A recent decision out of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals gives us a peek inside the Florida Civil Commitment Center. As the Opinion begins, “James Pesci is a detainee at the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), a for-profit facility that houses sex offenders involuntarily committed under Florida’s Involuntary Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators Act. Pesci is not a prisoner; like the other roughly 600 residents of FCCC, he has already served out his prison sentence. Instead, he is involuntarily committed because the State has determined that he is a “sexually violent predator” likely to engage in future “acts of sexual violence if not confined in a secure facility for long-term control, care, and treatment.”
Even though his prison sentence expired years ago, Pesci remains confined in the FCCC and chooses to spend his time writing about conditions at the facility by authoring and circulating a newsletter about what takes place at the civil commitment center. Only the facility, through budget cuts, has limited his ability to print out the newsletter so he can share it with others, and no longer allows him to save digital copies on the facility computers so others can read it without the necessity of printing. Those confined there have also been the casualties of other budget cuts and tightening restrictions at the facility, including loss of internet access (remember, these are not people serving a sentence – this is not supposed to be punishment) and reductions in food and health care.
While Pesci loses this appeal, the opinion gives us insight into what it’s like for residents inside the Florida Civil Commitment Center.
NOTE: Pesci’s conviction was 20 years ago.
They don’t have enough people who want to work there. They see it’s wrong . And I hope it closes. People need to stop donating money to these places. It’s not even a real hospital. The guys run thiere own group meetings. Geesh. Horrific. Docs are on call. But your in pain until they can find him. No real nurses. Clinicians. That can give meds. Take a 8 hour course you can do that. Get certified. Then they write bad comments in thiere file because it helps keep these guys in there. Horrible money making s hem3 off our family members. Tell supreme court. Write people. I do.
I respectfully suggest that you call Attorney Jeanine Cohen in Tampa. [legal advice moderated]. Jeanine Cohen’s office might be a good stop. She’s the best today. Good luck! 🤞
As a former resident of FCCC, I can confirm that it is really all about extending the prison sentences for people who have already served their time. Residents are able to get about 5 to 6 hours of treatment per week. Yet they are forced to be there 24/7. The conditions of confinement are, in many ways, worse that what they endured while in prison. The majority are forced to live in “open-bay” dorms without any privacy, almost constant noise, and a very prison like environment. Most of the officers are hell-bent on being as obnoxious and punitive as possible. There are far fewer recreational opportunities than were available in prison. Most prisons have a large “rec” yard where inmates can play football, soccer, baseball, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, and can run. FCCC has a small, mostly blacktop, yard that is barely larger than a basketball court. There is almost no green space. Most indoor communal spaces are “multi-purpose” which means that it can be used only for one type of activity at a time. So, finding space to do anything is a problem. The facility is actually a jail that they simply repurposed as a civil commitment center.
Even the Florida legislature has admitted that the civil commitment law is a “stop gap” measure. (The penalties were dramatically increased in the late 1990’s. The legislature, apparently, did not like that those who committed crimes before the increase in penalties would not serve as much time in prison, so they created the civil commitment law. This is the “stop-gap”.
While most of the clinical staff are really trying their best, they are forced to either take a back seat to the FCCC Administration’s and Security Staff’s punitive policies or risk being fired.
Residents, who are there for treatment, instead end up with an incredible amount of distracting stress due to inadequate space, facilities, food, privacy, and peace, that they get a tiny fraction of the potential benefit of treatment. Your tax dollars at work, folks. The program could be a huge benefit to society, but, instead of doing it properly, the law makers have done as little as possible (even to the point to creating special exemptions that allow them to not give the same benefits that all other mental health commitments receive in Florida). In short, it is nothing more that a way to secure votes and a money grab by the for profit corporation the is able to provide enough kickbacks to secure the operational contract.
Hello, my son is currently at FCCC. He worked very hard during his incarcerated to become a productive citizen, by working his way in to the worship wing at the prison, obtaining his plumbing certificate and staying away from the negative influences that are readily available in prison. A 30 min interview with a state Dr. decided he was not fit to re-enter society and he is committed and feeling no hope. This is a very slow process and no one is available to help. any suggestions.
Tracy
Depending on how much access you have to funding. Sometimes you can hire a lawyer to get them released to an outside private facility. Good news bad news though. The good news is, he is no longer in a prison setting, the bad news is, these places are in it for the money so they have little incentive to ever release him either.
Other ideas are:
Petition the Governor of your state.
