Megan's Law Offenders In Braddock Halfway House Have Some Concerned
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – They've been convicted of sexually abusing children, but five Megan's law offenders have been placed in a minimum security corrections center in Braddock.
The mayor and the community are outraged. But today, the state department of corrections defended the placements.
In Braddock, day camp kids play a game of touch football at a playground, while up the street, some young teens square off for pickup basketball.
Little does anyone know that five convicted Meghan's Law sex offenders are, or were until recently, housed at the nearby Gateway Community Rehabilitation Center.
"There's a lot of children around here," said Jamie Perez of Braddock Heights. There's a school down here, a playground up there, parents walking with their kids. You never know what could happen."
The offenders: Rodrigo Gilmore, Trevor Dwight Kentish, James Albert King, Timothy Alan Thimons and James Norman Woolheater. They're parolees placed at Gateway for further rehabilitation as a condition of their parole.
But Mayor John Fetterman says he had been under the impression that Gateway was a place for non-violent offenders with drug or alcohol problems.
"It's troubling to me, from a public safety standpoint, to have sex offenders in close proximity to our library, our community center, basketball courts and bus stops down there when school starts," said Fetterman.
To the mayor, and others, it just doesn't make sense. While the offenders may need drug, alcohol and other treatment, they say it shouldn't be there, in a community full of children.
Gateway Rehabilitation Institute, which runs the center, says it is under connect by the state and has no say in who is placed in its Braddock facility.
But the department of corrections defends the placements, saying the offenders have served their minimum sentences and are receiving supervised treatment while they transition back to everyday life.
"These facilities, also known as halfway houses, provide a transitional process by allowing residents monitored contact with jobs and educational opportunities," it said in a statement.
The mayor believes that Braddock is not the place for that.
"I would just hope that Gateway and the penal system would have some protocol in place to prevent such concentration of individuals of this nature in a small community like Braddock," said Fetterman.
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