Florida Approves Database to Publish Details of People Who Pay for Sex
he Florida legislature passed legislation within the past week, Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851, to establish a public database that tracks people convicted of, or who have pleaded guilty to, soliciting paid sex.
While the legislation’s bipartisan authors consider it to be a step toward ending human trafficking, critics call it a means to publicly shame clients and others associated with people who do consensual sex work.
The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database will include anyone convicted of or pleading guilty to “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation,” according to the Senate version of the bill, drafted by Democratic Senator Lauren Book.
“This isn’t creating a list of bad or dangerous clients; it’s just a list of clients who got caught by the police,” Bailey told Filter. “It’s impossible to tell the good guys from the bad if you lump them all together. Men who pay for sex aren’t predators. Predators who pose as clients are. When you make potential clients scared of giving sex workers the information they need to screen, you make it impossible to tell the difference between men who are scared and men who are scary.”
And inclusion in the Database would have ripple effects across a client’s life. “Putting them on a registry and imposing a mandatory sentence of five days for a first offense could result in lost wages and lost jobs,” wrote Andrews. “Public shaming of a consensual act could result in the breaking up of a family. A lost job could result in losing health insurance benefits. A lost job might mean they can’t pay the rent or the mortgage or buy food. They may not be able to get another job because they are on this registry. It perpetuates poverty.”
“Research does not support punitive public shaming. Our legislators need to listen to sex workers and victims of trafficking.”
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FYI Polk county people a silver Yaris is making a trip to my house every couple weeks and taking pictures of my autos. My guess is operation karma.
“…drafted by Democratic Senator Lauren Book.”
Oh I see, this is the same Scumbag that is sponsored by GEO, SGS and other For-Profit Prison groups.
I do question the thinking capabilities of voters in Florida:
Why vote for someone that will keep creating laws to ensnare more people into the criminal justice system to reward her sponsors?
How’s voting ‘Conservative’ been working out for you, Florida? One of the most ass-backwards, Beautiful states. What a waste.
The final bill, CS/CS/CS/HB 851, Engrossed 2, requires this information on the “Johns:”
(3) The database must include all of the following on each offender:
(a) His or her full legal name.
(b) His or her last known address.
(c) A color photograph of him or her.
(d) The offense for which he or she was convicted.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/851/BillText/e2/PDF
I find disingenuous the language in the bill that “The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) shall perform a study of the effectiveness of the database,” since legislators have repeatedly ignored OPPAGA’s findings on the efficacy of the “Sex Offender” Registry.
http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/Reports/pdf/1808rpt.pdf
I wonder how long it will take before more information is needed on the Johns or the solicitation for prostitution will be included on the “Sex Offender” Registry?
As to FDOC’s alleged recidivism rate of 28% for “Sex Offenders:”
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/recidivism/RecidivismReport2018.pdf
I question it’s legitimacy.
Will these folks be allowed into shelters when evacuation orders are given or prevented from entering and staying like others who are also on a public registry are?
Loss wages and lost jobs because of data base of public shaming Sure in the hell sounds like the Sex Offender Registery hmm What the hell are people smoking in the public held offices? Because they surely lost their minds I got a great idea to solve this !! Lets just make one big badlist of crimes for EVERY Thing and Call it the “minority Report” and just be done with it
It seems a given fact that anything and everything that could be construed involving sex Lauren Book has her nose in it and wants to make a law against it. It almost seems that she will soon want to make it so that simply using the three letter ‘S’ word could be a criminal offense.