[tampabay.com 5/21/18] The Republican-leaning Washington Economics Group of Coral Gables says Florida loses millions by spending on extra court and prison costs while losing the opportunity to create new jobs for new offenders. By Mary Ellen Klas Seven years after Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet voted to end the state policy that automatically restored the civil rights of nonviolent offenders after they complete their sentences, a price tag has emerged. Florida lost an estimated $385 million a year in economic impact, spent millions on court and prison costs,…
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FL: Ron Books Lobbying Firm Rakes in the Cash from Private Prison Companies
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/17/18] Florida’s lobby firms filed their first quarter results this week and the three-person firm of Ronald L. Book, P.A. came in as one of the highest paid lobbying firms in the State, behind much larger firms Ballard and 200-person firm, Southern Strategy Group. According to the firm’s first quarter report, filed Tuesday, Ron Book’s firm took in $3.4Million for lobbying legislators during the period of January 01, 2018 – March 31, 2018, (source: https://floridalobbyist.gov) Among his top clients… private, for-profit, prison companies GEO Group and Correct Care Solutions,…
Read MoreFL: New Encampment, “Bookville V”, already has 75 “residents”
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/16/18] As Legal Services of Greater Miami attorney Jeffrey Hearne cautioned the Judge and the media less than one week ago; unless something is done (about the 2500 foot exclusion zone) new encampments will pop up and “the cycle will continue.” It took less than a week after hundreds of registrants were evicted from a warehouse district along the railroad tracks near Hialeah for a new encampment to emerge; “Bookville V”, is named after lobbyist Ron Book, the man who not only created the laws that force sex offenders…
Read MoreFL: Sex Offender Homeless Camps in Miami-Dade County
[UPDATED LINKS 5/15/18] [cbslocal.com 5/13/18] Ron Book, the chairman of the Homeless Trust joins Jim DeFede to debate the ongoing problem in Miami Dade County where sex offenders are living in homeless camps Watch the video Related links: FAC Letter to Jim DeFede and CBS [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/14/18] A Heartless Man Without A Soul [blog.womenagainstregistry.org 5/16/18]
Read MoreFL: Police Move Remaining Homeless Sex Offenders Out Of Encampment
[nbcmiami.com 5/12/18] All of the homeless sex offenders living in a make-shift encampment in northwest Miami-Dade have been moved out of the area, police say. Dozens of sex offenders and predators were residing in tents near NW 71st Street and 36th Avenue due to a Miami-Dade ordinance that required registered sex offenders to live about 2500 feet away from schools and child-care centers. The make-shift homes are within those parameters, but the Florida Department of Health determined the homes were a health hazard and unsanitary living spaces. “At night, there’s…
Read MoreFL: Central Florida YMCA to screen members for sex offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/11/18] ORLANDO, Fla. – The YMCA of Central Florida announced to its members that it will begin screening all members and guests to see if they’re registered sex offenders before being let inside their buildings. The announcement came in the form of a letter sent to members signed by Chief Operating Officer Daniel Ickes. Ickes sent an explanation to News 6. “At the YMCA of Central Florida, there is nothing more important to us than the safety and security of our members, staff and volunteers. For that reason, we…
Read MoreFL: Homeless sex offenders lose court fight to keep Hialeah tent camp. Where to next?
[amp.miamiherald.com 5/10/18] A Miami-Dade judge on Thursday cleared the way for the county to dismantle a tent village of homeless sex offenders outside Hialeah, and a lawyer for some of the residents said the ruling leaves them no choice but to live on a roadside or street somewhere else. “They’ll most likely be relocating to another street corner,” Legal Services lawyer Jeffrey Hearne said after the hearing before Judge Pedro Echarte Jr. in Circuit Court. “New encampments will pop up. And this cycle will continue.” Kendall residents have already been…
Read MoreFL: Jeanne Baker Debates Ron Book on CBS4 News
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/8/18] Watch as Jeanne Baker shuts down a lying and very angry Ron Book on South Florida’s CBS Affiliate. Watch the debate Related links: Floridians for Freedom presents: Ron and Lauren Book EXPOSED! [ronandlaurenbook.blogspot.com 5/8/18] FAC Letter to Miami-Dade County [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/9/18] FDLE Memo to Law Enforcement Advising of Legislative Changes [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/9/18]
Read MoreFL: Hearing to take place this Thursday in Miami-Dade case
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/8/18] A special-set hearing has been scheduled for this Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 10:15 on Plaintiff’s Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, homeless registrants, are seeking a stay of the County-imposed deadline to leave the encampment or be arrested. With nowhere else to go, if the Plaintiffs leave the encampment they would be arrested for violating the residency restriction. Read more Related links: Floridians for Freedom presents: Ron and Lauren Book EXPOSED! [ronandlaurenbook.blogspot.com 5/8/18] FAC Letter to Miami-Dade County [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/9/18] FDLE Memo to Law…
Read MoreFL: ACLU Sues to Stop Miami Homeless Sex-Offender Camp Evictions
