URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Florida wants to reduce registration period to 3 days!
Senator Lauren Book (senate) and representative Fitzenhagen (House) have sponsored legislation that, among other things, would reduce the number of days that constitutes a permanent or temporary residence to THREE (3) days, instead of the current FIVE (5) days.
Five days is bad enough, but three days would mean no more long weekends away with the family without having to take the extra day off to go IN PERSON to the DMV to change your address (and then again, to change it back)!
HB 1301: Sexual Offenders and Predators
SB 1226: Sentencing for Sexual Offenders and Sexual Predators
Sexual Offenders and Predators; Reduces aggregate & consecutive number of days used to determine residency for purposes of sexual predator or sexual offender registration; provides for mandatory minimum sentence of community control with electronic monitoring for certain offenses.
It will change the current 5 days to 3 days. Require in person notification!
It’s impossible for registrants to comply. This is just another tactic of the legislature to set mine fields for registrants who want to travel or for visitors to our state.
Once on the Florida Registry … even if you are not on a public registry in their home state … they will be now, courtesy of Florida.
For those who DO live here and periodically travel, this requirement is unrealistic. You would have to make TWO trips to the DMV to change your address (and then change it back). For a three-day trip, you’d have to spend two days waiting at the DMV.
FIND YOUR LEGISLATOR HERE:
https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
Tallahassee Office
202 Senate Office Building
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
(850) 487-5032
Senate VOIP: 5032
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This was my email to all addresses provided by FAC –
Representatives:
I am writing on behalf of myself and those that would be affected by this terrible bill that’s been put forward and now has passed committee. It seems easy, perhaps maybe even an afterthought- to just say Yes to anything that further punishes or make the lives of those who are unfortunate enough to have this label; sex offender, worse.
So rather than argue the moral implications of what this will do to the population trying to survive, their families, and those that are lucky enough to actually HAVE housing. Let’s look at what this will primarily do:
First – Residency reporting: You should know that at least 18 Florida Counties have at least 3 continuous days where Sex Offender reporting and registration can not be done. This will place a burden on those counties who already have a tough time monitoring those who are off probation or parole and have to manage a very strict transient population because of the law stating 30 day recurring registration for those that are homeless. This will cost taxpayers money and stretch Florida Sheriff’s departments and their budgets further due to this constraint.
Second – Those with the label DO TRAVEL – for work, to see family in other states, emergencies, same things the rest of the country does. Hard for some of you to believe – but the label encompasses a LOT of different crimes not just heinous ones. So yes there are friends and family that care about those in that population and reducing the time to 3 days makes it near impossible to visit anyone. My family, for example, lives near Chicago. This is a big country -relegating us to 72 hours is cruel and unnecessary period.
Third – Registrants won’t be able to comply and this could adversely cause a surge in the homeless populations of these offenders. That means no addresses! Less monitoring etc. Example? Look at what happened with Ron and Lauren Book’s lovely sex offender ordinances in Miami-Dade county. Hundreds of offenders forced to live under a causeway – now they will be forced to be locked up simply for being homeless due to another sponsored ordinance. But that is another subject.
The next part of the bill deals with community control with electronic monitoring. According to current statutes, this already occurs on any offenses that happen after October 1 2005. I am not sure what is accomplished by re-affirming this.
Finally let me ask a few questions of you: Why is this bill needed? What has changed that warrants this departure from monitoring offenders and making their lives more horrible?
The idea of punishing someone AFTER they have completed their sentence has and is against several US Constitutional amendments. Michigan just found that out after they tried to pass Post de Facto laws to their sex offender statutes. The US Supreme Court refused to hear Michigan’s appeal and thus the US Appeals court for that district ruling, which struck down the law, was upheld. Thus Michigan is being forced to re-write their own Sex Offender laws after it was deemed “punishment”.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/10/02/sex-offender-registry-law-united-states-supreme-court/723447001/
The fact is – these are nothing but “feel-good” laws that do nothing to provide safety and awareness for the State and its citizens. And a law like this will most likely have the opposite effect as registrants scramble to find approved address before being homeless.
It’s not just about the Offenders or Predators. Their families are involved and tied to them. They are innocent. Should they be subjected to this? Businesses may suddenly have pockets of registrants living near them as they are forced to live outside of large buffer zones with insufficient time to find housing with transients near their customers.
To conclude – here is the point. The law ISN’T NEEDED. Unless Lauren and Ron Book can provide some valid reasons why they need to turn 77,000 offenders and thousands of families up on-end for the sake of passing something with their name on it. The Vote should be No. Please, I implore all of you – think hard about this and the consequences before making a bad situation worse.
Great letter!!!
Why start a sex offender political party. I’m sure they have a lot of registered voters who would vote their way they simply asked Genesis 11:6 says when the people are of wine language nothing will stop them from what they have imagined to do. Power of Unity even works for them.
To all those who gate the system we can either rise up together as a whole and buck, we can do our part in writing and protesting, reaching out and educating, or we can continue to complain. Complaints rarely create change action does…that’s should be a a slogan somewhere…. anyway let’s take action one way or another…if you want to rise up and nonviolently strike against all the petty riles and regulations we need to do so as a whole, if we educate, write to we need to do so as a whole, but complaining changes nothing….
