals and More is so important to the community of New Bedford.
    I am leaving on Tuesday September 25th to go to Germany for the wedding of one of my international sons and a mini reunion with about 6 of my other international sons. I will be back on October 4th.

  4. the problem is also the freedom for leavel 2 sex offenders i have reported to a probation officer and nothing has been done this person is on the internet in sex site and as attended events that are kid freindly and have zones for children where he feel free to walk around the crime took place less then 6 years ago and he is not monitored very well at all some one should tighten the raigns on these folk when a report is given

  5. It’s also a well known fact that wherever there is public transportation, there is a lower income population taking advantage of that transit system. The lower income population does hot settle in communities where there is no means of getting around.

  6. The Dept of Children and Families has the largest volume of cases in the state as well! It’s drugs. The city crime is ruled highly by drugs. The NBPD do a good job finding the top dealers and there are a ton of substance abuse treatment in the city but somehow it’s not enough. We need more to stop the issue… Families getting more involved or more knowlegeable of resources to hello their families?, more education for kids?, more incentive to stay in school?, just not one answer…Suggestions please?

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