By C1 Staff
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — The New Mexico Department of Corrections has been trying to figure out the puzzle of where to move 12 sex offenders who were living in a neighborhood for months when a daycare center moved in.
KOAT reports that a second daycare center now lives on the block, with a third soon to arrive. The DOC doesn’t want to simply remove housing for the sex offenders, because they have been compliant with their probation thus far.
“If you just kick them out into the streets, that’s not good for public safety,” said DOC spokeswoman Alex Tomlin. “We’d rather have these sex offenders housed where they are being monitored.”
Other residents in the neighborhood want the sex offenders gone, even though they realize they were living in the area before the daycare centers arrived.
“I think it’s easier to move them then to try and move businesses,” said Santos Baca, who manages several properties in the area.
According to city and state rules, the sex offenders are too close to the daycare centers, but for the DOC, there’s no quick and easy answer that would make everyone happy.