Please place comments under the article on the Herald.

https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article229710479.html

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The text of the response and an image of the article as it appeared are below.

Your December 31, 2018 article, “Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing.” correctly points out that the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) does not include any explanation for the rise in the number of sex offenders in our State. However, the reason is obvious. Florida is one of only a small handful of states that requires people to register for the duration of their life.

When you combine new sex offenders being continuously added to the registry with zero attrition, it’s no wonder the numbers have grown (and will continue to grow) at such a fast pace.

Florida has also increased the number of offenses that require registration. Since it was enacted on October 1, 1997, the number of offenses that will land you on our State’s sex offender registry has more than tripled. The 1997 version of Fla. Stat. 943.0435 had eight qualifying offenses, the 2018 version has twenty qualifying offenses!

It is time Florida followed in the footsteps of states such as California and Missouri, who recently enacted a tiered registry. We need to stop wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on something that research has consistently demonstrated is ineffective. If not, the registry will only become more bloated and untenable than it already is.

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Maybe we should call it a war between sex offender advocates?

Strange lawsuit filed in a local federal court: A Texas-based service that claims to help sexual offenders get off the state registry that limits where they can live and work is suing a Boynton Beach nonprofit that wants to loosen registry rules.

“I haven’t seen the lawsuit yet and I’ve not been served, so I don’t know,” said Gail Colletta, founder of the Florida Action Committee, defendant in the court action filed last week.

Florida Sex Offender Advocate Sued by Texas company

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http://www.abc-7.com/story/34629688/sex-offenders-on-social-media-scotus-to-decide

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That’s 42 check-ins, as his attorneys and his friends pointed out at a sentencing hearing in June. When it came to No. 43, Brown, 72, who has since been diagnosed with early stages of dementia, says that he simply forgot.

“My only crime, your honor, is that I have become old and forgetful,” he told Circuit Judge Robert Hodges that day.

Brown is currently serving a three-plus-year sentence. He took his case to a jury, and the sentence is in line with state guidelines. While mental impairment can stand as grounds for a judge to grant a more lenient sentence than the guidelines recommend, Hodges pointed to circumstances in Brown’s case that, in the judge’s eyes, suggested the excuse didn’t make that cut.

The diagnosis came after Brown’s arrest and after he self-reported memory loss to his doctor, for example. Hodges also pointed out that Brown’s memory issues didn’t seem to affect his ability to run Solid Rock Foundation of Marion County, a nonprofit that served men transitioning out of custody. The seriousness of Brown’s underlying crimes, too, make adherence to reporting requirements particularly important, according to the line of reasoning Hodges voiced in June.

(Brown has long maintained his innocence on a sex-related convictions, following arrests in Texas in 1985 and in Florida in 2001, both of which involved young girls.)

His case stands as an example of the sorts of challenges that legally designated sexual offenders and sexual predators can face as they reach their 70s, 80s and 90s in a state that calls for lifetime reporting requirements. Advocates who work with sex offenders throughout Florida say they’re familiar with cases like Brown’s, in which dementia of Alzheimer’s disease affects an offender’s ability to comply with requirements.

Jim Broderick, president and CEO of Florida Justice Transitions, a Clearwater-based nonprofit, recalled an offender, several years ago, who ran into trouble during a grocery trip when he unintentionally left an electronic monitoring system on the roof of his car.

That man, Broderick said, was similarly in the early stages of dementia.

Broderick and other advocates also point to complications that arise when an offender needs to enter assisted living or a nursing home. These facilities often do not, or cannot, accept them.

“Very often it’s not that these facilities do not want to provide services,” said Gail Colletta, president of the Florida Action Committee, a nonprofit based in Lake Monroe that supports and advocates for sex offenders and their families. “They are located in places that don’t meet residency restrictions.”

“This population is growing every single day,” said Ted Rodarm, executive director of Matthew 25 Ministries, referencing the state’s aging population. “This is only going to get worse until we get some change.”

Florida counts more than 1,100 individuals on its registry who are older than 80, according to Colletta. Her breakdown also covers an additional 3,600-plus who are older than 70. In Marion County, Lt. Michelle Wissinger, commander of the Sexual Offender/Predator Unit within the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, said that 74 of the approximately 870 offenders and predators the agency tracks are 70 or older.

Advocates said it’s reasonable to assume those number will increase as populations continue to age in Florida and in the United States.

Rodarm, for example, said he sees this trend through his work at City of Refuge, a community in Pahokee that provides housing exclusively to sex offenders. Matthew 25 Ministries runs the community. City of Refuge does not provide medical care for its residents, but Rodarm said several are in their 70s, 80 and even 90s.

