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| Paroled Oregon Sex Offender Lives in Tent |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/05/2003 |
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Bruce Scott Erbs, convicted arsonist and sex offender, shuffles across a vacant yard behind the county jail, pulls back the flaps of a tent and climbs inside. The nylon shelter, set up on pieces of plywood under a streetlight, is both his home and a stepping stone to life outside prison. In budget-strapped Oregon, camping is the latest solution to the thorny issue of housing ex-cons - particularly registered sex offenders - that has vexed officials for years as they struggle with nervous neighbors and reluctant landlords. Most counties in Oregon, and most states nationwide, offer transitional housing. Sometimes, parole officials put up newly released prisoners in cheap motels. In Oregon, the responsibility of implementing parole policies falls to the counties, said Ginger Martin, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice. State officials are on the record as opposing camping as an alternative to transitional housing, she said. Linn County has only one parolee - Erbs - whose transitional housing is a tent. But in neighboring Polk County, commissioners ordered about a half-dozen parolees to camp in a parking garage outside a county office beginning in February. The parolees unfurled foam pads in the evening, and rolled them up in the morning when county employees arrived to park their cars. The camp temporarily disbanded last month after city officials objected to the policy. Now, county officials are looking for a site outside city limits, said Marty Silbernagel, community corrections director. 'This is an issue of county philosophy,' Silbernagel said. 'Our county commissioners strongly believe the taxpayers should not pay money to house convicted felons.' Erbs was put in a tent only after Sheriff David Burright spent months searching for a landlord - and finding no takers. Their reasons: the types of crimes Erbs committed coupled with his diagnosed condition of paranoid schizophrenia. 'You put those problems together, a predatory sexual offender, a fire starter and a person who is mentally ill,' Burright said, 'and it's probably the toughest kind of person to supervise.' So Erbs wound up in the tent. Linn County spent $45 on the dome-style camping tent, furnished with an Army surplus cot. A garden hose provides water. A portable toilet stands nearby. Erbs eats and showers at a homeless shelter. A 58-year-old wearing thrift-store polyester slacks and a T-shirt, Erbs doesn't like having to spend his nights in a tent. 'I think after a person's done his time,' Erbs said, 'it should be left dead, nothing.' |
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