Florida’s sex offender population is aging. Where can they live out their silver years?
People on Florida’s list of 73,000 registered offenders who are 65 and older jumped 2 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to the state’s legislative auditors, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Florida’s registry has about 10,200 elderly offenders.
The problem is sparking a national crisis of social and justice policy: How and where do we allow the most-reviled class of citizens to survive their silver years — especially those with serious age-related medical problems — after they have served their prison terms, while striving to protect children who may be living nearby?
Offenders who need care struggle to find help when their families reject them for their crimes, like Albertson’s did, or live within 1,000 feet of schools or parks, as the state’s sex offender laws restrict.
Gail Colleta, an advocate for sex offenders, has asked lawmakers to consider lifting the state’s residency restrictions if an offender is a certain age or has ailments.
“This is a humanity issue,” said Colleta, president of Florida Action Committee. “We’re more concerned about stray animals than we are about people with issues, that need to have medication, that need to have oxygen, that are just human beings.”
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I am a provider for housing to those on the registry. I have gotten hundreds of calls and continue to get calls in regards to this matter. Most nursing facilities in my area are rejecting us due to our registry status. I am in the process of opening an ALF, but with only ten beds which will be occupied in a matter of days the days prior to opening, I am not even close to be of any assistance to this huge problem that is in our near future. We need our own nursing facility but with thousands of aging registrants who can afford to open a facility large enough to cater to all of us when the time comes?. I’ll be 60 this year, in the last seven years I have help and housed hundreds of registrants. The time will come where i’ll be looking for nursing assistance for my self. It seems that its up to us to fix this problem that would take millions of dollars to address. I have done much research on this matter and I am willing to help but I cannot do it alone. I have reached out to some of my competitors, the only way I see making this possible is if we all work together on this. God help us!!!
Kudos to Joanne Kuder and especially Ann Kasey for the constructive comments on the Herald’s website. Ann called out the author for not mentioning Ron Crook’s DUI.
The way that Ann Kasey is engaging and educating the other commenters is tremendous.