At Sex Offender Housing of Florida, a 55-plus community for sex offenders outside of Orlando, Lori Nassofer said she, too, sees steady demand from an aging population.

“Their needs are going to increase exponentially,” Colletta said of elderly sex offenders. “We don’t have provisions for that.”

Consider residency restrictions, for example. Florida law mandates that a registered sex offender cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility, park or playground. While that complicates housing options for an offender of any age, it can particularly limit an elderly or infirm offender who’s trying to enter an assisted living or nursing home facility.

Nassofer said she has seen this play out. She recalled contacting a nursing home about a resident and learning that, while the nursing home’s policies would allow the man to live there, the building sat too close to a school to accept him.

“What difference does it make if he’s near a school?” Nassofer asked, pointing out that patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease often live in locked facilities anyway. “He can’t do anything.”

Colletta echoed the frustration.

“If I’m at the point where I need a nursing home,” she said, speaking hypothetically, “I’m not a threat.”

Underscoring the point is a recent case out of Boynton Beach. In September, the family of a nursing home resident, Jack Ehrhart, pushed back against threats to arrest Ehrhart for violating a residency ordinance. The nursing home sits closer to a preschool than the ordinance allows.

Courthouse News Service identified Earhart as having end-stage Alzheimer’s disease. The former gynecologist’s conviction dates back to the mid-1980s, when patients complained that he touched them sexually.

“You can’t get them in nursing homes,” Broderick said of the offenders he’s worked with through Florida Justice Transitions, which provides support and transitional housing to offenders. “I’ve had very limited success, but they’re not really good quality nursing homes.

“It’s a challenge,” he said.

If, or when, a registered sex offender cannot find care through an assisted living or nursing home, advocates said there are no good answers. Rodarm said the burden of caring for them likely falls to the family members.

Wissinger and Detective Tasha Nix, who also works in Sexual Offender/Predator Unit at the Sheriff’s Office, said they’ve seen family members step in to ensure that the offender registers on time in some cases. In others they said they make can accommodations — if an offender were bedridden, for example.

They said that, in their experience, an elderly offender is no more likely to abscond, or fail to register, than anyone else.

In Marion County, where advocates around the state could not point to any specific resources, it’s unclear what options, if any, are available to elderly sex offenders. Jennifer Martinez, executive director of Marion Senior Services, said her organization does not have experience catering to their specific needs, but that it does not discriminate against them.

***

From Colletta’s perspective, the most effective solution to the challenges that elderly sex offenders face is to eliminate the registry altogether. She and other advocates suggested that the registry appeals more to politicians and to the public more than it serves any public safety purpose.

Recidivism among sex offenders is statistically lower than recidivism among those convicted of other crimes. Colletta puts the rate at 13 percent for sex offenders who commit another sex-related crime. (For comparison, the Public Policy Institute of Marion County reported in 2014 that 79.4 percent of inmates at the Marion County Jail were repeat offenders.)

And, obviously, the registry offers no warning to the public if someone is a first-time offender.

Short of eliminating the registry, Colletta suggested several measures that the Legislature could take to ease what she cast as unnecessary burdens on elderly sex offenders.

She called for the elimination of residency restrictions, for one, painting them as a particularly ineffective element of registry requirements. Or, she suggested, the state could enact residency exceptions for facilities that provide treatment or care.

While that would address situations like Earhart’s in Boynton Beach, she pointed out that this measure, too, could more easily allow offenders to enter residential substance abuse or rehabilitation programs.

Colletta also suggested the offenders in Florida need a path toward attrition, or natural removal from the registry.

“These men in their 70s 80s or 90s — they’re no longer a threat,” Rodarm said. “They’re still being punished for a crime where they’ve already paid their debt to society. It’s in nobody’s best interest to keep them in custody.”

That’s in line with Ruthanna Smith’s line of thinking. Smith is a friend of Brown, the Marion County defendant, whom she knew through her church. Smith said she had been helping Brown work on an application for clemency through the governor before his arrest; afterward, she sat in on his trial and sentencing hearing.

To Smith, it was particularly upsetting to hear attorneys dredge up details of a 35-year-old conviction, for which Brown has already served a sentence. Smith said she doesn’t understand the logic in incarcerating someone she knows as a committed church member.

“Why would the state of Florida want to punish someone for being old and forgetful?” she asked.

