"I'm surprised," he said after first peering at the gap. "Just, surprised."

A spokesman for the Department of Social Services, Roland Hampson, noted that the offenders are not prisoners and could walk through the parking lot's front gate if they wanted, though the county would arrange for a cab ride.

"They're not in jail, but we do have three security guards there, and in the event that someone attempted to leave, unauthorized, they would call the deputies," he said. "If someone were to leave the trailer area, they would be apprehended by sheriff's deputies."

Backed by County Executive Steve Levy, social services officials decided to locate a trailer by the jail in early 2007.

The decision caused an uproar among local residents, who showed up in two busloads for a session of the County Legislator to argue that such a concentration of high-risk -- and homeless -- sex offenders would put their children at risk.

This month, as reported by The News-Review, the county replaced the original eight-person trailer with one that is 20-feet longer and can fit more than 20 people.

According to the state's sex offender registry, 15 sex offenders list the trailer as a home address, 13 of which are Level 3 -- deemed the most likely to re-offend. Nine were convicted of victimizing children.

James Milowski of the Suffolk County correction officers union, which is tangling with county government over labor contracts, scoffed at the notion that the offenders were under lock-and-key at night.

"I work out here on occasion, when [offenders] come in at night and get dropped off. A lot of them are sitting in cars or wandering around before they walk in," he said. "The corrections officers are concerned as well, because the public believes that we're watching them. If something happens, it falls back on us.

"This is the outer perimeter," he continued, speaking of the lot where the trailer sits. "This is not the secure perimeter."

South Fork County Legislator Jay Schniederman, who also joined yesterday's tour, said he was "shocked."

"I thought they were behind barbed wire too," he said. "I thought that they couldn't get out of there without going through security checkpoints. I'm very disappointed."

Mr. Hampson was quoted in The News-Review last week as saying the offenders were behind barbed wire. "It was pointed out to me that's it's not barbed, it's a fence," he said yesterday, adding that it was an innocent misstatement.

County officials often tout the homeless sex offender program because of the security measures it provides, including a location manned by security guards as well as the proximity of a 24-hour police presence.

At the conclusion of the walking tour, and an impromptu meeting between elected officials that followed, Mr. Romaine called for the county to at least move the trailer to the side of the jail, in a cordoned off area, behind barbed wire.

"And assign a correction officer, 24 hours a day, as a checkpoint," he added.

"This trailer is on the wrong side of the fence," fumed Riverhead Councilwoman Barbara Blass, speaking of the larger, barbed wire fence that secures the jail's inmates.

"We agree that this is probably the best place to put them," noted Mr. Milowski. "But if it's going to be here, there should be proper control, whether it's under us [corrections officers] or the deputies."

Mr. Haas, who has spent many years as a volunteer emergency responder, said he had no political motivations for blowing the whistle on the county.

"It's a matter of safety," he said.

mwhite@timesreview.com

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