If It’s About Public Safety, Then Who Exactly Is It Protecting?
In our work with families of registered citizens, FAC has been contacted hundreds of times by spouses, children, social workers and others trying to solve a problem that should never have to exist. How do you find a place for an elderly or profoundly disabled person who needs assisted living or nursing care when the registry makes him unplaceable?
One call came from the son of a registered citizen. His father was in his 80s and could no longer live anywhere near his family because of residency restrictions. His only realistic option was to move to Orlando and live in an offender housing home with five other men. It wasn’t ideal for him. It certainly wasn’t ideal for his children, who now had to drive four hours to see their father. But at least he had a roof over his head.
Then, earlier this year, he suffered a massive stroke. He spent weeks in a coma. He survived, but was left permanently incapacitated and immobile. He would never again be capable of caring for himself (let alone repeating his offense from decades ago). His family, hospital social workers and FAC volunteers desperately searched for a nursing home that would accept him. They couldn’t find one in Florida. His status on the registry made placement impossible.
And this isn’t an isolated story. We’ve encountered this problem hundreds of times. People who are so old, so sick, so disabled or so medically incapacitated that they cannot possibly carry out the conduct the registry is supposedly designed to prevent are still treated as though the only relevant fact is what appears next to their name on a government website.
Which brings us to this week’s controversy in Michigan. More than 20,000 people were removed from Michigan’s registry after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that applying later versions of the state’s registration law retroactively violated the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto punishment. Among those removed was notorious US Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar.
Understandably, that name produces a visceral reaction. The crimes were horrific. But here’s a question that will be unpopular to ask, but relevant: If the registry is a public-safety tool and not punishment, what public-safety purpose is served by keeping Larry Nassar on Michigan’s registry? Nassar is 63 and currently incarcerated at FCI Lewisburg in Pennsylvania, serving a 60-year federal sentence. His projected federal release date has been reported as 2068. He’ll die in prison.
He’s not living in a Michigan neighborhood. He’s not walking around Michigan. He’s not reporting his internet identifiers or travel plans – the guy is not going anywhere, ever! So what, exactly, does keeping his name on a Michigan registry accomplish ? The answer cannot simply be, “because he deserves to be shamed on the list.” That’s punishment, and governments go to great length to make clear that the registry is not punishment.
If the purpose of the registry is to identify people who pose a public-safety concern, then there has to be some mechanism for recognizing reality and making individualized assessments. Age matters. Physical condition matters. Incapacitation matters. Incarceration matters. Location matters. Present risk matters. Otherwise, the registry isn’t really a public-safety tool. I know Larry Nassar is probably not a good example to use in this argument, but at least let’s be honest about this.
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I’ve seen several posts on line concerning the Larry Nassar thing.
With very few exceptions they are the expected wishes for retribution from those not affected. Panem et Circenses
And then the outlier peeks through.
Comments like ‘basically I’m against registries in general’ or ‘this is about ex-post facto’. And the comments are what we’ve come to expect.
No 10 second sound bite is going to fix this problem.
I dont have the answers but I do have questions. Questions like, Why are those who are locked in a prison on that list?
What a great question. Why are those locked in prison on that list? Is it so the voters can clutch their pearls while praising the watchers of the incarcerated? Is it so the voters attention can be distracted away from what nation ending thing our politicians are doing? God forbid.
I for one would like an answer.
Why are those locked up in prison on that list?
The timing of the Cornell thing is highly suspect, also. Don’t you think? Right here in front of the midterms. What a convenient distraction that is, huh?
“Why are those who are locked in a prison on that list?”
The it’s for “public safety” lie falls apart when someone is incarerated and on that list. It serves no legitmate purpose other than shaming and intentional malice. Even if he WAS released, it’s still absolute punishment in scope and nature to be listed on a searchable, online registry.
Facts
Getting off the registry is like winning the lottery for two reasons. Both the lottery and the Registry have odds against us. And secondly, it is like winning the lottery for your freedom, likened to when we were released from our prison sentences/probation or house arrest.
I do not mind having a record for life, but the registration for life to me is basically a probation like check in, that in Florida never goes away except for a few fortunate people. And who else that is not on probation has cops coming to their house so often that the neighbors think we are drug dealers.
We have done our time, and then some to the 100th power in Algebra. When does the punishment that is not punishment, but it is, going to end? For most of us, unless we get a break, we are on the registry for life, and even after death if your family doesn’t know how to get us removed. That shows how twisted the registry is for money and funding that dead people’s family have to see that their dead relative is still being exploited for funding purposed for the registry cause.
I am designated sexual predator. My crime was in 1995. My question is simple, aren’t I still considered a citizen? They say the registry is to protect citizens, so I have a question for the powers that be, what are you doing to protect me? Oh, I get it you post my name, address and my picture for those who want to help me out. The many restrictions are designed to keep me safe and free.
Thank you for fulfilling your duties and oath to keep ALL citizens safe.
Unfortunately, common sense and politicians don’t often collide in the same sentence…
Politicians and diapers should be changed often. And for the same reason.
… Let’s at least be honest about this??? ….Honesty? Ha!
The judiciary and legislators in this nation have twisted and perverted the rule of law (the US Constitution)!!
This whole registry scheme is based on patent dishonesty. They have traded the rule of law for the expediency of catering to mob justice!!
They have twisted the principles that made this nation a bastion of freedom (liberty) because of a fear-mongering, witch-hunting, overblown, prudish hysteria!
Centuries from now historians will look at this hysterical registry and point to the hypocrisy, dishonesty, greed and whipped-up frenzy of fear that drove mob justice to pervert the most basic tenets that this nation was founded on: LIBERTY and EQUAL JUSTICE!!
Honesty???? Pshaw!
Politicians love being “tough on crime” and all that BS. Whoever initially rung the bell on the registry has most likely found that bell cannot be unrung because to do so would be political suicide. It’s going to take some brave judges to fix this system.
Meanwhile, there is an out pour of sympathy for someone sentenced to death in TN over a botched execution. Also another case where a person that admittedly M’ed her 3 children and tried to out herself and failed on that one, but for us that completed our sentences and have since successfully reintegrated, it’s “to the woodchipper” and wishes of banishment and genocide to PFR’S that just want to do this thing called life, provide for our familes, and live peacefully. All other crimes get written off as “well they did their time, give them another chance”. Ours, there is no real second chance at redemption, just ridicule and hate towards us.
“If It’s About Public Safety, Then Who Exactly Is It Protecting?
No one, but it’s feeding society’s insatiable thirst for bandwagon outrage, hate and revenge. Everything surrounding the registry is a reflection of society, not the people subjected to these laws. Social media and cell phones catapulted the court of public opinion beyond the point of no return. There is no reaching someone that has already formed an opinion in their mind based entirely on emotion.