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.
The problem is sparking a national crisis of social and justice policy: How and where do we allow the most-reviled class of citizens to survive their silver years — especially those with serious age-related medical problems — after they have served their prison terms, while striving to protect children who may be living nearby?
Offenders who need care struggle to find help when their families reject them for their crimes, like Albertson’s did, or live within 1,000 feet of schools or parks, as the state’s sex offender laws restrict.
Gail Colleta, an advocate for sex offenders, has asked lawmakers to consider lifting the state’s residency restrictions if an offender is a certain age or has ailments.
“This is a humanity issue,” said Colleta, president of Florida Action Committee. “We’re more concerned about stray animals than we are about people with issues, that need to have medication, that need to have oxygen, that are just human beings.”
I am a provider for housing to those on the registry. I have gotten hundreds of calls and continue to get calls in regards to this matter. Most nursing facilities in my area are rejecting us due to our registry status. I am in the process of opening an ALF, but with only ten beds which will be occupied in a matter of days the days prior to opening, I am not even close to be of any assistance to this huge problem that is in our near future. We need our own nursing facility but with thousands of aging registrants who can afford to open a facility large enough to cater to all of us when the time comes?. I’ll be 60 this year, in the last seven years I have help and housed hundreds of registrants. The time will come where i’ll be looking for nursing assistance for my self. It seems that its up to us to fix this problem that would take millions of dollars to address. I have done much research on this matter and I am willing to help but I cannot do it alone. I have reached out to some of my competitors, the only way I see making this possible is if we all work together on this. God help us!!!
Kudos to Joanne Kuder and especially Ann Kasey for the constructive comments on the Herald’s website. Ann called out the author for not mentioning Ron Crook’s DUI.
The way that Ann Kasey is engaging and educating the other commenters is tremendous.
“Where can they live out their silver years?”
Jail, prison, or on the streets and alleyways. Politicians and the general public do indeed care more for abused animals (and illegal immigrants) than registered American citizens. I don’t see this mindset changing unless the registry is abolished, and that won’t happen in anyone’s lifetime who is over 50.
It’s despicable how Amerikkka derides and financially punishes “other nations” for human rights violations when itself is a massive violator. Not only against registered citizens but the mentally ill as well. They too will live out their “silver” years in jails, prisons, and streets.
I’m sick of the media portraying the Book Crime Family as if they have ever lifted a finger to help ANYONE in Miami that THEY MADE HOMELESS.
The registrants can’t trust the Homeless Trust. Imagine you are a stray cat, and every day some jerk comes and sprays you with a hose or kicks at you. Do you think that jerk could be trusted with finding a home for that stray? Yet that stray cat would have more rights and protections than the humans Ron and his daughter have ABUSED over the years.
The Books have NEVER helped anyone except when it served a goal. Sure, Book found homes for the JTC residents after he tore down Bookville 1, but that lasted about 3 weeks then he kicked everyone out and pocket a million bucks while claiming the well went dry.
And yet, even the once-great miami Herald is afraid to take these animals to task. now it is blah blah Lauren Book sex crime victim blah blah Homeless Trust blah blah Ron/ Lauren Book hate quotes.
This drama has played out 12 years now. The Books should be deposed from their positions and sent to prison for crimes against humanity.
I am currently on probation and am not (yet) close to nursing home age. However, the subject recently came up in a discussion with my probation officer regarding a mutual acquaintance. She said (based upon a case she had a couple of years ago) that there is only ONE place in the State of Florida that would accept a person on the registry (probation or not) for long-term care. According to her, it fell under two general categories. First, the corporate-owned home was too close to a restricted place. Second, the corporate-owned home was okay for the residency rules but the home’s rules would not allow a registrant to live there. Supposedly for “liability” issues. By the way, this supposedly also included all VA facilities in the state. Except for one. In this particular case, supposedly they placed the registrant in a “long-term rehabilitative” wing of the facility with a “wink-wink, nod-nod” that the registrant was there for medical rehabilitation. I apologize for using the term “supposedly” quite a bit. However, I utilize it knowing that what I was told might not be the actual case. If someone else knows different, this person I was talking about would be interested in knowing it.
Unfortunately unless things change I can foresee quite a few talking their lives as the quality of live continues to decline and with nothing to look forward to with ever increasing punishment and abuse.
The majority will not have a 401k to retire as employment (anything above minimum wage) are impossible with few exceptions.
Aging is difficult enough without the added guilt of being a burden on your family (assuming you have any or any who are willing to help) so the future looks like nothing to live for…
Which is why we must FIGHT these soulless monsters like Senator Lauren Book and assure that we ALL WILL have a future with the quality of life and dignity that ALL AMERICANS deserve!!!
The title of the article is defeatist. To “live out” assumes acceptance of the registry. The registry is genocide imposed by psychotics and has no legitimacy. It is to be fought incessantly. We do not live out, we fight till we drop.
Important issue in every state. I have read several articles in the past about lack of nursing home availability for registrants up here in Michigan, but no solutions offered. From the viewpoint of the nursing homes themselves, I can certainly understand their fear of what a lawsuit could do to them if a former offender commits a new crime against another resident. However, how many will have to die from lack of care before someone helps? I turn 64 next month, so the issue is close to me.