[miaminewtimes.com 5/8/18] In 2007, New Times broke national news with a story about how a group of sex-offenders was forced to live in tents underneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway because of restrictive laws barring them from living within thousands of feet of schools or playgrounds. Their case became a focal point in efforts to reform the nation’s laws governing sex criminals. After a local outcry, the Tuttle colony was uprooted — but soon rematerialized near Hialeah, once again sparking national debate. After New Times wrote about the new encampment last…
Read MoreFL: Miami-Dade Sued Over Sex Offender Eviction
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] A Lawsuit and Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction were filed against Miami-Dade County on behalf of registered sex offenders legislated into homelessness and directed to live at an encampment on a street corner alongside active railroad tracks in a warehouse district in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. This is the fourth such encampment created by the County, after sex offender residency restrictions exclude registrants from living in most of the County. In an effort to shut this one down, the County recently amended their “overnight camping ordinance” to allow police…
Read MoreFL: Residents Of Homeless Sex Offender Camp Ordered Out Given Extension
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Residents of a homeless sex offender camp near Hialeah who have been ordered to leave have been given an extension. Originally, they were supposed to be gone from their roadside refuge near NW 36th Avenue and 71st Street by sunrise Monday. Now they have until Thursday, May 10th, to pack up and go. Monday morning, Miami-Dade police showed up the area but said they were not there for enforcement. Read more Related links: Officials give final notice to homeless sex offenders living in encampment [local10.com…
Read MoreFL: Walls closing in on Miami-Dade homeless sex offender issue
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/19] I guess someone didn’t let Ron Book’s “Homeless Trust” know about the reprieve, because according to Local10 news, “workers from Miami-Dade’s Homeless Trust arrived Sunday night with police to give the offenders their eighth and final warning.” In fact, the Deputy Mayor had given assurance to Attorney Jeffrey Hearne from Legal Services of Greater Miami, who had prepared to file an immediate legal challenge to the (now 4th) forced eviction of sex offenders, that enforcement action would not begin until AFTER the 10th, which gives the County some…
Read MoreFL: Man accused of trying to kill sex offenders in Kissimmee
[UPDATED LINKS 5/7/18] [wesh.com 5/4/18] OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Police said a man was locked up after he was accused of trying to kill sex offenders. Officers said he tried to set the men on fire. Jorge Porto-Sierra has been formally charged with four counts of attempted premeditated murder. Osceola County detectives said the 50-year-old confessed to deputies he tried to kill multiple people at the Friendly Village Inn on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. After his March 7 arrest, Porto-Sierra said he arrived at the motel to “barbecue all the…
Read MoreFL: Under threat of lawsuit, Miami-Dade grants reprieve to eviction of sex offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/4/18] Facing an imminent lawsuit to be brought by Legal Services of Greater Miami on behalf of the homeless sex offenders living alongside railroad tracks in Miami-Dade, the Deputy Mayor has granted a temporary reprieve to the forced eviction scheduled for Sunday, May 6, 2018. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, had sent a memo on March 21st, announcing plans to shut down the encampment of sex offenders living outdoors, legislated into homelessness by the County’s 2500 foot exclusion zone. Included in that plan was a deadline of May 6th for…
Read MoreFL: Miami-Dade Will Close Sex Offender Camp by May 6, Threatens Jail Time for Stragglers
Since 2014, a colony of homeless sex offenders has been rapidly growing by the railroad tracks near Hialeah. Nobody wants them there, including the dozens who call the ramshackle camp home. Everyone, from the Homeless Trust to the ACLU to the county commission, agrees the encampment is a public health and safety hazard. But for years, the sex offenders have said that restrictive county laws mean they have nowhere else to legally live and that county officials have failed to solve the problem. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Video Shows City Workers Destroying Property of Homeless Miamians
[miaminewtimes.com 4/25/18] The morning of April 17, Wilbur Cauley left all of his belongings in their usual place: stacked by a fence under the I-395 overpass at NW First Court and 13th Street. It was in the middle of a four-block area where about 30 homeless Miamians live. That morning, Cauley, an Army veteran in his late 50s who served three years in Germany, went to a nearby store for a soda. When he returned, he says, a man in a dark-green shirt was kicking bags that contained Cauley’s birth…
Read MoreFL: At schools, sexual predator monitoring should start inside the classroom
[floridaactioncommittee.org 4/24/18] Within the past three weeks two teachers from Lake Howell High School were arrested, as usual this was picked up in the news cycle. What stands out to me is how the news reports these arrests, it is reported as just a matter of fact simply to state that it happened. Every October almost every news station has a segment on Halloween and how parents must check the SOR to make sure their kids are safe during trick or treating. Lets put this in perspective for a moment,…
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