Constitutionality of sex offender registries in the United States. The Julia Tuttle Causeway sex offender colony also called " Bookville " by former residents was an encampment of banished, registered sex offenders who were living beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway βa highway connecting Miami, Florida to Miami Beach, Florida , United Statesβfrom to April The colony was created by a lobbyist named Ron Book, who wrote ordinances in several different Miami-Dade County cities to restrict convicted sex offenders from living within 2, feet m of schools, parks, bus stops, or homeless shelters.
Since Book was also head of the Miami Homeless Trust, he was also in charge of finding housing for the released sexual offenders. Under these ordinances, the only areas where sex offenders could legally reside within Miami-Dade County were the Miami Airport and the Florida Everglades. Miami-Dade laws are significantly stricter than State of Florida laws on residency restrictions for sex offenders.
Florida state law required that no sex offender could live within 1, feet m from "where children gather". Under that requirement, housing was possible; however, because of Book's lobbying, the Dade County Commission increased that number to 2, feet m , thereby banishing hundreds of local citizens who then began gathering under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.
Before the colony was established, the State of Florida provided sex offenders a list of locations where they could live that did not violate the boundaries set by the City of Miami, but the closest was in adjacent Broward County. As many as people lived in the colony in July As the number of residents grew, the City of Miami and the State of Florida disagreed over who was ultimately responsible for the sex offenders.
Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, worried about how tourists perceived the colony, prompted an attorney from the Florida Department of Corrections to write a letter to the City of Miami absolving the Department of responsibility. The City of Miami responded by filing a lawsuit against the state, citing public health and safety concerns.
