Convicted pedophiles have been living in city homeless shelters near elementary schools in a clear violation of state law — and bureaucrats in Albany and New York are frantically trying to duck the blame by pointing fingers at each other.
A frightening state Senate report that will be made public on Monday shocked officials into freezing the release of all parole-eligible perverts from prison until authorities can fix a system that allowed child predators to reside within 1,000 feet of schools, The Post has learned.
Parents picking up their children at PS 15 in Alphabet City were horrified to learn that Jamal Mitchell, 27 — who was convicted in 2010 of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl — lived in a homeless shelter less than 500 feet away.
“That’s disgusting. I don’t want a pervert like that living around here . . . Is the city going to wait for him to do it again?” said electrician Kaseem Campbell, 26, whose 3-year-old son attends a Head Start program at the East Fourth Street school.
State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx), whose office discovered that six convicted pedophiles were living illegally close to schools, said, “These mistakes are leaving entire communities vulnerable to the type of disturbed, dangerous criminals who often strike more than once.”
The total number of degenerates living in close proximity to schools was not immediately clear.
State officials blamed the city; and local authorities were quick to return the favor.
“We’re not in the housing business, the city is — and it’s their responsibility to place homeless people,” said a state official.
But a city Department of Homeless Services official said the state Department of Correction and Community
Supervision doesn’t always alert his agency when a recently released inmate is a sex offender.
The DHS is obligated to “consider” the placement of a sex offender only if the state parole office raises an alarm.
The controversy prompted state DOCCS spokesman Tom Mailey to promise that no paroled sex offender will be released until his agency has verified the proposed residence is legal.
A state official told The Post, “We are also doing a freeze on releasing any more sex offenders from DOC facilities until we are sure the system for tracking them has been evaluated and we can make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
But at least three homeless sex offenders will remain at their current shelters or nursing homes because the state, expressing concern about their welfare, insisted the facilities they’re currently living in are best suited to treat them.
As a result of Klein’s report, Mitchell will be moved to a Brooklyn shelter by Monday, officials said. He was paroled in August 2013 and sent to live at the Bowery Mission Transition Center on Avenue D — which is just 407 feet from PS 15.
Also identified in the report is Reginald Soto, 65, who sexually abused a 10-year-old boy.
Others on the list are two senior citizens, one of whom raped two boys, the other of whom sexually attacked two girls, as well as a 44-year-old who raped a girl and a 45-year-old who raped a 15-year-old whose gender was not disclosed.
The report also states that 133 sex offenders have their incorrect ZIP code listed on the state’s sex- offender registry.
That makes their profiles invisible to people who search by ZIP code to identify any predators who are living in their neighborhoods.
For example, Frederick Flournoy, 29, who was convicted in 2000 of raping a 5-year-old girl, falsely lists the ZIP code 10039 on the database — while his East 155th Street address shows that he actually lives in the ZIP code 10455.
And Willie Perez, 46, who was convicted in 1998 of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy, lists his home address on the database as 90 Church St.
That is a federal office building that houses a US post office.
A state official said that as a result, the Klein report has sparked an audit of sex offenders’ ZIP codes and addresses.
“The registry plans to conduct an audit to identify any errors and speedily correct them,” said state Division of Criminal Justice Services spokeswoman Janine Kava in a statement.
At PS 15, parents and staff will be relieved to learn that Mitchell will no longer be their kids’ neighbor.
Makeba Brown, 38, a teacher’s aide at a different school, has a 9-year-old son attending PS 15.
She said housing perverts near schoolkids is a really terrible idea.
“Being around kids keeps that mentality in his mind — lust, lust, lust after children,” she said.