Senator Brandes is sponsoring SB 560, the objective of which is “Renaming the Criminal Punishment Code as the Public Safety Code; revising the primary purpose of sentencing under the Public Safety Code from punishing an offender to public safety”
This sounds like a great concept. Criminal Justice shouldn’t be about public safety! But will this bill, if passed, take into account the new “primary purpose” of criminal justice laws as being public safety? Let’s hope so!
Since this bill covers the criminal statutes including the registration statutes and the primary purpose of the statute is ‘Public Safety’ it would certainly make sense that the registration laws have a demonstrable impact on public safety, right?
The best thing you can do is NOT to move. That way you stay in one jurisdiction.
In California, SB 384 was signed in 2017 to move to a tiered system as of 2021.
AB 884 is trying to re-tier offenders again. Before SB 384 even took effect lol.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB884
So the tier 1 is a problem to prosecutors because of misdemeanors. That’s because the prosecutors rely on catch-all misdemeanors in “touch” cases. It allows them to save face when a defendent fails to meet felony charges.
Coupled with Marsys law “victim’s rights” protections you can be accused of “touching” what literally amounts to a “phantom”. This is great for when there WAS no crime (or victim) but they don’t want to drop the case.
So basically they can accuse and convict anyone of a sex offense regardless if there even WAS an offense. So might I suggest that “what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.” Now YOU play the victim and go accuse…I dunno Mister Rodgers.
Or even Abraham Lincoln.
Because it doesn’t matter. When a prosecutor is faced with the impossible they’ll pull the strings to MAKE it possible. They can fake names, they can fake ages, they can fake offenses, they can fake victims, they can fake offenders.
Marsys law grants nearly that same prosecutorial immunity to an accuser. In exchange for “constitutionally guaranteed restitution”.
The whole registration requirement is a manipulation of public safety and other post-incarceration punishments.
They are really just looking between the threads of existing laws to stick another thread and keep burying offenders in a collective blanket.
Thanks Mike Ramos! That’s probably why you got voted out. And why Kamala Harris is NOT going to win.
What would happen if all states in the Union changed the Heading of their Codebook from ‘Rehabilitation Code’ or ‘Penal Code’ to ‘Public Safety Code?’
It becomes much more difficult to prosecute the General Assembly of violating the Constitution since the wording of such laws no longer include, Punishment, Penal, Correction, etc. since now they are written as being ‘remedial’.
This has been the tipping point for many judgments against us.
Let’s see it for what it is- an attempt by Florida to avoid prosecution for not only the registry being punishment, but anyone else that would want to sue for ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for any laws that Florida feel goods to addend in the future.
In other words, “See, we are NOT punishing, we are protecting!”
This bill is gaslighting, plain and simple. Nothing but a superficial, politically correct, virtue signalling, renaming so as to appear as “justice reform.” “Look! See? Floriduh is fully engaged in justice reform!”
Nothing changed but the name! I don’t know why they saw fit to include 100+ pages with no changes! Nothing concerning registered citizens (that’s why it’s not in my legislative updates). This is not the bill you’re looking for, you can go about your business, move along … move along.
Wrong. The administration of criminal punishment is very different than that of a remedial public safe concern. Already the line has been blurred between what is Punishment and what is regulatory.
What am I wrong about? Have you read the bill?
http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/560/BillText/Filed/HTML
Most of this code is unrelated to registry. Y’all are reading waaay too much into this bill. Don’t over-analyze it.
I was just going to say this. The registry makes up a small portion of this. Why change the name? Florida DOC has zero to do with rehabilitation and they have gotten a lot of bad press lately thanks to cell phones being everywhere in prison. I think this is just a small part of a larger media type move by the state to make it look like they give a hoot.
Could it be since they like to say that The Sexual Offender Registry is not PUNISHMENT, they feel they better stop calling it Criminal Punishment Law?? Who is going to agree to change anything that comes under “Public Safety”?
This has the stink of Unintended Consequences. Pubic safety will that include Bullys? Drug infractions? DUI? Public Safety is such a feel good term that can apply to ANYTHING not currently agreed upon. Another example of a politician creating a problem where a problem did not previously exist.
Apparently “public safety” only deals with that horrible thing called “sex”.
“Public safety” means you can’t urinate behind a bush. Maybe we can start arresting dogs for urinating on fire hydrants. We seem to be heading in that direction in the good ol’ USA.
I may be reading into this the wrong way, but it seems as if he is trying to rid of the word punishment as to criminal punishment, to a more administrative or regulatory term such as public safety. Maybe to justify the registry that it isn’t punishment but a public safety issue ? Like I said, maybe I read into it wrong.
I suspect you are exactly right. The Supreme Court has allowed laws such as registration to be applied retroactively because they are not punishment, but serve a legitimate public safety purpose. Changing the name of the codes will only reinforce that view. Call me paranoid, but I see the name change as insidious move.
It is important that registries be determined to be a form of punishment. That opens the door to challenges such as ex post facto and to cruel and unusual punishment.
Betting there will be a whole separate section for sex offense punishment that will look nothing remotely like “reform.”
My guess is that by renaming ‘punishment’ as ‘public safety’ RSO can receive additional punishment….I mean public safety rules.
If registration fell under the criminal punishment code all this time without having been declared ex post facto, that suggests that the name of the code does not matter.
But overall, Brandes is a sensible senator, and this bill is harmless.
Even though Brandes is for justice reform, I believe he is the senator who added on the amendment this past session, trying to require that all registrants would have to register 48 hours in advanced with the sheriff’s office of the county in which they planned on a stay at a hotel in Florida. In addition, the hotel would have to notify everyone staying at the hotel that a registrant would be staying for the night. I lost all confidence in him after that absurdity was proposed. I trust someone will correct me if I have the wrong senator.
An added note: Ronnie’s talk tonight on the monthly FAC call was excellent, as I am sure all will agree. We also got to see some of the hard work our leadership team is doing behind the scenes. They are truly a blessing to all of us.
I do not recall Brandes’ name on that awful hotel bill amendment. I reserve the right to revise my assessment of him.
Quite possibly I am incorrect in giving Brandes credit for such an amendment.
@SarahF/Jacob,
I believe the bill you speak of was CS/CS/HB987. It was introduced by Grant and Sabatini. While in the Commerce Committee, the asinine 48-hour and notification provisos where added at the behest of Santiago and Goff-Marcil. Thank God this bill died, because it was on the calendar and about to be voted on.
The Senate companion bill was SB 824. It was introduced by Diaz, but the aforementioned provisos were attempted to be added while the bill was in the Innovation, Industry, and Technology Committee by Farmer. Thankfully, it died in that committee.