Is Florida the “Worst” state for registrants? See if you can beat us.
Florida is frequently identified by advocates, legal scholars, and affected individuals as the harshest state in the nation for people required to register as sex offenders. We at FAC certainly think so. But if you’re on the registry in another state, we’d like to know what you think. Do you think your state can beat Florida as the worst?
This is just an anecdotal poll. We’re not looking for empirical data in the comments (unless you have something handy). Just your lived experience and senses. Think of the following criteria: duration of registration, residency restrictions, frequency of reporting, public dissemination of information, opportunities for removal, criminal penalties for technical violations, and the cumulative practical effect on daily life.
The general sense among the advocacy community is that when these categories are analyzed together, several states including Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and even California are pretty rough. But we feel there’s a strong argument that Florida stands apart because it combines nearly every restrictive worst feature of these other states into a single, ever-expanding framework.
One of the most significant issues is that Florida’s registration laws are not static. Since the enactment of Fla. Stat. § 943.0435 in 1997, the statute has been amended dozens of times, with new requirements continually added over the years. What may have begun as a relatively straightforward reporting scheme has evolved into an increasingly complex regulatory system governing residence, travel, internet identifiers, vehicles, employment, education, temporary lodging, and countless other aspects of daily life. Registrants are expected to keep up with these constantly changing rules themselves, because there’s zero notice, and failure to comply, even unintentionally results in felony prosecution.
Florida’s system is also permanent. Unlike many states that offer meaningful pathways off the registry through tiered systems or petition procedures, Florida provides extremely limited opportunities for removal. In practice, most people will remain on the registry for life, including individuals whose offenses occurred decades ago and who have lived offense-free ever since. In fact, Florida’s registry is so permanent that it even includes dead people. The state maintains a “deceased” designation rather than removing those individuals entirely. So removal in Florida is extraordinarily rare regardless of time, rehabilitation, age, risk, or even death itself.
Florida also continues to list people who no longer reside in the state. Individuals who once visited Florida, complied with registration requirements while temporarily present, returned home, and were later removed from their own state’s registry still remain publicly listed in Florida indefinitely. In other words, a person may no longer be required to register where they actually live, yet Florida keeps them. And Florida Google-indexes it’s registry, it’s not behind a wall that requires people to confirm they are not going to use the information to harass or kill a registrant. You Google your name and your FDLE flyer comes up.
Another major distinction is that Florida does not fully preempt local laws. You don’t just have to deal with the State registration rules, Counties and municipalities are permitted to enact their own ordinances containing restrictions harsher than state law. This patchwork system has produced not only confusion, but some of the most restrictive local laws in the country. The absence of a statewide law means a registrant has to research and comply with state law, county law AND municipal ordinances before you even pass through a city.
Florida’s criminal penalties for technical violations are also unusually severe. Benign or paperwork-related registration issues are third-degree felonies. Unlike crimes involving violence or new victims, these cases often involve administrative mistakes, misunderstandings, or delayed reporting. And any conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence, creating situations where people face years of incarceration (often longer than their sentence for the underlying offense) for conduct that would not even constitute a crime for anyone else.
There are also the financial incentives embedded within Florida’s broader post-conviction system. Florida is home to several private, for-profit entities involved in civil commitment detention and electronic monitoring programs. These industries generate substantial revenue from continued supervision and confinement and have frequently supported legislative efforts expanding restrictions and monitoring requirements. These companies employ a powerful lobbyist who we all know. Yes, Florida is also home to the nation’s most influential anti-registrant lobbyist, Ron Book, who has played a major role in promoting increasingly restrictive legislation over the years. The irony is that the same figure associated with inventing residency restrictions that contribute to homelessness also chairs the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust. That contradiction symbolizes the broader dysfunction within this State: the same guy that created instability, is the dude they put in charge of dealing with the homelessness and displacement (like he’s going to care).
Other states may exceed Florida in one isolated category. Alabama may impose stricter overnight restrictions, Nevada requires reporting visits of 48 hours vs. 3 days, etc. But we think Florida combines them into one of the most punitive systems in the country. We’d like to hear what you think?
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I live in New Hampshire. I’m a lifetime registrant, for a crime that never happened. That being said, their’s no residency restrictions here, they don’t notify neighbors when you move, except one town that I know of, where the police take it upon themselves to notify neighbors, and they don’t list publicly where you work. What I can tell you from my experience, as long as you give them the required information and register on time, I’ve had no problems. Yes, it’ll be tough finding housing and employment like anywhere else but otherwise it could be worse. It’s a beautiful state but I’m looking to possibly move eventually only because I don’t like the winter.
Just don’t come to florida lol
FAC. Great Article. I was wondering if there is information comparing all 50 States and PR. Like in a chart form. IE States down the left side and then all the restrictions along the top and then in the boxes put yes or no. Etc. That would be huge i think for those of us who could move to another state.
Yes, there is!
https://www.probationinfo.org/restrictions/
Mine isn’t in chart form but I have a list of state level laws in the back of my book, Your Life on The List.
