Major Concerns:

• The need for nursing home care for people required to register is beyond a crisis state – it is catastrophic.
• Most nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and rehab facilities in Florida are not accepting people on the registry.
• The two major reasons are: (1) residency restrictions and (2) facilities will not accept people on the sex offender registry.

PLEASE Do the Following:

• Contact as many Florida legislators as possible, letting them know of the alarming situation in Florida where many people on the registry are in desperate need of long-term health care facilities but are being turned away.
• Ask family members and friends to contact our Florida legislators asking for help in this inhumane situation.
• Try to personalize your communications.
• Continue to be courteous in your communications with policy makers as they are more likely to listen to us if they do not feel under attack.
• If you have your own story to tell on how you or a family member was rejected by many facilities, you might prefer to share your story with our legislators rather than use our Talking Points.  Or, if you are simply looking to future needs you might have and are concerned about the possibility that no facility will take you, share these concerns with our legislators.  Legislators need to hear your story.
• YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE OUR TALKING POINTS.  THEY ARE ONLY SUGGESTIONS FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE AT A LOSS FOR WHAT TO WRITE.

Talking Points:

• There are tens of thousands of people on the Florida sex offender registry who have not sexually re-offended since completing their sentence.
• Most nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and rehab facilities in Florida are not accepting people on the registry.
• There are people on the registry in Florida in the last stage of Alzheimer’s Disease (vegetative) whose family members cannot find a facility that will take their loved one.
• The need for nursing home care for people required to register is beyond a crisis state – it is catastrophic.
• This situation of not being able to find a facility for people who are unable to live on their own and have not sexually re-offended since their release from prison is inhumane.  We are living in the United States of American, not a third-world country.
• Florida is one of only three states where placement on the registry is for life, so the number of people on the registry needing long-term health care is only growing in our state.
• Early in 2023, the FDLE website showed that almost 8000 people on the Florida registry are 65 years old or older and 876 registrants who are 80 years old or older.  This includes only persons currently living in Florida who are on probation, released, or in civil commitment or confinement.  It does NOT include persons absconded, deported, or deceased.
• According to Elizabeth Jeglic, professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, “the aging former offender population is skyrocketing.  Having them in and out of the emergency room is much more expensive than developing facilities that are suited to their needs.”  (Tampa Bay Times, “As sex offenders around Tampa Bay age, where will they go for nursing care?”, Hannah Critchfield, June 9, 2022)
• According to LongTermCare.gov, an official U.S. government website managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “Someone turning age 65 today has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services and supports in their remaining years.  Twenty percent will need it for longer than 5 years.”  https://acl.gov/ltc/basic-needs/how-much-care-will-you-need
• The two major reasons many long-term facilities will not take people on the registry are: (1) residency restrictions and (2) their refusal to accept people on the sex offender registry.State statute says that anyone on the registry must reside at least 1000 feet from the outermost boundaries of schools, daycares, and playgrounds/parks.  Additionally, many counties/municipalities in Florida have greater residency restrictions than what the state has, with some going up to 2500 feet beyond the outermost boundaries of schools, playgrounds, and daycares and have also included school bus stops, golf courses that offer children’s programs, nature preserves, recreational areas within an apartment building complex, libraries, nursing homes, public beaches, YMCAs, arcades, Boy’s and Girl’s clubs, youth camp grounds, public zoos, youth sport’s facilities, public swimming pools, and other areas where children can congregate.  These residency restrictions eliminate many long-term health care facilities that would be willing to take people with a past sex offense.
• In Georgia, their legislative body solved this problem by allowing people on the registry to petition for removal from the registry once they need long-term care and making the residency restrictions no longer applicable.  This is a possible solution for the inhumane way a growing number of registrants in Florida are being denied long-term health care even though there are tens of thousands of Florida registrants who have never sexually re-offended after their release from prison.  See GA Code 42-1-19 (2021).
• This year Iowa passed a law that requires the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to come up with a formula to raise the Medicaid reimbursement amounts for nursing homes that establish a separate unit for sex offenders.  https://www.kglonews.com/higher-reimbursement-rates-now-available-for-sex-offender-nursing-home-units/
• Please consider following Georgia’s example of allowing people on the registry who need long-term health care to petition for removal from the Florida sex offender registry.  Georgia has been doing this for some years without an increase in sexual assaults in their facilities.
• Please consider following Iowa’s example this year when they passed a bill offering additional Medicaid funds for facilities that accept people on the registry.
• Refusing long-term health care to any U.S. citizen is a human rights violation.
• The Florida Legislature and municipalities continue to pound and pound people on the registry who have never sexually re-offended since release from prison.  These same people served out their sentence and are now law-abiding citizens.  Florida needs to use empirically-based risk assessments, not the offense, but the true risk to start removing people from the registry.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Emails and Phone Numbers for Florida House of Representatives:

(To save contact list in your Download folder in Excel format, click Florida Reps here)

(Two representatives resigned this past June.)

Emails and Phone Numbers for Florida Senators:

(To save contact list in your Download folder in Excel format, click Florida Senators here)

Representatives

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

SENATORS

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]