An elderly registrant who we wrote about in recent weeks (see: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/the-blurring-line-between-mental-health-and-criminal-justice/) died Thursday while still in custody.
Less than a month ago, we wrote, “Right now, the 85 year old who got arrested yesterday is sitting in Volusia County Jail. He had his first appearance a half hour ago and his arraignment is scheduled for September 6th. Because he’s on the registry (for the WalMart thing) and now violated his probation, he will remain in custody. Who knows if the guy even knows where he is or why he’s there? One thing is for sure though, he’s probably not going to get better sitting in there.”
And he didn’t.
Volusia County Spokesman Gary Davidson said Kolb “was transported from the jail to Halifax Health Medical Center on Tuesday for a medical issue and died at the hospital on Thursday. The Volusia Sheriff’s Office is conducting a routine death investigation, which is customary.”
We NEED to find better ways to deal with elderly and mentally ill registrants!
This is so disturbing for me because this is the future I see for myself. I will be 70 in two weeks and although I’d like to think I’ll live a long time, if I do I’ll eventually become physically or mentally impaired at which point I’ll slip up on my registration somehow and WHAMMO!! the State of Florida will have me exactly where they want me. Instead of dying in an assisted living facility paid for by Medicare, my “assisted living facility” will be a Florida prison where I’ll probably be beaten to death by prison gangsters (probably the “Unforgiven” which specializes in extortion and beating down registrants) all at Florida taxpayers expense.
“We NEED to find better ways to deal with elderly and mentally ill registrants!”
Actually, we need to find a way to discredit and debunk their so-called “public safety” argument they keep using every damn time to defend the registry which is obviously torture, neglect and willful punishment.
We have studies to discredit and debunk.
This is so wrong! He never got to defend himself against the charges!
Few ever die in prison. A corpse will transported from prison to hospital and there pronounced dead of natural causes. Prison death stats as a result are quite favorable, no?
At least he’s off the registry.
Oh, wait. It’s Florida…
Very sad news / pray that one day that we can see true justice for those who are never given a second chance in life.
This is very, very sad news. It is shocking to me that people get so upset about this guys behavior instead of putting in all in prospective. My whole life I have heard….It will cost you your first born blah blah….I know I may be simplifying it, but I think you get my point. The only crime would be by the person who said yes, give me money. Or if they were the one’s trying to sell the person. But otherwise it is more than obvious the stupidity.
How can a citizen introduce legislation? That’s what it will take. That and lawsuits for cruel and unusual punishment. This sounds like a civil rights violation to me.
I saw the headline in the Daytona News-Journal. Doesn’t say how he died. Curious if it was natural cause or something else.