Protesters Commemorate Registrant Who Died In Jail
Protesters gathered outside the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office to commemorate the death of Charles Hobbs, who was incarcerated for failure to register as a sex offender. Hobbs’ sex offense was more than 20 years ago. He contracted Coronavirus while in jail and died.
Maybe this fellow’s death will not be in vain and he can be a hero for all of us in some way.
Prayers for his family and for justice to be served.
I would call it murder but that isn’t an insult to them.
Of all the cases in jail or prison currently, this kind is probably the saddest kind. To go to jail, often for years, simply because you did not fulfill in toto the requirement to register, is horrible! The “duty to register” is considered not met, even if you have made repeated attempts to register, so long as you have not registered during the short time given (often 5 business days) even if the registry officer was not present (perhaps on vacation) or so busy he/she could not see you. This sort of thing often occurs in places like Chicago, when the number of registrants is so large that they can’t always be seen, even if the registrant literally camps out on the police department waiting room.
Further, failure to register might mean that you forgot to “update in a timely manner” (usually 5 days) if you have moved, gotten a car or boat, sold a car or boat, registered a car or boat, changed your hair color, or even opened a new email account. And the rules change constantly. What is okay today may not be okay tomorrow. It is up to you to keep up with the changes.
The wonder is not that so many have failure to register charges, but that so few do.
In Florida, the FDLE or Florida Department of law Enforcement, in coordination with the Department of justice spends a staggering amount of tax payers dollars each year trying to find ways to violate those on the registry. They give grants to local sheriffs for compliance raids and registry violation crack downs.
Add to that, the millions of dollars departments gets to hire employees to work in the registration offices.
This is in addition to the funds they spend on uncover stings with fake underage kids.
Also why does a NON punishment registry violation often get you more time than the crime you were accused of which may have involved actually committing a sex crime, or sexual activity deemed illegal.
This is why we should fund the state of Florida as little as possible. For my part, I have boycotted the state and refuse to visit for any reason, job or otherwise. Given that tourism is one of their biggest sources of revenue, I would be repulsed thinking my tax dollars would be used to fund unconstitutional oppression within the borders of our United States.
It will be interesting to see how the pandemic, which has hit three of Florida’s major GDP sources (tourism, agriculture, and aviation), might potentially affect their policies in the next 12-24 months. Perhaps a good recession will change their thinking. I know that the last recession was cause in my state for paring down the prison population and making an effort to help former offenders succeed under supervision rather than keeping the “return to prison” machinery operating at full speed as it was up to then. Those reforms were good for my state and hopefully a good dose of hardship for the rest of the people of Florida might do yours as well.
Mr. Hobbs death needs to be commemorated with a fu¢king lawsuit!!!