Why a Tiered Registry with a Path to Removal and Judicial Discretion Makes Sense
Before anyone starts screaming, No, FAC does not support sex offender registration in any form. It does not work, it destabilizes individuals trying to reenter, and it gives the public a false sense of security. But for the time being, while the Federal Government (through AWA/SORNA) imposes a floor for states to implement, there’s certainly an argument for Florida to implement tiers. That will at least give some people a path off the registry, instead of this one-size-fits-all lifetime model.
Every system of justice already draws lines. We distinguish between levels of harm, we account for intent, and the circumstances surrounding an offense. A premeditated murder is treated differently from one committed in the heat of passion. A crime involving direct, physical harm is not the same as one without a direct victim (ex: possession of drugs). Someone who actively seeks out criminal conduct (snatching a kid off a playground) is not identical to someone who is drawn into it through a manufactured scenario (ie: an online sting) or teenager who lied about her age. These distinctions are not controversial. They are embedded in the law itself for most crimes and punishments, but not for the registry. When it comes to registry policy, lines disappear.
Instead of reflecting the same nuance applied everywhere else in the criminal justice system, Florida’s registry scheme collapses fundamentally different conduct into a single, permanent category. A person’s risk, circumstances, and post-conviction conduct become secondary or irrelevant altogether. The result is a system that treats very unlike cases alike, and assumes that time, rehabilitation, and change do not matter. That approach is difficult to justify when viewed through the same lens we apply to all other criminal justice schemes.
If society already recognizes that intent and context matter at sentencing (the punishment phase), it follows that they should matter afterward as well (the “civil” “regulatory” phase). A tiered registry with a path to removal acknowledges this reality. It allows for distinctions between levels of offense, degrees of harm, and demonstrated risk. More importantly, it creates a structure that aligns consequences with both the nature of the offense and the individual’s conduct over time.
Classification into “tiers” alone is not enough. A system that assigns tiers without offering a meaningful opportunity for review still assumes permanence — that whatever someone did at one point in time defines them forever. That assumption runs counter to both common sense and social science. Research consistently shows that risk of reoffending declines with age, time offense-free, and engagement in stabilizing factors like employment, treatment, and community support. People who demonstrate sustained rehabilitation are not the same as those who do not. A rational system should be able to recognize that difference and incentivize people to try to change.
This is where an opportunity to seek removal or review becomes essential. Providing a pathway for review does not minimize past conduct. It does not erase accountability. What it does is allow the system to reassess whether continued registration serves any legitimate purpose in light of current circumstances. It introduces a measure of proportionality, ensuring that ongoing restrictions are tied to present risk, not just past labels. It also reflects something society claims to believe: that people can change. Why do we expect “rehabilitation” if we don’t accept it when it’s achieved?
If someone completes their sentence, completes treatment, remains offense-free for years, builds a stable life, and contributes positively to their community, it is reasonable to ask whether perpetual registration continues to advance public safety. Conversely, a system that offers no off-ramp sends a different message; that rehabilitation, no matter how genuine or sustained, doesn’t matter. So why would anyone bother?
A tiered registry with opportunities for removal strikes a more balanced approach. It preserves the ability to monitor higher-risk individuals while recognizing that risk is not static. It accounts for differences in conduct, intent, and harm. And it creates an incentive structure that encourages rehabilitation rather than disregarding it.
Murder offers perhaps the clearest example of how deeply we already engage in this kind of line-drawing. The legal system distinguishes between first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, and justifiable homicide. Society does the same, often instinctively. A calculated, premeditated killing is viewed differently from a spontaneous act driven by intense emotion. And self-defense, once proven, even transforms what would otherwise be a crime into something legally and morally justified. If killing someone can be subject to this level of differentiation, it becomes difficult to argue that any category of crime is entirely beyond context.
Ultimately, the question is not whether lines should be drawn in the criminal justice system. They already are. They just need to be extended to registration. The question also is whether those lines should remain fixed forever, or whether they should be responsive to time, behavior, and demonstrated change. A system that refuses to draw lines or to reconsider those lines is not just rigid — it is incomplete and ineffective.
