Miracle Village is located in South Florida and out of 200 residents, more than half of them are registered sex offenders who have been found guilty and usually have served prison time for a variety of different crimes, including child pornography, molesting their own children, sex with underage girlfriends, exposing themselves and abusing a child from a position of power like a teacher, pastor and sports coach.
The Village was created in 2009 by the late Dick Witherow, a pastor with Matthew 25 Ministries, who realized the difficulties registered sex offenders had reintegrating back into society, especially with laws preventing registered sex offenders from living near schools, day cares, playgrounds and other places associated with children.
According to Jerry Youmans, the intake coordinator and a sex offender himself, Miracle Village receives between 10 to 20 applications a week from sex offenders wanting to join the village.
"We try not to accept people with a history of violence or drugs, or to take any diagnosed paedophile - that is, someone who can only become sexually aroused by a child. We want to protect the people who are already here and those who were living here before us," Youmans says.
The first video below explains more about Miracle Village.
The next video below is from Paul Leddy who spent a couple weeks at Miracle Village as he describes life in the Village and the challenges they face as he says one man violated his parole and was back in jail.