SOURCE

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DALLAS – For the first time ever, sex offenders gathered at their annual conference in Texas have allowed cameras inside to get a look at the event.

Approximately 100 registered sex offenders from across the country gathered this week at their conference at Magnolia Hotel in Dallas, CBS Dallas station KTVT reports.

This year, with the cameras inside, organizers warned attendees news cameras might be there. They say they want people to know they’re advocating for change. One of those advocating is a registered sex offender from Florida.

17 years after his arrest for trying to meet up with a fictitious 14 year old, this sex offender said he still can’t shake his past.

“I’ve been interviewed for many, many, many jobs for my professional skills and when you disclose that part, you just never get a phone call again,” he said.

A website for the event even provides contact information for the Dallas Police Department so those who need to check in can meet their registration requirements. KTVT reports that advocates argue residency restrictions and other mandates on sex offenders are not effective.

“The majority of children who are abused are abused in their homes, or abused by someone known to their family. They’re not abused in playgrounds, parks, and school bus stops,” said advocate, Gail Colleta.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sex-offenders-gather-at-annual-conference-in-texas/

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In Arcadia, a town of 6,000 east of Sarasota, there’s a facility wrapped in sky-high barbed wire, where no one can choose to get in or out. This isn’t a prison, and its residents aren’t serving a sentence. It’s the Florida Civil Commitment Center, home to 650 men whom the state fears could molest, assault or rape again if released.

“A lot of people try to take themselves out while they’re in there,” said David, who spent 4 1/2 years in Arcadia, and asked that we conceal his identity. “I’ve seen it, blood all over the place, walking down the hall with a razor, cutting themselves up.”

America Tonight

In Florida, it’s legal to lock someone up indefinitely for a crime they haven’t yet committed. Called civil commitment, it’s similar to forcing a severely mentally ill person into treatment. But this process is reserved for those who were convicted of violent sexual offenses, completed their sentences, but then were judged to still be a risk. Over the past two decades, the practice has spread across the country and is now law in 20 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the federal government.

This week, the civil commitment process was expanded to include offenders serving time in jail. And given certain findings, a state attorney is now required to refer a person to civil commitment, and a judge is required to order a person into civil commitment custody. It’s part of a bundle of new laws that has made the state the harshest one in the country for sex offenders.

David served nine years in prison for rape. He said the woman was his ex-girlfriend and his drug dealer, that he was framed and then took a plea deal on his lawyer’s advice. When his term was finished, the state recommended that they proceed with a civil commitment hearing, and David was driven to Arcadia. When he finally got his trial, 4 1/2 years later, a jury determined that he wasn’t a threat, and released him.

David said the experience was worse than prison. “It’s like a living death sentence,” he said. “You just function from one day to the next.”

America Tonight

Courtesy photo

Donald James Smith, 57, spent three years in a civil commitment facility, before a judge released him and ordered him to undergo treatment. A registered sex offender, Smith was convicted of offenses going back decades. And in 2009, he was arrested again for making obscene phone calls to a 10-year-old girl and impersonating a Florida Department of Children and Families child protective investigator.

He pled to misdemeanor charges and was booked into the county jail, where inmates aren’t reviewed for civil commitment.

Last June, just three weeks after Smith walked free, he allegedly lured Rayne Perrywinkle and her young children to a Jacksonville Walmart with the promise of a shopping spree. Once there, he’s accused of offering to buy 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle food, and then walking out with her, raping and strangling her, and then dumping her body behind a church. Smith has pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and sexual battery, and his trial is set for October. He’s facing a possible death sentence.

Courtesy photo

“We all failed Cherish Perrywinkle. We failed Cherish Perrywinkle as a society,” said Gail Colletta, president of the Florida Action Committee, which advocates for evidence-based sex offender policies, as opposed to what the organization calls, “public hysteria following isolated and heinous events.” She is both a sex abuse survivor and the mother of a sex offender.

Colletta believes the state should provide psychiatric care earlier on, as opposed to at the end of a 10- or 20-year sentence, and that the program should do a better job of preparing offenders for a crime-free life beyond bars. Sex offenders are saddled, often for life, with restrictions that make it extremely difficult for them to have stable housing, jobs, families and access to other services. Colletta believes this kind of isolation doesn’t make the public safer.

“We have made them a ward of the state. We have paid to keep them and we have not treated them like a human being with an opportunity to come back into society,” she said. “I can hate what somebody does. They’re still a human being.”

David said Arcadia had no program to help residents readjust back to life on the outside. When he was released, he asked where he should go, and said he was told, “Go buy a tent and live in the woods with the rest of the sex offenders.”

