Reforming Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Laws
Dear Members an Advocates, 2023 marks the 50th year since the U.S. prison population began its extraordinary surge. To date over five million people are under supervision by the criminal legal system, and nearly two million people, disproportionately Black, are currently incarcerated in our nation’s jails and prisons. This represents a 500 percent increase since 1973. How did we get here? Many of the conditions
Read moreDear Members and Advocates, Take a minute to look back on the pandemic period of 2020. As the world was encouraging individuals to take every conceivable precaution to protect themselves and others from spreading the Coronavirus, those concerns did not apply to people required to register. In the middle of a pandemic, the Florida Governor still required people on the registry
Read moreMississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions has been struck down in a new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court ruled in the case of Hopkins v. Hosemann that by banning former offenders “from the body politic forever” they will be punished “beyond the term their culpability requires,” according
Read moreBy Guy Hamilton-Smith THE FOLLOWING IS THE OPINION OF ONE OF OUR MEMBERS AND NOT NECESSARILY THAT OF THE FLORIDA ACTION COMMITTEE: Felony disenfranchisement had been an interest of mine ever since I received a letter in the mail from the state, telling me that my name had been removed from the rolls of eligible voters because of my conviction.
Read moreThe Hernando Sun ran an article on the changes in the Hernando County SO Ordinance, all thanks to our two county coordinators there. County Commissioner John Allocco said the need for the changes was brought to his attention after he was contacted by several people who were seeking clarification so they did not run afoul of the ordinance. “They are just
Read moreMajor Concerns: Probation officers in Hillsborough County and Pinellas County are sending people, who are on sex offender probation and have no place to live, to wooded areas to reside. The probation officers are telling the probationers to “go back there” (into the woods) and remain there until morning. The probation officers involved and the Florida Department of Corrections claim
Read more