Sheriff John Rutherford said Friday that "homeless people are the problem in Hemming Plaza," but the problem is not all homeless people.
Speaking to the Downtown Council of the JAX Chamber, Rutherford said homelessness is not a monolithic issue and the population comprises three groups.
The first group is people who find themselves without a home due to an economic calamity, such as losing their job or foreclosure.
Rutherford said that group needs and wants assistance such as temporary shelter at the Sulzbacher Center, Clara White Mission and City Rescue Mission; and public transportation, both of which are available Downtown.
"The people at the Sulzbacher Center aren't the people hanging out in Hemming Plaza and urinating in the fountains," said Rutherford.
The second group, he said, suffers from severe addiction and mental illness. Many exhibit behaviors that lead to arrest and then they enter the criminal justice system.
"Those folks need treatment, but they don't need it in jail," Rutherford said.
The third group is what Rutherford called the "chronically homeless," people for whom living on the street or in a camp is a lifestyle.
"They want to be homeless. If we try to impose our value system on those folks, it won't work," he said. "They want to live in the woods and live off the land all over this county.
Homeless camps are almost always located near neighborhoods, which Rutherford termed a "target-rich environment."
He cited a recent operation to clear out a homeless camp along Mayport Road that the occupants had equipped with a tent, a barbecue grill and a bicycle.
"Where do you think they got those things? Homeless people don't have jobs, so they steal," said Rutherford.
When people in the third group are arrested, it has little lasting impact, he said. After they are incarcerated for a short period for a minor offense, they are released four blocks from Hemming Plaza. While in jail, the offenders receive shelter and food and medical care.
Rutherford said if it were up to him, he would place a shelter facility to provide services to the second and third groups in West Jacksonville near Cecil Commerce Center and U.S. Highway 301. It would be adjacent to a new misdemeanor release facility.
"We need to put a deterrent in the arrest. We need to build a homeless facility in the middle of the woods. They can walk out of my system and into that system. They're also free to walk to Downtown – that's 12 miles. That's a deterrent," he said.
Rutherford also explained his position on proposed state legislation to allow the use of marijuana as medical treatment under the care of a physician.
"If someone in my family had epilepsy, I'd give then anything that would help them. What angers me about this initiative is that it's a fraud," he said.
Rutherford said, in his opinion, the proposed legislation is too broad, since it allows use of medical marijuana for any condition as long as it is prescribed by a doctor. He predicted that if the legislation is enacted, it will lead to creation of businesses similar to fraudulent prescription clinics.
"It will be the same doctors that were running the pill mills," he said.
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