BUT I also have a list of local-level restrictions for a few states, including FloriDUH:
https://oncefallen.com/local-level-ordinances/
I like it when folks send me corrections on my book & spreadsheet because I strive to have these spreadsheets and my book to be as accurate as possible.
Mine isn’t in chart form but I have a list of state level laws in the back of my book, Your Life on The List.
BUT I also have a list of local-level restrictions for a few states, including FloriDUH:
https://oncefallen.com/local-level-ordinances/
I like it when folks send me corrections on my book & spreadsheet because I strive to have these spreadsheets and my book to be as accurate as possible.
Yes, FAC has an outdated version in the reference section, but getting it from the source will always be the most current.
https://a2twozee.blogspot.com/
Click on the links for State & Territorial Visitor Registration Laws Guide AND State & Territorial Visitor Registration Laws for FORMER & LONG-TERM Registrants
In my experience, Florida is the most punitive for registrants who comply with the law when on a short vacation in Florida. Had we known, the trip would not have happened, especially since my loved one has been recently removed from his state of conviction’s registry, by court order. Wondering if it’s even worth getting an attorney in Florida to petition the court since he won’t meet the very narrow laws that intentionally limit who can be removed. I fully believe Florida does this for 1. Funding of some kind using large bogus registry numbers 2. Political use to get more votes and sound tough (do Floridians even know how many are out of state or dead?)
Yes they are i dont have to register colorado or did and florida will not take you off. It’s a very hard no. And your in loophole since conviction not in florida you can’t petition for clemency or pardon.
I had never heard of Ron Book. What a joke of a man. Arrested for DUI in 2019. Vows to end homelessness, even though he is pro registry laws. His business is as a full-service lobbyist. This man is a contradiction. In addition, a greedy tyrant. Every time he lobbies for or against something he makes money. There are not enough words to fully describe this smarmy snake. Playing off the irrational fears of the public.
When Ron Book’s employee was serial abusing Book’s child, Book looked the other way. But Book was eventually able to capitalize on his child’s trauma by creating profitable opportunities for his lobbying clients.
That child, meanwhile, grew up to become a lawmaker. She also established a charity from which she was able to draw a supplemental salary while legislating. That salary-paying charity was able to be funded both by taxpayer-funded state grants approved by her senate colleagues, and by favor-seekers who had already hit campaign donation limits and wished to donate more.
Senator Lauren Book I think had a true passion for protecting children from abuse, especially the sort of abuse that she suffered under her father’s care. But the laws she sponsored failed to reduce child sexual abuse. And she still had difficulty identifying abusers. Even an attorney with whom she partnered turned out to have been a user of child sexual abuse material. And, perhaps most tragically, she put her own loved ones in the care of a pediatrician who himself turned out to have been a user of child sexual abuse material.
Cookie is right that Ron Book got arrested for DUI. He even almost got someone killed. But due to his lobbying business, he was able to afford excellent representation and got the charges pled down to reckless driving. Children in Book’s community still need to exercise caution, because statistically, once an inebriated driver, always an inebriated driver, they simply cannot be cured.
I am still hopeful that either Ron Book or Lauren Book one day will reform their ways and accomplish something constructive for this state.
*(All observations here are my own).
A few others come to mind. One in particular. John Walsh.
John Walsh monopolized on his son’s tragedy.
“Senator Lauren Book I think had a true passion for protecting children from abuse”
Nah she’s just a grifter like John Walsh and Mark Lunsford. Playing the professional victim is easy money.
Tennessee from what I understand is pretty harsh. Reporting is either 48 or 72 hours, you are added to the registry for life, even for just staying briefly. Presence restrictions are harsh and militantly enforced by extensive use of ALPR’s, etc. The presence restrictions encompass a wide variety of areas “where children congregate” and that term in Tennessee is loosely defined. And now they either are trying to pass or have passed a law where a registrant must use their full name as their username for all internet identifiers.
@Anonymus
NOW that is something we hope to God we don’t get here, having to use our real names on internet emails etc. Our in boxes would be loaded every day with threats to kill us and telling us “We have your email and we know where you live”. That is very disturbing.
If that happened here, I guess I would just close down all internet and not even use the computer. But we have FAC on our side and am sure a lawsuit would be on order.
Tennessee provides the best example of how a state can find ways to be quite punitive even after its Federal circuit (in this case the 6th) has found many registry provisions to be unconstitutional.
To anyone with a federal CP conviction and not on supervised release, where can I move to that’s outside of Florida and has a better way of life? I live in constant fear of arrest for a technical violation for some registy misstep and for traveling through a county like Union County where my mere presence can land me in jail. Please advise! Thanks!
West Virginia is very leinant when it comes to RSO’s mostly because they don’t have the money but as long as you register i believe its once a year they leave you alone. a lot of business’s up here will employ you even if your on the registry. i have also heard Utah and Vt are great places to live if you have to register