The Palm Beach Post reported yesterday that a 32 year old man who last year plead guilty to the lewd or lascivious battery of a 12-year-old died while in a medium-security lockup. Authorities are investigating the cause of his death.
The number of reported deaths behind bars of people convicted or accused of these offenses is growing. If you have a loved one in custody, you might want to consider contacting the Florida Department of Corrections, 501 South Calhoun Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500 to ask what is being done to address this concern.
My heart goes out to Mr. Harris’ family. No one deserves to be murdered, or driven to suicide, especially by the hands of self-righteous inmates or guards.
I noticed the article cites yet another failure of our so-called “justice system”: “As a teen, Harris spent a year in jail for battery of a child, according to Palm Beach County court records.” So, as a teen, why wasn’t this man given the help he needed?
Although the chances of a “sex offender” getting killed in jail or prison is still higher than it is on the outside, it is no longer a certainty that we are immune out here. The registry, and the media-created panic it invokes, greatly increase the chances of harm not only coming to registrants, but to their families as well.
I was never in in Az ‘s Prison system. My nosy neighbor boyfriend told me that Az has four(4) prisons just to house people who have to register, Now I don’t know if he meant four dorms on one compound, One dorm per prison or whatnot.I wasn’t really interested in the prison system here. I don’t plan on attending one
I know for a fact certain Fla. correctional Inst.have Close Management, CHU,and SHU. Perhaps they should do what I saw them do for Protective custody inmates house them by and have a fence separate them
Unfortunately what Fl would do would be to keep you locked in your cell for 23hrs a day. I myself would never go for that. I never had an issue in gen population. I’m not a big or loud person, I’m 5’6 (on a good day), however on my first day in prison I had to defend myself against a big individual 6’2”. I stood my ground and had to knock a tooth out. I was 22. The next 12 years I spent in prison I never had any issues with anyone. In fact I became accepted in most groups.. was prison nice, heck no. But I stride up for myself and my life was 100 better. I saw plenty of people who were SOs that let everyone walk all over them and had the most miserable time. I attempted to intervene however the individuals would rather let it be and be taken advantage of. Unfortunately I could not do anything more.
I wonder what Sheriff Shtwood of Volusia County is doing to protect sex offenders in his jail. From Shtwood’s language in the report below, one has to wonder if he’d put a mafia style hit out himself.
https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-sheriff-chitwood-speaks-out-on-bond-granted-to-convicted-child-sex-offender/29049543
I was just wondering something. I’ve seen on commercials from attorneys that say if you go into an establishment the owner is responsible for injury or anything life threating. My question is what would happen if someone on the registry was assaulted with injury’s and or death, would the state of Florida be responsible for their injury’s?
It’s very disturbing to us who care, but to most people who have no connection to SOs, it doesn’t matter. Infact, the death of any prisoner matters little to them. 🙁
When people wonder how and innocent person can end up on this damn sex offender list I always tell them I took a “plea bargain” to avoid any possibility of jail time precisely because of these well known murders of those labelled as sex offenders in prison!
Sorry but it’s the truth – sex offender registries do not work and one of the reasons is that they are full of innocent people!
I expect the Registries are full of guilty people. But whatever. Registries are stupid and protect no one. Registries aren’t needed or significantly beneficial either. It’s easy to understand and know why but the “people” who support the Registries are usually quite dumb and don’t care regardless.
If I were innocent and persecuted, I’m afraid I would have to retaliate against anyone responsible.