Organize a protest outside the prison with other family members of other inmates. Even get the media involved in the hypocrisy of keeping someone beyond their sentence. (Try and connect with some of the other families)
Hire a lawyer to challenge the illegal practice of holding people past their sentences.
And A lot of prayer doesn’t hurt either. I mean heck, they are trying to release the man who shot one of the kennedy’s .
Thank you Cherokeejack,
The past few months”looked” really good for my son to be released, he had completed necessary steps in treatment they required. On Tues 6/21/22 he received a zoom call with his attorney stating he had a release date of July 11th this year!! He finally felt some happiness. On 6/22/22 the next day he received a call from his Dr who is hired by the attorney, notified him that she had received a final report and felt he should work on a few more things and will revisit the possibility of release in a year! My son is very devastated as are we! I am going to increase the battle to get him justice. This is such an injustice, I failed to mention he spent 4.5 years in prison, won his appeal and 5pm the day before his release he was informed he would not be coming home rather going to FCCC
Tracy
I am so sorry 🙁
I keep complaining that I cannot get off the registry but at least I am home with my family. So that puts things in perspective for me that “It could be worse”.
Thanks for the update and make sure to surround yourself with prayer warriors. And on a side note, my lawyer also hired one of those doctors before I sentenced. He wanted me to admit I was mentally ill and I told him I was NOT mentally ill, I just made a mistake. That doctor yelled at me and said I am making a big mistake.
He was trying to get me into a treatment center instead of prison. Now listening to your families’ story and struggles, I know I made the right choice. I might still be locked up if I had taken the other path.
I leave you with this verse of comfort:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
That place was built for different reasons. The Geo group stepped in private place now. Whose donating money. So now they lock up people who even got plea bargains add o they can get money. Wake up. Jails offered programs to help these inmates. Same ones. Jeffrey Donner rapist serial killers bad people should go there. Not people who just have dam criminal charges. It’s wrong. DCF over a Judges orders also. This is wrong. Probation put on hold. Wrong. Y’all.
Unfortunately, the Florida Civil Commitment Center is today under a virtual total lockdown, purportedly due to COVID-19. Practically all inmate programming has been discontinued. Inmates aren’t permitted to mingle with inmates from other living units. All outgoing and incoming mail is opened, read, and returned to sender or confiscated according to the whim of FCCC officials. Today’s Florida Civil Commitment Center isn’t just LIKE a prison – it IS a prison!
I am particularly disturbed at the observation that all mail is prohibited. This strikes me as a blatant violation of the law. Can anyone verify?
Thanks for keeping this issue alive. Apparently CCCs remain the last bastion of the state’s supposed fight against COVID. There is no way that conditions like these can reduce re-offending.
LarryP
And this is in Russia correct? Not Florida? I mean, we ALL know that something that crazy could only happen in a communist country right? I guess you also failed to mention they were all leapers as well.
Hum, this goes in the “Only in America” category. No wonder so many countries laugh at and mock us. We deserve it, it appears. If we look back in North American History, my Ancestors were killed or sent to camps after having the scared lands were ripped from them. And we won’t even get started on Slavery. But has history taught us nothing. Is the constitution just a piece of paper that hangs in the Halls of justice?
I will pray for these individuals and hope a powerful judge will put an end to the madness.
I am not sure of the circumstances of every individual who is at this facility but I know the “man” who violently raped me when I was 18 (I am now 56) has raped, kidnapped and even murdered women every time they’ve let him out of his cage. Had they given him more than an 18 month sentence after what he did, and admitted he did, to me at least 3 of his victims wouldn’t have been in danger from him.
Sexual assault is the worst thing one human can do to another, except for torture or murder. It’s a life sentence and in certain ways a death sentence. The person you were before this happened to you is gone forever. You will ever trust like you used to or feel safe in your own home like you used to.
I’m sorry, but knowing he is in that place and hearing how horrible it is makes me feel joy and I hope he has to spend the rest of his life in there!
Same 🙂
Most sex offenders released from prison do not reoffend. The man who raped you was obviously a repeat offender and not just a sex offender but much worse than even that, but that is not the norm for most. You can look up the statistics for sex offense recidivism, and you will see it is very, very low.
The psychologists claim that they know who will commit another crime in the future and that those are the ones who need treatment, but they have no way of knowing the future actions of another person. Besides that, the treatment doesn’t work and the facility is actually just more punishment, which is likely to make residents more violent, not less.
My husband & I actually attended a hearing for release from Civil commitment about 10 years ago. After listening to all of the testimony, we were convinced that the only way the plea could be denied was if the jurors’ minds had already been made up. Fortunately, the man was released and has not had an issue since. However, he spent over 2 years in Civil Commitment and it cost him over $20,000 to plead his case. Deplorable!
