Is Your Family on the List Too?
The damage that is done every day to SO’s on the registry is undeniable. But the laws created with the intention of regulating and punishing sex offenders are also regulating and punishing the lives of their families. Many families are forced, due to economic reasons, to live within restricted areas. While one member of the family may be a RSO, the other members may need to live close to work or the family’s closest school. This leaves SOs in a particularly vulnerable place. They are torn between living with their families or moving out entirely. The majority of people on the registry are also providing for families on their own.
It is unimaginable that entire families should be asked to uproot their lives in order to comply with one residency restriction. SOs whose families have children and live in restricted areas may be unable to sleep in their own homes. They must leave the area between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. These men and women are essentially homeless between these hours. Economic reasons prohibit families from finding another home, consequently SOs are sleeping in their vehicles just to comply with the law. In this case, the laws made to punish the offender are also punishing their families. Restrictions against sex offenders were supposedly created with the intent to regulate SOs and protect families in the community. However, these laws are crossing the line and now deeply affecting and disturbing entire families because of their connection to an SO. The well being, prosperity and safety of families are being threatened when they are forced to become homeless along side the SO in their family.
Society needs to take a look at the laws they are creating and understand that their impact reaches those beyond the intended. Families should never suffer for the actions of someone they know. It is time to amend laws to fit the offense rather than allow them to continue disrupting lives and families.
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Our Family is just one such family for the past 13 years we have suffered the regulations of the system concerning sexoffender management.
From being excluded from visitation in prison by our loved ones own children while other children would be in visitation with other incarcerates in the same visitation room while his were not allowed to come see him. To dealing with the confusing rules of probation that kept him from having supervised contact with his own children while other minors under 18 only had to have a signed doc from the parents, visiting with his own children took nearly a year and a court order to probation even though his original issue had nothing to do with his children. The emotional damage done to the children was enormous. Residency restriction and banishment zones have kept our loved one from the home he grew up in and were enacted after his sentencing. Where we are located he may not even pass thru certain designated areas which his family members homes fall within with only one exception to be confined to the lots where their homes are but never to stay over nite ,and not even to be able to take a walk or a bike ride with his own children or family on the nearby roads or parks that fall wthin such exclusion zones..Our family suffered greatly due to the continued homelessness experienced by our loved one due to multiple county ordinances in Florida. A man who has paid his debt to society is no longer on any type of probation and should be free lives on the edges of society and must research every where he goes to be sure and follow the designated rules within Florida Cities and counties as well as the other collateral consequences we face as family due to the discrimination against those on the public registry. They effect almost every aspect of our lives and abilities to have a true healthy relationship with our loved one. Just to help you understand the magnitude of how many this effects just in our small family our loved one has 2 children 3 siblings 6 nieces and nephews 2 parents 2 living grandmothers 1 living great grandmother 10 great Aunts and Uncles 12 Aunts and Uncles 20 first cousins and around 25 2nd cousins at which time I loose track ,until we have a family reunion, and I am reminded of the others. So in this one registered citizens life 78 individuals direct relationships and activities at minimum are effected by this lack of FREEDOM
All true… And now it’s finally moving toward ALL criminal offenses:
This Police Department May Ban People Arrested For Crimes From Public Areas – http://huff.to/1GKr5uf