America Tonight

Lauren Book, a sex abuse survivor and the founder of Lauren’s Kids, advocates for victims of childhood sexual abuse and is an ardent supporter of Florida’s civil commitment efforts.

“These are children. And so I fight every day to make it so that these monsters, these sexually deviant behaving individuals are as far away from our children as humanly possible,” she said.

“Do I concern myself with how easy their life is or if they should or should not be?” she continued. “No, no. Because I am still living this.”

Kanner, who directs the county’s sexually violent predator program, described civil commitment, and the treatment available, as a “gift,” an opportunity for sexual offenders to “make some serious and heartfelt, deep-seated changes in their personalities to live a law-abiding life and not victimize people.”

David did not feel the program was a gift. He was “angry beyond words” that after serving his sentence he was detained in another facility, and angry that 4 1/2 years passed before he was given a trial.

Of the 650 men in Arcadia, 72 are waiting for such trials. The program’s director said the wait is because of the timeline of the court and state attorney’s office, and that mounting a defense takes some time. It wasn’t the fault of the sexually violent predator program, she emphasized.

“I saw guys that were in there eight, nine, 10 years and never saw the inside of a courtroom. And if the state has their way about it, they won’t,” David said. “Everything they’re doing, based upon what I know about the law, is violating every constitutional right.”

 

Source: http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/4/5/florida-becomes-theharsheststateforsexoffenders.html

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After several months of complaining that over 100 registrants were sent to live in his parking lot, the owner of Adolfo’s House Beauty Supply received the concession from local police, who evicted the approximately 133 registrants living transient at the corner of NW 71st Street and 36th Court on Wednesday night.

Registrants were told that they would no longer be able to stay there at night and would be subject to arrest for trespassing if they were found there the following night.

Yesterday morning, registrants began making frantic calls to their probation officers asking what to do. Most are on GPS monitoring devices and if they are not at that street corner, they would similarly be subject to arrest.

The Miami-Dade probation office’s solution was to move them one block over. 100 yards to the east, which is the street corner where they spent their night last night. Within the next 48 hours 133 registrants will be scrambling to get their drivers licenses updated, as required by law, to “transient at 71st and 35th” instead of “71st and 36th”, paying the $25 fee for the address change and jeopardizing their employment to get it done.

… until the Miami-Dade Sex Offender Shuffle moves them elsewhere.

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The briefing was prepared by Stan Orchowsky, PhD. Research Director for the Justice Research and Statistics Association and several of his associates.

Note to the reader: This summary is intended to assist our activist groups to become familiar with current literature in our efforts to inform policy and assist in the creation of smarter legislation.  If there are errors or questions about any of the statements, do not hesitate to contact me at flrsolbmc@aol.com.  Anything in italics is solely my own thoughts or reflections as I studied this paper. Such comments are to be taken only in that context.)

Thank you, Barbara

(Member of Florida Action Committee, (FAC), National Reform Sex Offender Laws (RSOL) Women against the Registry (WAR) and Caution Click National Campaign for Reform (CCNCR)

Purpose

The purpose of this work is to provide policymakers with an introduction and overview of the key concepts and issues associated with the identification of Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) in criminal justice. The briefing discusses a history of the evidence based movement, what is meant by efficiency and its sources, issues associated with implementing EBPs, and address the question of what to do when there is no evidence for a particular program or practice.

It is noted that the findings in this research project, opinions, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibitions are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

Key information and/or thoughts

Background of EBPs

In a historical perspective, evidence-based practice has its origins in the field of medicine. The passage of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act in 1938 requires scientific investigation of new drugs prior to any marketing.  Added amendments over the years have extended the use of evidence based practices in health services rather than reliance on anecdotes, opinion or tradition.

As for EBPs in Criminal Justice, a 1974 publication by Robert Martinson, in what is now an infamous synthesis of research in corrections, led to the conclusion that “nothing works’ in the field of offender rehabilitation. Numerous reviews in the 1980s rebutted Martinson’s work along with research into the effectiveness of alternative ways of preventing crime.

Continual work in the 1980s and 90s by the criminal justice researchers realized the need to systematically identify specific programs that were shown to be effective. In the mid-90s congress and the senate each supported efforts to provide funds for scientific study in the prevention of crimes.  As the internet became increasingly prevalent, online resources also were made available.

We are reminded by this article that evidence comes from the actual information about the effectiveness of a program, usually from high quality outcome evaluations through the use of scientifically approved methods.

