A strong argument against continued registration of departed registrants.
As any Florida registrant knows, once you are on the Florida Sex Offender Registry you don’t come off.
Moved to another State? You stay on the Florida Registry.
Moved to another Country? Doesn’t matter… you’re still on the Florida Registry.
Never lived in Florida – just came here for vacation? If you were in the state temporarily (5 days or more), you are on the Registry permanently.
Dying to get off the Florida Registry? Even that doesn’t work. Deceased registrants stay on the Florida Registry.
How can that be fair, though? Isn’t the Sex Offender Registry supposed to warn communities of “dangerous” people among them? Help parents teach children which houses to avoid? What sense does it make to pinpoint houses you used to have to avoid but don’t have to anymore?
That’s an argument that the US Supreme Court will hear on March 1st in a case where a Kansas registered citizen left the country to live abroad and then was extradited back to the US to face charges for “failure to register” in Kansas.
The defendant in that case, “asserts that the overriding purpose of SORNA is to protect children where a sex offender currently resides, not children who live in his past residences. The government seemingly struggles to come up with reasons why Congress would have wanted notification given to the jurisdiction being vacated. “An offender who has absconded may pose no direct continuing threat to his old neighborhood,” states the government, “but community members should not make decisions about where to live or send their children – either for school or for an afternoon play date – on the basis of obsolete information creating a mis-impression that absent offenders still reside in the area.”
As of February 24, 2016, there are 68,524 individuals on Florida’s Sex Offender Registry.
Here is how they break down:
- 27,615 are Living in Florida Communities
- 40,909 are NOT Living in Florida Communities.
Of the ones that are NOT in Florida Communities; we include:
- 813 that are absconded and might be in Florida, but are not registered at their address regardless.
- 599 who are civilly committed and are in Florida, but are effectively locked up.
- 16,939 are incarcerated somewhere.
- 2,592 who were deported
- 612 who left the country
- 18,056 who live in another state.
- 1,079 who are deceased (though they may be buried in Florida, we’re not counting them as “in the community”)
- and 219 who are unknown – they are listed but have no temporary, permanent or transient address.
So, essentially 60% of the people on Florida’s Sex Offender Registry who we are “keeping an eye on” are not even here to watch. What’s the point of having a public registry to list where they used to live or vacationed?
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and that doesn’t address who ever has moved into a house where a deceased offender “used” to live.
what about the safety of the new residents.
If you happen to fall under the fl statute where your reg is 25 years from release and after 25 years the court you were charged in rules your duty of reg has been completed, your FDLE and public notice will also be terminated. But your record will stay with you. There are a few options in Florida for non violent 3rd degree adjudication withheld offenders fr specific crimes.
Hi Jv. Will you elaborate re: the options for non-violent 3rd degree adjudication withheld offenders? Are you referring to one or more specific statutes? Thanks.
We all know that the the registry is a form of headhunting. States get a bigger share of the funds that are earmarked specifically for registry-related issues. As it stands, Florida “officially” lands at #3 for total registrants, just behind California and Texas.
To be fair, I kept the number at 28,647 just for the sake of arguing that the FTRs and “unknowns” are still living in the land of ‘Duh. A handful of states do register out-of-state offenders, but I don’t know of any states who listed deported, dead, or incarcerated/civilly committed registrants. At any rate, the number of Registered Citizenss by state, according to the NCMEC, are as follows, and adjusted for our revised FL stats:
CA– 112k
TX– 83k
MI– 41.5k
NY– 38k
OH– 29.8k
FL– 28.6k
OR– 27.8k
GA– 26.2k
Now all of a sudden, FL’s RSO population drops them to 6th place, 7th if you use FAC’s number rather than mine. All of a sudden, it seems that the notion that Florida attracts registrants by the truckload is a pile of bovine excrement.
Michigan, New York, and Ohio, and maybe even Oregon, should be upset the Florida just ripped them off when it comes to their precious registry funding.
Derek,
This initial BJS report on the National Sex Offender Registry Assistance Program (http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/nsorap98.pdf) stated that one of the criteria for allocations of funds is “the number of sex offenders in the State”.
Florida certainly realized that if they claim more than twice the registrants, they get more than twice the funding.
At minimum, parents and concerned citizens should be questioning why the registry’s effectiveness is diluted by the inclusion of so many people who are no longer in the community.
It isn’t just the money issue that is a concern. Florida media and victim industry advocates like the Books love to use these inflated stats to scare people into thinking Florida is some kind of Predator sanctuary, thus justifying the ever-increasing restrictions. It makes for a good talking point for them because until now, no one has seriously challenged them on that.
You can be sure a certain blonde-haired victim advocate running unopposed for a certain state senate seat uses this stat to promote her personal agenda.
It may be bloated for that purpose indeed yet Florida is a top 3 State to visit and to move to permanently. They actually thrive on tourism and real estate here. Wouldn’t this bloated stat to scare off people be bad for business ? If people around the world and the country look at those stats ( which I think a majority don’t even care to) Then the Florida population wouldn’t be what it is today. So the registry is not doing what they want it to do and it is a complete waste of everything.