This legislative session there are a couple bills that would impose a financial penalty on registered sex offenders.
The first is HB 1261, which would impose an “Offender Registration Fee” which permits the Sheriff of each county to charge sexual offenders an annual fee of up to $100 and $200 for predators.
The second is the Lifetime Monitoring bill (HB 203) which would require the registrant to pay for the cost of monitoring, which is estimated to cost approximately $300/month.
In both cases, failure to pay these fees is a new crime.
So imagine; a registrant, who has a hard enough time finding a job and affording food and shelter for his family, needs to come up with $300 a month for monitoring or be charged with a third degree felony (at least one year in prison but less than 5). According to the FL Dept of Corrections it costs over $18,000 to house an inmate for a year. In other words; the State will spend AT LEAST $18,000 to collect a $300 debt. They will also throw someone in prison for AT LEAST a year because they can’t afford $300 a month!
Can anyone see the cycle? You get out of prison and the State imposes restriction and public registration on you which make it impossible to get a job. That, in turn, makes it impossible to pay these fee-based registration requirements. That, in turn, puts you back in prison to start the cycle again.
Please take a few minutes to watch this segment from This Week Tonight with John Oliver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjpmT5noto
That’s what we can expect from these fee-based registration requirements.
The link is broken it is for a hbo commercial. There is a plan behind all these laws they want us in prison or out of the state of florida.
It comes after the commercial
I have to agree with Matthew. There is nothing after the HBO commercial unless you are on autoplay, then you get this: Crosswind difficulties – winter 2013/14.
Sorry guys – here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjpmT5noto
it’s been updated in the article too
Although sex offenders are not specifically mentioned in this video, it is still very enlightening. Fining people to finance local governments happens all over America and is rampant in Florida. My son was cited and fined for sitting on the back of a park bench instead of on the seat. The letter from the municipality threatened to suspend his drivers license if he didn’t pay the $53 fine. The case went to a judge and thank God he had some common sense and threw the citation out!
Unfortunately, debtor’s prison is alive and well in Florida. Just ask anyone who can’t pay their child support. In the same way putting someone in jail for not paying it takes away their ability to pay it, restricting sex offenders so tightly that we can’t find a place to live or get a job takes away our ability to become productive members of society. But, as I have said before, people – especially lawmakers, just don’t care.
You are spot-on with that assessment. Since Florida prisons are only at about 90% capacity right now, there is room for about 15,000 more inmates. As the House Chairman said at last year’s legislative session, “We got the beds.”