Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Florida Action Committee Recent Posts - March 16, 2015

Va. woman found guilty of harassing convicted sex offender

March 16, 2015
The following article could just as easily be titled, "After 18 years, man still harassed for being on the registry". It reports on a woman who was found guilty and charged $1500...
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IN: Sex offender fights restraint law

March 16, 2015
Challenges Hartford City child safety zones Rebecca S. Green The Journal Gazette Convicted sex offender Brian Valenti would like to take his daughter bowling. And to church. And...
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Utah Passes “White-Collar Felon Registry”, Florida Should Have One Too!

March 13, 2015
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the State of Utah just passed the first "white-collar felon" registry. The registry, which would be available online, much like the...
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Florida Seeks to Charge “Offender Registration Fees”.

March 12, 2015
HB 1261 seeks to impose an "Offender Registration Fee" which permits the Sheriff of each county to charge sexual offenders an annual fee of up to $100 and $200 for predators....
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Latest Study Finds Current Florida Sexual Offender Management Policies Not Reducing Reoffense

March 11, 2015
A report by Jill S. Levenson and Kristen M. Zgoba, published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology finds that "sex crime repeat arrest...
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New FL Bills Filed to Tighten Screws on Sex Offenders

March 10, 2015
A series of new bills have been filed affecting sex offenders. Below are the bill numbers and a sentence on what they cover:     SB 134 - Lifetime Electronic Monitoring...
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Another View: Sex offenders are human beings, too

March 10, 2015
Ben Boychuck’s recent article (“Best solution may be sex offender ‘colonies,’” March 6) reminded me of a similar suggestion in 2010 by gubernatorial candidate Douglas Hughes to...
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NC Sheriff Bans Registrants from Church

March 9, 2015
Below is a copy of the letter circulated by Sheriff Danny Millsaps of Graham County, North Carolina. He's allowing registrants who want to attend Church Services to do so on...
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Judge rules sexual offender must register for life

March 9, 2015
A Lackawanna County judge on Friday denied a convicted sex offender’s challenge of a law that extended his obligation to report under Megan’s Law from 10 years to life. Matthew...
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Bill Puts Lottery Winnings By Sex Offenders in Escrow

March 9, 2015
Sex offenders who hit it big in the Florida Lottery would have the winnings placed into escrow, giving their victims an opportunity to resolve any claims, under a proposal filed...
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State Department employee arrested on child porn charge in Broward

March 9, 2015
A U.S. Department of State employee was arrested Tuesday morning in Broward County on a federal charge of possessing child pornography. FBI agents took Peter Meyers, 53, into...
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COMMUNITY BASED REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS: DOES ONE LABEL FIT ALL? Doctoral Dissertation of Dr. Thomas Glaza

March 6, 2015
The following is a link to the Doctoral Dissertation of Dr. Thomas Glaza, Founder of Tri-County Counseling and a therapist treating sexual offenders. Dr. Glaza was the featured...
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Have we gone nuts as a society?

March 6, 2015
  Barbara Gale Barbara Gale is an attorney in Rome, Georgia. Posted: Sunday, March 1, 2015 6:30 am By Barbara Gale, Guest Columnist My mother was 15 when she married my dad,...
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FAC Member Meeting Tonight! Here are the handouts

March 5, 2015
For tonight's member meeting, FAC is fortunate to have treatment provider Thom Glaza to talk about safety plans. As those on probation know, a safety plan is a method for a...
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Tampa Tribune refuses to print FAC Letter

March 5, 2015
Below is a letter FAC sent to the Tampa Tribune in response to a story they ran last month. We've tried to get them to print the letter but they have not, so we are sharing it...
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California Supreme Court Overturns Sex Offender Residence Restrictions

March 3, 2015
Today the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the residence restrictions automatically imposed on sex offenders by state law are unconstitutional, violating...
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Sex Offender Registries Are Not Really Keeping Your Children Safe: Here’s Why

March 3, 2015
Since the publication of my blog post "Do Sex Offender Registries Reduce Recidivism?," a question I have been asked is "Paul, isn't it a good thing that I as a parent knows who...
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More good news in California: California Supreme Court rules blanket sex-offender residency restriction fails rational basis review

March 2, 2015
In recent years, a number of state courts have struck down local sex-offender residency restrictions on a number of different legal grounds.  As this AP article reports, another...
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The registry does no good but we must have it anyway, says MA state rep

March 2, 2015
Paul Heroux, a Massachusetts State Representative, asks the question, do sex offender registries reduce recidivism? He answers the question immediately. No. Or at least that is...
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One to See Change Blog List

"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
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“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
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What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
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“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
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I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”