In NJ, there is no jury. A judge presides over it all. How ridiculous is that?!
Google the Baker Act or “process for involuntary commitment to mental hospital in Florida”. You will find wording such as “Severe”, “Dangerous”, “Threat to Oneself or Others.” The claim that Civil Commitment is not a punishment is voided by these facts: 1) Only one whom has been accused of committing a sex crime is put before a judge with the option of Civil Commitment to this facility. 2) There are cases in the criminal courts where the individual was offered a plea deal of civil commitment instead of prison. These persons were therefore deemed sane and rational enough to decide civil commitment was an ‘option’ to the criminal punishment of prison; voiding any claim that the severity of their mental health is a threat to society. Whereas, they are not being committed for treatment, they are being punished. I do not disagree with the idea of Civil Commitment, just the process, and that we try to deny the fact that we are blurring dangerous lines between our Constitutional Rights as Citizens, The Authority of the Branches of State Government to protect its citizens, and the Implementation of Criminal Punishment disguised as Mental Health.
Well said!
I’m sorry but I think we spend more time and make sure the offenders have more rights and services than we spend on the victims.
Our criminal justice system is horribly flawed and I feel bad for anyone put there that does not belong there. Violent sexual offenders belong behind bars…. locked away from society permanently!
Not all sex crimes are the same. To treat them all the same is fundamentally a human rights violation. Possibly even one of the US Constitution. This country does poorly with the reintegration of those released from prison and it has had a history of undeserving victims of crime.
The Court refers the civil commitment as “rehabilitative” and not criminal punishment. We all know the Court is wrong since the civil detainees are not free to leave; this is the standard for determining if someone is “in custody” for the purposes of mandatory Miranda warnings to ensure that the Fifth and Sixth Amendment are satisfied in the criminal defense context. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436 (1966). As usual, the Courts refuse to see it that way.
I guess I do not feel so bad now being on the registry as it could always be worse. Even though I hate it and believe it is illegal, I would rather have some freedoms while on the registry than be locked up for an undetermined amount of time after my sentence was complete. In the thinking of whoever came up with this program of commitment after completion of sentence, someone who kills someone and there sentence is over could also potentially do so again. A drug dealer and users and more than likely to keep using , it is addictive. Thieves who are released may also steal some free stuff . But only sexual offenders, like the registry are considered for the extended stay hotel commitments ?
I’ve long been an advocate campaigning against civil commitment here in NJ. my conviction was on 2003 for a crime committed in 1994 as a juvenile, and I received a five flat sentence and CSL. I was exonerated of the adult charges on June 2018 and dropped the CSL, which was making my life a living hell. Because of it, I had lost my parental rights of my 2 children, had to watch them be adopted by strangers, attempted suicide 5 times, ended up in 6 psychiatric hospitals, has trouble finding work, violated for stupid reasons which caused an extra 584 days on jail, harassed by officers daily, etc. But the biggest fear of all was that looming civil commitment that they could throw at you any day. Hope is slim in NJ after that. I feel civil commitment is akin to the movie “Minoritu Report.” They are locking you up for a crime yet to be committed, as if they can read the future. Of course, they don’t call you inmates, you are now ‘patients’. Its sick and inhuman and violates everything this country supposedly stands for. It’s a proven fact that the recidivism rate of sex offenders who receive treatment is very low, almost 7%. The people being caught are the first time offenders, the uncles, the neighbor, the step father, people who are close to the victim. The media wants to trump up the recidivism rates by skewing the numbers. They use the number that a sex offender will commit ANY other crime in the future, not just a sex offense. Sure, that’s high, but it’s still lower than let’s say a drug dealer committing any other crime which is like 75%. A sex offender on the street is actually safer than other convicts on the street! Civil commitment is disgusting, Draconian, and inhuman. It’s a waste of money, it does not make the streets safer, and it’s just plain wrong. You CANNOT punish a person for something you THINK they may do sometime in the FUTURE!!
Raymond, I agree with you 100%. I am sorry you have gone through so much. My son was a first time offender, served his whole sentence and then he was civilly committed to a maximum security prison/hospital. It is draconian. It is inhumane. It is unconstitutional. It does not make anyone safer. It is disgusting. It is wrong. It violates every citizens’ rights to live an inalienable life. Americans should wake up and realize that with every bad law passed, we lose another right. Soon, it will be like Minority Report.