Documentary on Florida Sex Offender Colony to Air on BBC
Created by a Christian ministry as a response to state laws which ban them from living close to where children gather, it’s now home to more than 100 men who’ve been placed on Florida’s sex offenders register for life. Through therapy, counselling and support, Restoration Destination aims to reduce their likelihood of reoffending and help them reintegrate into society.
With the future of the community uncertain and claims Florida’s sex offender residency laws are driving people into homelessness, journalist Conor
Garrett goes to Restoration Destination to ask if the men who live there deserve a second chance.
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Too bad these politicians don’t do what they preach…
https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/1906121205041545567
Hawley claims forgiveness but does not practice it…
It was an okay listen, but it would have been nice if they would have talked to even one expert who has studied recidivism, or the effectiveness registry and residence laws in preventing sexual harm. If Ron Book is serious about wanting laws that work to do that, then he might be interested in speaking with them as well, or learning about the plights of individuals who are forced into either homelessness or living in these colonies because of laws that he has championed (but as he disclosed, he has no interest in doing so).
Which is a shame, because as a powerful lobbyist, he is well positioned to get the legislature to look at the evidence to enact laws that work for the benefit–not the detriment–of public safety. He couches advocacy around this issue as advocating for the rights of pedophiles, but that’s not quite right — it is advocating for law and policy that will be more effective at doing the thing he at least says that he is interested in achieving: preventing new victims. His rage, whether sincere or self-serving at this point, seems more important to him than seriously considering that perhaps this is the wrong approach, much to the detriment of Florida families.
I wish the BBC would have been just slightly more curious and slightly more journalistic, instead of opting for something that feels mostly like voyeurism.
It is difficult for me to get excited with any of these documentaries because, like most other reports written about Persons Forced to Register, there will be plenty of “buts” in the report. I can almost make a bingo card of things I expect to hear, including finding someone willing to say on the air he’s a p-word (there’s always that one guy it seems), plenty of random law enforcement (cinidering we’re discussing South FloriDUH, I expect the Book Crime Family to make an appearance), and of course, plenty of the usual mythmaking and fearmongering.
My own experience with the BBC wasn’t positive. For those at least somewhat familiar with the hell I went through courtesy of the Book Crime Family, it started with an interview with the BBC that ultimately never aired.