Florida’s Elderly Sex Offenders Shutout Of Housing
Since 82-year-old Leonard Bailey hit his head in a fall eight months ago, he can’t remember to take his medicine.
His ex-wife, Marianne Devita, calls him 11 times a day to remind him about his appointments.
At that stage of dementia, many families would consider admitting him to a nursing home, but Devita said she has a list of assisted living homes that have rejected Bailey. The pages lined up are as tall as Devita’s grandson — whom Bailey has never seen.
“Nobody wants him,” she said. “Nobody wants a sex offender.”
Bailey is among a growing number of elderly sex offenders: People on Florida’s list of 73,000 registered offenders who are 65 and older jumped 2 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to the state’s legislative auditors, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Florida’s registry has about 10,200 elderly offenders.
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https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/the-defenders-sex-offenders-in-nursing-homes/275-923c45f8-599c-407d-bfb4-43543dbfa04a
Quoth the detective: “It’s a lifelong battle for them.”
Nothing like a heaping helping of BS on top of a steaming pile of fear-mongering.
Ron Book says in the article that “Sex crimes are sex crimes. Doesn’t matter if they’re 18 or 98.”
Drunk driving offenses are drunk driving offenses. Doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or 98. Or a lobbyist with a state senator in your family.
Gail getting out into the national press— this is great.
The article focused its attention on an elderly individual who, as an elderly person, committed a hands-on crime against a child.
Is this common among elderly registrants requiring nursing care?
Or do we more typically see elderly who are on the registry as a result of a different sort of crime committed when they were younger?
After all, so long as Florida mandates life registration for all types of former sexual offenders, keeping the elderly from housing will be increasingly difficult to justify.
If I had better statistics, I’d respond with a letter to the editor.
This is nothing but discrimination and a class action lawsuit should be brought against them !!
Becoming a problem here in Michigan too. Ridiculous thing is that you can talk to almost any worker in a nursing home who will tell you about the frequency that patients grab them inappropriately and sexually. Any person who is suffering from dementia can be a danger in that way. Yet, the real cases of sexual abuse in nursing homes are committed by staff, not by worn out old people.
Gail’s comments are true; people care more about stray animals (and illegals) than registered citizens. Sending Mr. Bailey back to prison would be a death sentence. Other prisoners prey on elderly, weak-minded, and “sex offender” inmates; Leonard is all three. And it’s good to see you can always count on Daddy/Nanny Ron to put in a kind word:
“Sex crimes are sex crimes,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if they’re 18 or 98.”
I read that comment from him and knowing his drinking and driving skills I was like……argh. He is the worst kind of person. He sets out to hurt children and adults on purpose.