A new push has begun in the state Legislature to require convicted sex offenders to wear ankle monitors to track their movements for the rest of their lives.
Two essentially identical bills, Senate Bill 134 and House Bill 203, aim to keep tabs on past offenders to make sure they don’t slip away so it becomes impossible to track them. But some experts said such laws would immediately be challenged in court. Full Article
This coming out of Florida doesn’t surprise me. They admit that many RC are homeless but still think that somehow they will be able to come up with $11 per day ($330 monthly) to pay for this ankle monitor. How crazy is that? I doubt this will make it out of committee, but maybe it will, if it just “Saves one child”. I think even the ACLU would file suit against this if this law were to pass. Just another get rich scheme by the ankle bracelet manufacturers.
Maybe if they stop the public shaming and stigmatizing these people could find jobs and be productive members of society.
No fear of ‘losing’ them nor would they want to be lost.
So to complain so many RSO are transient when your laws have caused it is nuts.
Florida already monitor RSO for life. Until they die, RSO must legally inform law enforcement where they live (monitoring their location). Furthermore, they have restrictions where they can reside which further makes monitoring them easier for the lazy and corrupt police.
This would simply allow some company to make more money and create more jobs for monitoring American citizens who have already had their debt to society but are unconstitutionally punished until the day they die!
Florida is becoming more like Nazi Germany each passing year…ironic that Miami is known as a retirement destination for Jews!
Man these people are going to get a lot of people hurt. If they keep depriving people of life and liberty then they’re going to fight back in the only way they can and its going to get physical as they leave rso with no options and nothing to lose. Innocent people are going to get hurt because politicians want to look tough on crime.
I agree with these comment’s and it’s nice to know Mike thinks like me.
Ya our own Jessicas law allready has it stated in it that ankle monitors for life but CA hasn’t attempted to implement that portion.. YET that is. I tell ya I will not wear a ankle bracket for the rest of my life I will go to war with this country and will fight to the death before ill do that. Hopefully other rso feel the same as I do about that. This gov is out of controll and I guess it’ll take a civil war with people actually dying in the streets before there is change and people can survive in this country. 3/4 of a million people being persecuted and plus their family members in this country is not ok. It needs to stop and I’m afraid we rso will have to take to the streets and take drastic measures before anything will change if it can even be changed if its not to late allready. I guess will see if its going to start to change for the better or the worse when we get that ruling about residency restrictions coming up. If the court says its constitutional and applies to every rso then tens of thousands of people will be affected then I hope that rso and any and all that support them will somehow rally and march and protest and demand change.
“Tired of Hiding” compares Florida to Nazi Germany. I find the comparison plausible. We in California know all too well—-it has been in the newspapers as well as on this web site—that ankle bracelets do not prevent crime.
The real solution for registered citizens is: a steady job, a regular place to live and stable relationships. That is a solution that benefits everybody.
Remember sometime last year in the best of Brubaker…Brubaker quipped that ‘Constitution’ just won the Florida Derby horse race and that was the only place they wanted a Constitution to win in that state……here now today..that quip still stands.
@ Avig: I certainly agree with your point, Avig – and it goes for all ex-offenders (whether RSO, drug seller, car jacker or burglar): the best way to rehabilitate any ex-offender is to provide a decent job, stable housing and the opportunity to establish supportive relationships.
Why is this so difficult for our society to understand?
People should be admonished to “Grow some compassion!”
I feel we should start are own towns like African Americans had to.
Florida used to be a Southern state. Northern and Central Florida still have a lot of people with those attitudes. In South Florida, home of Mark Foley, John Walsh, the creators of SORNA, theres a lot of misplaced self-hatred going on as well. Florida has a huge elderly German population. Much of that population is elderly German women who were warbrides who married US servicemen who brought them back to Florida after World War 2. Florida has a lot of European people in general, as it is cheaper to live in Florida than many places in Europe and weather tends to draw people who can’t stand to be in colder European temps. I can’t say how many of these elderly German people are pushing for unconstitutional anti-RSO laws as I don’t hear them doing that, but I also don’t see them opposing these laws. But then again, they may not have that energy to get their opinions on the matter out to the media. I’m sure at least some of the elderly Jewish and German populations in Florida see the similarities to Nazism even if they don’t/can’t express it publicly.
Tired of Hiding said “This would simply allow some company to make more money and create more jobs for monitoring”
Entrepreneurial scapegoating, but nothing new. When the Japanese were interned in the Western U.S. during World War 2, their land, property, businesses were taken and others got it for pennies on the dollar.