December 13, 2007

Exiles in the promised land

Sex offenders living as trolls under Miami bridge

The New Times of Miami has an amazing update on the exile colony of sex offenders living under the Julia Tuttle freeway in Miami (a community I blogged about back in April); there's a companion slide show that is worth checking out. The story begins like this:
Another one showed up last night. Around 10 — just before curfew — a car rolled in under the bridge and the newcomer got out with his wife. She hugged and kissed him goodbye, pulled the car out along the road, and disappeared into a sea of headlights. . . . Until last week, "Big Man" was serving a four-year sentence for cocaine possession. . . . He was looking forward to leaving prison and reuniting with his wife, until he got the news: Instead of going home, he'd be living under a bridge, a parole commission officer told him. That's because 23 years ago, when he was 19 years old, Big Man was charged with sexual assault on a minor. (He claims the victim was his girlfriend and that it was consensual.)
The story continues here. The companion slide show is here. Also see my September post on how this relates to the history of banishment in Western culture.