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From another post. This was my idea. FAC, do we have a senator and a house member that would be open to:
SORNA Idea.
1. Pre 1997 no registry
2. Every county and city residency restriction matches the stat law NO LOCAL OR COUNTY TRAPS
3. System with a 5-person review board majority vote determines the Tier. 1 from FDLE, 1 From DOC, 1 completely neutral, 2 from advocacy groups.
4. Each persons restrictions are based on Offense date. NO Retroactive application, Period
5. No License Markings
6. Internet Identifiers are Email Address, and true Social Media accounts. (Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, What’s App. Etc.) Not eBay, YouTube
7. Have a List of Identifiers and if not on that list you don’t report it.
8. Automatic removal at 10, 15 and 25 years based on Tier assignment.
9. Tier 1 Reports once a year, Tier 2 reports twice a year and Tier 3, 3 times a year.
10. Tier 1 and 2 no cop knocks. Tier 3 cop knocks twice a year.
11. Temporary residence: 5 Business days. before you have to report.
Please feel free to add to the list.
My opinion is a tier system is already placed in a lot of states is not something new. It means you do your time and be a contributing member of the community and have a second chance! I think that is good for most right ? Of course the people that did really horrible things .. it might take them 50 years to get of the registry! Unless there is an element in place after several years to reconsider the tier system this person is in based of rehabilitation. I think a tier system will be good for most people on the registry but for some will be not that good and those are the one who will be against !
Joy
I fear, even though I would not be a tier three, but a tier two (Not sure Florida has tiers) but I am in my sixties and disabled. If nothing changes, I will probably die on the registry as they keep making it harder for us to get relief.
Even some who have just looked at a photo online, depending on the judge might that person for life on the registry. And yet, a murderer can get released and move on with their lives.
If the best relief, at this time, for ALL STATES-is a tiered system first completely abolish lifetime. No longer make the registry public or place them on the registry immediately. Once the person has served their sentence they are placed on a system of tasks they must complete while on an 3-7 year probationary period based upon severity of offense. For example, obtaining a job, getting counseling, volunteering, following through with probation and not committing another sexual offense. If the individual is successful no private registration. Make it illegal to report, via any form of media, when a person has been arrested and charged. In these types of scenarios it is always guilty until proven innocent. Finally, add job protections and return all citizen rights. To vote, bear arms and freely travel.
Now THIS makes sense!
Tier 3 are lifetime registration – so the rest of the registrants get a chance, but to hell with the rest of us???? Screw the tier 3s???? Some of us have completely rehabilitated and made lives for ourselves!!
So you just want to ditch us???? Let the “good” offenders have a shot at redemption, right? The “bad” offenders get life??
No! The registry is wrong any way you slice it!
It’s unclear how someone reading the article would come away concluding that it proposes lifetime registration. Where are you seeing that?
Cookie
In Florida, I cannot see them restoring firearm rights for Ex sexual offenders.
Just to have clarity, I found this online:
In Florida, felons can have their gun rights restored through a formal clemency process, but eligibility depends on the nature of the conviction and completion of all sentencing terms.
I cannot remember what states, but some states do automatically restore rights after completion of sentences and some you have to go through a legal process.
The problem is, to retro-actively apply something on someone should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. If I sign an agreement to buy a house for $350,000 and when I go to closing, they say, “Good news, you are the new owner of the house”, “Bad news is, the sellers want another $50,000”, I would walk away.
Sadly, we cannot walk away from the registry or get out of the agreement, and I add that we “NEVER” agreed to a registry, especially after the fact. Name one other crime that has retroactively applied a sanction to someone after their crime had been committed. What do the supreme court judges think the definition of punishment is? Call it whatever you want but it is in fact punishment, and we all live it on daily basis, and sometimes more than once a day.
I believe that the minute we go to tiers, then many people will get relief.
Then it’s “hurray for me – the hell with you!”
