Miracle Village (officially City of Refuge since 2014) is a
community
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...
on Muck City Road, about east of
Pahokee, Florida
Pahokee is a city located on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,649 in the 2010 census.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, 57% of the residents of Pahokee were African American and 33% ...
, that serves as a haven for registered
sex offender
A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crim ...
s. It is located within one of the most isolated and poorest parts of
Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous county ...
.
The site was chosen because of its isolation; given that, the sex offender residence restrictions do not apply.
Description
The complex of 54
duplexes
A duplex house plan has two living units attached to each other, either next to each other as townhouses, condominiums or above each other like apartments. By contrast, a building comprising two attached units on two distinct properties is ...
and six family homes
is operated by Matthew 25 Ministries, an organization with the stated goal of providing prison aftercare. The Executive Director in 2017 was Ted Rodarm, himself an ex-offender.
In October 2010, the community included 66 registered sex offenders;
by July 2013, there were 100;
and by 2017, it held 120.
The total population as of 2018, including family members, was 200.
It is the largest community of registered sex offenders in the United States.
There are an additional 300 who have resided there but since moved on.
An affiliated organization, Miracle Village Ministries, provides services including transportation to newly released prisoners. It describes itself on its website as "a faith-based prison aftercare ministry".
Previously, the complex was known as
Pelican Lake. It was built by
U.S. Sugar in 1964 as housing for migrants working the sugar cane fields,
now replaced by machinery. After working out a deal with Matthew 25 Ministries to lease the property, the owner, Alston Management Inc., informed residents with school-age children that they would have to leave or be evicted.
Federal law prohibits discrimination against families with children, except in certain cases such as communities for the elderly.
[Mitra Malek (January 29, 2009)]
Housing for ex-inmates raises rancor in Pahokee
The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved on February 22, 2011. Witherow was sued by the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County and the Florida Equal Justice Center on behalf of some residents. In 2011, a federal judge found that Matthew 25 Ministries and Alston Management had violated the Federal
Fair Housing Act.
Relations with Pahokee
Miracle Village's relations with nearby Pahokee were initially difficult, but have improved considerably. The day Pat Powers, a resident and the village manager, first approached the City Council in nearby Pahokee, "We were the plague. They wanted to hang us. They wanted to knock the crap out of us and they had to give us a police escort to leave."
The mayor in 2009, Wayne Whitaker, stated that he was unaware that offenders were being recruited to live there and that he believed having so many live together would be "very, very risky".
Media attention
Radio
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's ''
All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' covered the town in 2009.
Photography
Noah Rabinowitz
On assignment for the German magazine ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (''South German Times''), American photographer Noah Rabinowitz took a series of photos of Miracle Village. They were published in 2013, with a 4,000 word article in the magazine.
Sofía Valiente
In 2014, photographer Sofía Valiente, who lives in nearby
Belle Glade, published a book with the simple title of ''Miracle Village''. The unpaged book contains pictures of Miracle Village and its sex offender residents. Along with an introduction by resident Joseph Steinberg, describing what it is like to be picked up at the prison gate and driven to Miracle Village, the book reproduces 11 handwritten statements by registrants describing their offenses, plus a
Dear John letter
A Dear John letter is a letter written to a man by his wife or romantic partner to inform him that their relationship is over, usually because his partner has found another lover. The man is often a member of the military stationed overseas, alth ...
from an offender's wife saying she wants a divorce. Of her work, Valiente said: "It is not just a documentary record of a shunned community, but an argument for understanding, rehabilitation, even forgiveness."
Charles Ommanney
Photographer Charles Ommanney lived at Miracle Village for a week with the residents and in 2017 published 10 photographs, with brief commentary, in ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' magazine.
Movies
''Banished''
''Banished'' is a 15-minute video by reporter Aaron Thomas
and produced by Journeyman.tv in 2013, which aired in 2014 on
SBS Australia
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World ...
. It concludes with a focus on Pahokee's pastor Patti Auperlee, who has helped the sex offenders be accepted by the wider community.
''Sex Offender Village''
A ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' "Op-Doc" (see
Op-Ed) video from May 21, 2013, focuses on the problems of the residents, many of whom are interviewed.
''Second Chance Sex Offenders''
On January 24, 2018, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
released its 58-minute documentary ''Stacey Dooley Investigates: Second Chance Sex Offenders'', whose topic is Florida's sex offender policies, the toughest in the nation. Reporter
interviews some officials who are hostile to sex offenders and believe they can never be rehabilitated, such as
Sheriff Gordon Smith. She concludes with Miracle Village.
A research team from the Life Jacket Theater Company visited Pahokee for a week in October 2015. Based on interviews, autobiographical statements, and court records the team collected, the Company presented ''
'' in January and February 2018.
The play is a fusion of personal interviews and texts written by the residents, with traditional Methodist hymns, lines from the sermons of Patti Auperlee, and original songs composed by Priscilla Holbrook. The central theme is whether there are limits to grace, whether or not sex offenders — all of them — can ever be forgiven.
Except for the hymns, each line of the eighteen songs is taken from the transcript of a statement by a Miracle Village resident, or from a sermon by Pastor Aupperlee.