Not in custody? Hardly!
Across the country, jurisdictions impose extraordinary restrictions on individuals subject to sex-offender registration that go well beyond supervision, surveillance, or merely “being on a list.” A striking example: in Chatham County, Georgia, the county sheriff announced that this year all level 3 sex offenders must report to jail on Halloween night for three hours. The public justification: “for the safety of trick-or-treaters.” Yet at the same time, decades of empirical research show there is no increase in sex offences or abductions on Halloween.
What Chatham’s policy illustrates is the blunt use of registrant-status to impose custodial constraints—regardless of anything the individual has done, regardless of current risk, and without reasonable suspicion of any crime being committed. Being told to “report to jail for three hours” and subject to law-enforcement monitoring during that time is, by definition, custody. The person isn’t free to go about their life. They can’t choose to go out for dinner or stay in bed and watch TV. They are under compulsion to attend, remain for a set period, under supervision, in law-enforcement space!
This raises profound constitutional questions, especially in light of the recent appellate decision in Clements (11th Cir. July 2025). In that case, the court confronted whether the cumulative effect of Florida’s lifetime registration, reporting, and residency restrictions might render a person “in custody” for purposes of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction. The court held that while the registration and reporting requirements had not been found sufficient on their own, the question of whether residency restrictions might tip the scale required further record development.
Aside from the legal issue present here, from a policy standpoint, the premises underlying these “Halloween report-in” mandates are shaky. Research analyzing tens of thousands of non-familial sexual offences among children found no statistically significant increase on Halloween. Yet we see counties devoting resources to mandatory incarceration, curfews, and heightened monitoring of registrants when the danger is not shown to exist.
The 11th Circuit in Clements signaled that we are approaching the limit of how far these post-conviction controls can go without becoming tantamount to custody. FAC is proud to be assisting in the Clements case. We need to stop punishment that extends beyond the sentence and subjecting free persons to a custodial setting without the protections that would attach.
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Local municipalities are constantly brand standing and pushing the limits with their ordinances to see what will stick. Anything that does will quickly be adopted elsewhere. We are constantly fighting against taxpayer-funded battles for our basic rights.
Holy crap!!! That’s a bit extreme. During hurricane season in Leon county my only option if I want to shelter is the county jail. Because all of the shelters in this county are at the local schools
I find it odd that I can’t even renew my registration online for my car like everyone else can. It’s crazy the things they take from us that make no sense.
I still think this is an opportunity: trek to Washington, give Trump a million dollars and ask him to get the DOJ that controls the registry to get rid of it. Give him the compelling reason that so many of his religious and political buddies keep getting charged with crimes that put them on the registry. It really could be that simple. Could.
If you’d like to try this approach, we encourage you to.
I’d like to thank this sheriff, is stupidity like this that makes it easier for us to make the argument that the registry is indeed punishment and thus should be abolished.
In this situation if I resided there and met the level criteria I simply would not show up. They would have to come and arrest me (without a warrant) and without probable cause. The Sheriff is not the legislator and not a judge thus cannot impose a sentence. Due Process still exists and the lawsuit would award me enough to live the rest of my life with ease.