Ren A Gade is 100% correct. We need to do something in an organized fashion. FAC and NARSOL give us a base to build around. We must realize that many bureaucrats are ‘dumb like a fox’ when it comes to sex offenders. The have been fed the ‘coolade’ of false information, paranoia, and media hype for so long that now they believe the ‘garbage’ they are drinking and want to use their authority to destroy as many lives and families as they possibly can in the name of civil service to the public.
So the question is what do we do? I don’t mind standing and bucking or writing but we all need to come together on this statewide, Nationwide and make our voices heard…talking amongst ourselves also does nothing…
Ren A. Gade – read the call to action and take the action we’re calling for.
Naturally sharing your thoughts here is preaching to the choir (which can be useful in exchanging ideas and feedback), but writing and calling the legislators is not.
On the subject of something to do. A good place to start would be talk radio. But you have to have someone with an open mind and we have to have someone with a good knowledge of the situation with all the correct facts in order. Yesterday in the Kansas City area 98.1 FM was discussing the Florida law allowing felons to vote every one agrees they should but nobody brought up the fact that that law was to not allow sex offender s or murders.these programs have a very large audience
David – if you can get a talk show to feature the topic, we’d have no problem getting FAC representatives and experts to speak.
You can set it up yourself it’s KMBC 98.1 816 576 7798 attention Scott Parks . You can quote me that yesterday they were discussing the proposed new law to allow felons to vote but did not have some very important facts about it. You could call now between 2 to 6 central or even better text.
We need a volunteer for the media committee to handle these items. Anyone interested in stepping up?
Can someone not in the state offer to help? I tried contacting NARSOL about volunteer opportunities but no one ever got back to me. I’m a newly registered registrant in the northeast. I used to be a programmer, physicist, and data scientist prior to my conviction. I have experience in web development as well. Surely my skills could be of use to someone.
Absolutely!!! and thank you!
I will send a separate email!
Correction on the contact for the radio station 98.1 FM or 980 AM KMBZ phone # 913 576 7798 or text 22980 sorry for the mistake. Scott Parks 2pm to 6 pm cst
Has anyone received a response from any of the Legislators?
Just automated responses.
Only robotic
Please everyone keep calling and spreading the word on this. It is so unreasonable and unimaginable and that is why they are doing this. Everyone has a good comment here, and with this ridiculous law, let the s–t hit the fan, and let it be this year!
I don’t live in Florida but issues like this effect everyone. Politicians in other states see what happens in Florida,if they get away with it there they will try to do the same in there home state.to advance there own career.the feds have tied all the states together in this thing so it’s not just a one state problem
It’s all an agenda.
This is just another evil tactic to throw people in prison and conform to a unjust system. Three days to find a new residence, or go to jail? Absurd! Incarcerating people unfairly… is this the way our taxpaying dollars should or will be spent?
Oh, and by the way, welcome to Florida.
so if we visit from out of state and stay only 2 days per location, can we just keep going
vacation scenario
its aggregate for the initial registration. After that first 5 days through the whole year you’re on the list even if its one day at five sites then youre comitting a felony by not registering… evens if the 6th day is the following year. Welcome to our hell….
where did you saw it was aggregated? I have always saw consecutive. I have even ask my lawyer about it and she said consecutive.
Orange County tried to rope me up on this very distinction. It is aggregate. 5 days per calendar year, not consecutive. So you can’t be somewhere for 4, move back home for 1 then go back for 4 more, etc…. they look for that because the laws are so gray and not specific. But the sheriff’s office told me it is aggregate, total days per year. I believe it’s per address though, before you have to register it as temporary or don’t stay overnight anymore. Whatever “overnight” really means…..to me that’s subjective. What if you work nights and sleep days? Like I said, gray area big time.
-What counts as a night stayed?
-Is it a calendar year or any 365 consecutive day period?
My understanding is that any address stayed at in aggregate (say a parent or friend you visit one night at a time, reaching 5 nights a year) must be reported as an additional or secondary address. Addresses stayed at for 5 days consecutively must be reported as a change of permanent address with a new ID showing the new address.
This new law would change the 5 days to 3 days in both cases.
In any case, law enforcement officers interpret statutes however they like so YMMV.
The STATUTE, which is what readers should go by is 5 days consecutively or in aggregate during the years, which is not your permanent residence, is temporary, if you abandon a permanent or temporary residence and do not have a new permanent or temporary residence, you must register as transient every 30 days.
Its just another recourse for le to arrest or violate you. Its a just in case clause to hold ober your head. Its nearly impossible to comply with so its low hanging fruit
I realize it’s a very personal decision and no two legal/life situations are the same, but do realize everywhere you temporarily register, your “stamp” will be there for life and you have no way of knowing how that information may be used both now or in the future. At the very least, you will be putting yourself on yet another “list” that says, “this s.o. comes to town on vacation.” AND you might get there and in an attitude of diligence and with an honest desire to follow the law be told, “no, you can’t stay here or you can’t be where you are visiting. Go home.” I saw screw all that. My attitude is, let ’em find out and come get me if they need to, but they’re not getting any extra information outta me. I have often wondered what kind of change would occur if every single one of us, say all moved at the same time and they would have to take all of us to jail. They are running out of money, the numbers are getting higher and higher and I believe that the numbers alone will force lawmakers to eventually step back and realize that what they are doing is a wasteful useless scheme which is actually harming our communities and that severe changes are needed. The fact is everyone single one of us in this country all agree on ONE thing: if you in fact are one of the .0001 whatever percent of people who are truly a danger to children and to the community, then i’m sorry you belong in prison. But fuck the rest of this shit.