Effectiveness is determined in several ways: crime reduction, reduced recidivism, and reduced victimization.  (For our work as being active in reform, these can be three primary ‘legs’ on which to base our work.)

The author stated too, that reduction of recidivism is the ‘bottom line.”

Scientific Methods are defined by three things:

Objective—observable by others, based on facts rather that thoughts or opinions, free from bias or prejudice brought on by personal feelings.  Note that the primary bases for most laws affecting sex offenses are NOT objective!

Replicable: It can be observed by others using the same methods used to produce the original evidence.

Generalizable: it can be applied to individuals and groups other than those involved in the original study or group that produced certain evidence.

The article provided detailed explanation of the research design.  For the purpose of this summary, the above three definitions are sufficient.

While information can be collected in an evaluation such as opinions of probation officers on certain programs, this is actually NOT evidence of program effectiveness.

The quantity of evidence can impact the outcomes. (For example a study of only 50 persons as opposed to a Meta-Analysis where multiple studies are given a systematic review by subject matter experts, will result in a more accurate conclusion about the effectiveness of an intervention. So the bottom line is evidence derived from multiple studies should be more heavily weighed than evidence derived from a single evaluation.

Web site Resources

There were numerous web sites provided in this article for further resources. Two are noted below.

Crime solutions.gov (www.crimesolutions.gov) provides information on 270 programs in a number of areas of criminal justice including corrections, courts, crime and crime prevention, drugs and substance abuse, juveniles, law enforcement, technology, forensics, and victims and victimization. Programs are rated as effective, promising, or no evidence. Each program can be based on one or more studies; the number of studies are indicated in the rating.  Ratings are assigned by program experts using a standardized protocol known as the program evidence rating instrument.

The use of programs that have shown to be effective and fit a community’s need has the potential of saving valuable time and resources compared to implementing untested programs that may or may not work.

The works in reentry Clearinghouse (http://whatworks.csgjusticecenter.org)

Is funded by the BJA and established by the Council of State Governments in 2012 and is specifically designed to provide information on evidence-based reentry interventions.  The site contains information on 56 initiatives in the focus areas of brand name programs, employment, family-based programs, housing, mental health, and substance abuse.

Users of any site investigating and making decisions about programs should review information carefully to determine what criteria and procedures are used to identify EBPs.

Implementation of EBPs

It requires careful planning and attention to details to successfully implement such a program.  Often information in Journals do not make available details so the actual research is preferable for referencing.  A program needs to be adopted to fit a particular set of circumstances therefore a program should be adopted with fidelity. This again can only be accomplished through careful attention to detail. The National Implementation Research network (NIRN) (http://nirn.fpg.unc.edu/  provides a wealth of information on implementation.

While the identification of some programs have not yet been subjected to rigorous evaluation, the basic answer is to adopt programs and policies based on, to the best extent possible, theories and concepts that are supported by research. For example a core component of an EBP is that high risk offenders should receive more services that low risk offenders and this should increase the expectation of success.

Summary

In summary there are many resources that can provide funds and program managers with detailed information in EBPs in almost all areas of criminal justice.  The challenge now is to get such programs adopted.  According to the authors of this article: “We have reached a point in time where policy makers are demanding that programs and initiatives be supported by solid empirical evidence.  With diminishing resources available, understanding how to identify and implement EBPs will be critical for decision makers in tha lareas of the justice system.”

Note from summary writer- In our work to reach legislators and the public, it is critical to become familiar with the EBPs that support our goals ;and then make every effort possible to educate our law makers.  Unfortunately, most are NOT really interested in EBPs; rather emotions and sensational cases, and pubic opinion, or what is perceived to be public opinion, drives most legislation. This remains one of our most difficult challenges!

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“The punitiveness of our sex offender laws, registry and restrictions are totally unsupported by any empirical evidence. It destroys marriages, creates homelessness and perpetuates joblessness by listing the employer and address.

If a registrant gets married and the wife can’t deal with the stress of living under a microscope and being in danger and files for divorce that annihilates the family.

Academics have repeatedly said folks need three things to successfully reintegrate: a job, a home and a positive support system, but that falls on deaf ears.”

What was once a law enforcement tool has now become so punitive, stigmatizing and restrictive that it prevents a registrant, no matter how severe the crime or how long it’s been, from the possibility of ever living a viable life. There may be those who deserve this type of humiliation and hopelessness, but there are clearly too many who are not.

Knowing the registry has been proven ineffective, to what ends do we need to go to humiliate human beings until they are properly punished?

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