No! I hope that they expand the registry to include as many people as possible so Many Many Many Many MORE people are ensnared by it….. Then we may hear some voices speak up!!
But if we quietly whittle away at it, then it’ll stay in place!
Furthermore, one doesn’t play “footsie” with evil. One repudiates it (firmly and definitively)! (Lest one lend it creedence that it does not merit!)
JJJJ, I hear you. I respect your opinion and I don’t disagree with your perspective. It’s good that we have this dialogue and we have this format to exchange points of views of all our members. I would also prefer a case make it’s way to the US Supreme Court that completely overturns Smith v. Doe and everyone is relieved of this BS. I would love for the Florida legislature to wake up and say, “yeah… this didn’t work out the way it was supposed to, lets scrap this whole thing.” But the reality is that nothing is before the Court to even consider at this time and we have to be cognizant of political reality. So until/unless that happens, the “chipping away” strategy is one to arguably consider at the same time as we’re bringing the lawsuits and advocating to abolish the registry.
Think of it this way… when FAC was in Tallahassee arguing against SB 212/HB 45, the bills started out including “lakes, oceans, streams, etc.” It also prohibited presence within 500 feet of all these places. At the end of the legislative session, they got rid of the bodies of water, and we can still go into the exclusion zone, just not communicate with a minor. Is it still BS? Of course! Did we ever stop fighting to block the bill in any form? Absolutely, we were fighting it through every committee meeting! But when a concession was made, when someone proposed an amendment saying, “ok, we’ll take out the oceans and lakes. We’ll let you go there, just don’t talk to kids.” we didn’t say, “forget it! we don’t want it.” We kept fighting, we didn’t walk away from the table, we’re still working on a lawsuit to challenge the new amended law in it’s final form, but we are certainly taking the crumbs because something is better than nothing.
I totally disagree.
If we let 3/4 of the people off of the registry tomorrow, the voices of concern would rapidly dry up.
NO! The registry is BAD for ALL (and some piggies are not more equal than other piggies – Orwell).
And FAC agrees that the registry BAD for ALL (including those it purports to protect). That point was addressed in the first sentence of the post. The reality is SORNA needs to be abolished before the registry can be, because even if someone is removed in any state, but is still required to register under SORNA, the feds can still pick them up. Read some headlines. US Marshalls (Federal law enforcement) is actively arresting people. Here’s a story from Florida from yesterday: https://www.wjhg.com/2026/05/04/man-arrested-walton-county-failing-register-sex-offender/. Whether it’s this administration or whatever, there’s a huge recent enforcement push and people are being rounded up in droves.
With respect to voices of concern drying up… possibly some would, but if you look at the composition of our active membership, there are a lot of people not even on the registry who are behind this organization. Some who have no ties to the registry other than seeing it as a complete injustice. We have been begging our membership to start engaging the general public into this conversation. We need to!
FAC
If the registry is NOT punishment, how can we be arrested for what they call a violation. If I get fired from work, I do not get arrested or put on a dead beat employee registry. It is not punishment, yet we get beaten up, our house caught on fire, some getting murdered, and a list I could add for the next 30 minutes.
So tell me why the registry is not punishment. Yes, I know, FAC does not agree having a registry, I am just asking, why are almost all judges are in denial that the registry is in fact punishment? We never had a damn chance in the first place because there seems many states do have a path to freedom. And yes, while on the registry, we are not only free, but also not safe, nor are our families.
There’s no mystery as to why courts so often treat sex registration schemes as non-punishment. They have issued their legal opinions on this issue in detail and in the public domain. Sometimes those opinions are even linked to this site.
All you have to do is take the time to sit down and read ‘em!
IMO it wont change till someone sues a state or country. For Example the guy who got murdered in the Orlando area and the guy who killed him had a list of other Sex Offenders who he was going to go after. That should be a reason for the State to be sued. Not only should His family get hundreds of Millions of dollars but every person on the registry should have the right to then sue the state. Do you think the State is going to pay every person on the registry (NO) but they should.
With respect to voices drying up actually more would come out since those relieved could vote, run off office, and not be shunned