A series of new bills have been filed affecting sex offenders. Below are the bill numbers and a sentence on what they cover:
SB 134 – Lifetime Electronic Monitoring of Sex Offenders (HB 203)
This bill requires sex offenders be on lifetime electronic monitoring.
SB 336 – Sexual Predators and Offenders (HB 387)
This requires risk assessments prior to sentencing and INCREASING the mandatory curfew for registrants between 7PM and 7AM (so combined with the lifetime probation, effectively a sex offense will yield lifetime house arrest).
SB 1106 – Human Trafficking (HB 465)
Enhances punishments for people who utilize the services of a prostitute.
SB 1132 – Transmission of Pornography (HB 955)
States that EACH act of sending or receiving CP (image, information or data) is a SEPARATE OFFENSE. 100 images = 100 charges. Also, now 3 or more images is prima facie evidence of an intent to distribute.
Other bills to be aware of, include a bill to count “morphed” images as CP. If you take an image of a minor’s face and superimpose it on a nude adult’s body, that image would be considered CP. Also, there is a bill to allow for compassionate release of elderly or infirmed inmates that would not apply to sex offenders. Also, sex offenses are not able to be expunged.
And… as if we didn’t see this one coming after a registrant won the lottery several months ago… HB 1187 – State Lotteries (SB 1070) which would hold a sex offender’s lottery winnings in escrow for one year (note, this wouldn’t apply to murderers, just sex offenders) to allow victims to claim restitution.
There are other bills which make life harder for registrants. Take, for example, HB 121 – Employment of Felons (SB 356) which provides employers a $1000 tax incentive to hire former felons… it expressly doesn’t apply to sex offenders. Or SJR 208 – Convicted Felons/Voting Rights and Right to Hold Public Office, which would automatically restore the civil rights of convicted felons upon completion of their sentences EXCEPT murderers and sex offenders.
Not sure why the are including the no expungement stuff in that bill because the laws for expungement already say it does not apply to sex offenders
okies, not sure what happened there….it’s annual fee (not see)
and $200 for SPs and $100 for SOs
Just to point out, HB1137 basically just has the lottery escrow as a headline (probably so it gets pushed through easily as a hot-button issue). The meat of the bill comes later, which outlines stricter guidelines for SOs on probation and also proposes a yearly see for registration.
iirc the lottery portion of the bill is only about the first 2 or 3 pages of the 20-some page bill.
In case you were wondering, it’ll be a max of 0 annually for sexual predators and 0 annually for sexual offenders.
Scott – where do you see that?
Here is the full text of HB 1137 (2015): http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2015/1137/BillText/Filed/PDF
d’oh…..full of errors….I meant 1187
which again is an error lmao. 1187 is the lottery bill, but house bill 1261 is the one I am thinking of….so sorry.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2015/1261/BillText/__/PDF
Scott – thank you for sharing this. Yes. This bill does seek to authorize the charging of a registration fee.
A separate post has been submitted on this.
No problemo 🙂 Sorry it took me a bit get my facts straight there….never work from memory.
SB 134 Also makes it a felony if you can’t pay for the monitoring: 943.711 (3) A sex offender who willfully or knowingly commits any of the following acts commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084: (c) Failure to reimburse the Department of Corrections or its agent for the cost of electronic monitoring.
That’s correct, Jerry – these bills are far more comprehensive than the one-sentence summary and they were previously written up on and the subject of our February member call. They are just listed here for reference.
Yes, I think SB 134 & 336 are an excellent idea! As a matter of fact, I think we should amend SB 134. I think we should add that all sex offenders be forced to wear red stars on their clothing just like the Jews wore yellow stars in Germany. Maybe the state can work it out so PRIDE is the official manufacturer of these clothes that SO’s are forced to buy and wear during their what should be proposed minimum mandatory 15 year probation sentences. Because after all, is a “sex offender” ever truly capable of rehab? And next year, maybe the Fed’s can amend their ICAC initiative to include grant money for states that enact Operation Sex-stillenacht where they round up all these red-starred individuals and banish them to ghettos under the biggest bridges in town at $10,000 per head to every state. Also, SB 336 is not good enough. Since most school buses run from 6am-9am, every SO should be on house arrest curfew during that time as well as from 1-4pm in the afternoon since that’s when kids are bussed home.
Oh for the love of God……..every state legislator should have to go through a month of sex offender probation with a monitor, weekly therapy, curfew and all to see how life really is for us before making these proposals. After all, don’t policeman get tased as part of their training? As a matter of fact, maybe I’ll write my local legislators and offer them that as a challenge.
Derek Logue was right in his article, Please banish me to an island of my choice…..I got dibs on Fiji!!!!!