LEWISTON – Patrick Robbins lives on a busy corner in downtown Lewiston. There is a convenience store nearby and a pizza shop just up the block. The police department is almost in view and other municipal services are not far off. Almost everything he needs is a short short walk away and Robbins wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Nobody bothers me too much,” he said. “I like it here where I’m at.”

Robbins is one of 139 registered sex offenders living in the city. He lives downtown because he does not drive and getting around on foot is crucial. The people on crowded streets around his home cause him few problems, he says, because he doesn’t go looking for trouble.

“I do exactly what I’m supposed to do,” Robbins said. “Every three months, I call and check in. I register when I’m supposed to.”

After serving time for possession of child pornography in 2001, Robbins moved into the tenement in a familiar neighborhood. Another registered sex offender lives in the same building. A few blocks away is a rooming house with four such offenders living at one address.

An examination of Lewiston’s sex offenders and their street addresses reveal several such clusters across the city. For some, the concept of multiple offenders living under the same roof is cause for alarm.

Experts say that hysteria is unfounded.

“From a management standpoint, it’s a good thing for us,” said probation officer and sex offender specialist Mike Simoneau. “Where public safety is concerned, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have the offenders scattered all over the place.”

Police and probation officials who routinely check up on sex offenders have an easier time when those people are in the same building or neighborhood. Having multiple sex offenders in one place allows landlords and tenants to keep their eyes on them.

‘Don’t see a problem’

A bill pending in the state Legislature would prevent sex offenders from living in the same buildings, but Simoneau feels it would do more harm than good.

“It’s based on public fear, but if you talk with the people who work with the offenders, they just don’t see a problem,” Simoneau said.

In Lewiston, one in 245 residents is on the sex-offender registry. That’s lower than the ratios in Waterville, Bangor and Augusta. In the state’s capital, one person in 120 is a registered sex offender.

In the larger cities, most people who are released after doing time for a sex crime have no choice but to move downtown, Simoneau said. It’s near the probation offices. It’s close to the police department so they can walk to the station when they have to check in or register as ordered by the court. Those who have homes of their own and the means to get around are exceptions.

“Some of them do have homes in the outlying areas, or they live with their parents,” Simoneau said. “The ones who end up in the clusters are the people who don’t have that kind of support.”

Clusters of sex offenders in cities are the necessary result of a system that demands that convicted pedophiles, rapists and child pornographers live in areas away from schools, day-care centers and libraries.

“There are places where they tend to group because there are not a lot of alternatives,” Simoneau said.

Lewiston clusters

In Lewiston, there are 19 locations housing multiple offenders. Four live in a tall brick building on Lisbon Street that looks more like offices than apartment space. Another four reside in a well-maintained rooming house on Pine Street.

“That place is approved by us,” Simoneau said. “The man who owns it doesn’t allow drugs or overnight stays. He runs a very clean house and that’s good for us. There are certain landlords in certain places where these guys are allowed to live.”

While Robbins has no real problems with his neighbors, other convicted sex offenders feel they will always be targets no matter where they live. That risk is abetted, according to one such offender, by police notifications, the online sex-offender registry and press listings that announce their addresses.

“The safety and rights of sex offenders have been ignored since the beginning of the online posting and in the local newspaper,” said one offender, who did not provide his name. “The methodology of public posting has created a vicious attempt at hunting down sex offenders with the intent to kill them or run them out of town.”

Police say there have been no reported attacks against sex offenders in Lewiston.

“I don’t recall any particular instance where someone has been targeted specifically because they are a sex offender,” said Deputy Police Chief Michael Bussiere.

He said officers make routine checks on sex offenders, whether they live alone or together in downtown tenements.

For Simoneau, employment is a bigger issue than the clustering of sex offenders. Of the 139 in Lewiston, 42 work for area businesses, five are self-employed and 97 do not work at all.

It’s not always for lack of trying. Employers may balk at hiring convicted sex offenders, especially with all the attention paid to them by the press and by state officials who maintain an online sex-offender registry.

“They might hire a sex offender, but as soon as these employers find out their business will be listed on the Web site, it’s all over,” Simoneau said.