Abolish the Sex Offender Registry, Don’t ‘Reform’ it!
Weekly Update #121
Dear Members and Advocates,
A few days ago I had a conversation with a friend and fellow advocate that made me completely re-think my identity. For the longest time I’ve always considered myself an advocate for “reform” and our movement as the “registry reform movement”. Truth is, I’m not advocating to reform the registry. Unless the “reform” in mind is to eliminate the registry entirely, I’m not into it. The reality is I’m advocating to abolish the registry because I don’t think it needs to exist in any form.
As a member of a marginalized group, I suppose I’ve become so conditioned to the damnation, that anything less torturous seems like a gift. I need to stop thinking that way. It’s as if I’m getting punched in the face every day, so if I were only getting punched in the face every other day, that would be a win, right? NO! Why am I getting punched in the face at all? The registry in any form is ineffective. So we should work towards abolishing the registry and not “reforming” it.
Over the years I’ve participated in workshops that advocated for different reform ideas. One was seeking a “law enforcement only” registry – where people would still need to register, but the database would be available to law enforcement only. Why? Law enforcement already has our information. If we forget something trivial by a day we’re still exposed to five years in prison, so a law enforcement only registry is a punch in the face 5 days a week instead of 7. There’s also the concept that the registry should only be for “predators” and not “offenders”. NO! There are so many dynamic factors that go into calculating risk that those labels are essentially meaningless when it comes to risk evaluation. Besides, if we’re going to be advocates for “othering” a particular group, we have no right to complain when the ACLU felt it was perfectly alright to exclude murderers and sex offenders from restoration of voting rights. It’s not alright!
A few years ago, when an individual challenged the Oklahoma law that branded people’s driver’s licenses with the words “Sex Offender”, some reform advocates suggested a code or other less obvious mark might be a “reasonable alternative”. Why is that? In Florida we have a statute printed on our licenses (for offenders, predators actually have the words) and I don’t think its “reasonable” that I have to show my drivers license to my bank or store clerk or order a drink at a bar and get dirty looks because everybody knows what that code means. If law enforcement needs to know I’m on the registry they can scan my license. The cashier at Target does not need to know and anyone intent on recidivating is not stopping to say, “here, let me show you my ID before I sexually assault you.” These practices need to be abolished, not reformed.
During the nineteenth century, African Americans were fighting for the abolition of slavery, not to modify its terms. During the sixties, women were fighting for equal rights and as recently as this past decade same sex couples were fighting for marriage equality. That’s equality, not just ‘somewhat less discrimination than we are currently used to and we’ll be content’. I’m not equating our population to those of a protected class, but I’m suggesting that in the absence of any empirical evidence as to the effectiveness of the registry and having served our sentences and repaid our debt to society, as long as we are fighting, why are we not more clear in our messaging and making it understood that we are looking to abolish the registry?
I get the theory that many in our movement think we will be more successful at chipping away at the registry rather than detonating it and I’ve employed that theory myself in many instances. But at the same time, others might see the “reform” position as our agreement that there is a justification for the registry in some form, it just needs to be fixed. I have to accept there is legitimacy in both approaches and whether you are attacking the registry with a chisel or with a nuclear bomb, I appreciate the effort you are making towards the common goal… to ultimately ABOLISH the registry.
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
Reminders:
Support Sessions
Nov 19 – Thursday – New Fearless Group is starting – evening time is tbd (registered citizens support).
Nov 21 – Saturday – 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.- Zoom session for family and loved ones only (no registered citizens) . RSVP for details to membership@floridaactioncommittee.org or text name to 904-452-8322.
Regional Conference Calls at 8:00pm ET / 7pm CT – phone 319-527-3487 – Discuss issues and action needs in your county. Learn more about the FAC organization, resources, and volunteer opportunities in your area or sign up for County Coordinator training. All members are welcome to call. If unable to connect, text “Call Me” to 319-527-3487. You will receive a call-back and be connected to the meeting.
Nov 19 Thursday for Region 5 – Seminole, Orange, Osceola, Lake, Sumter, Marion, Polk, Hardee, and Highlands counties.
Nov 23 Monday for Region 8 –Charlotte, Glades, Hendry, Lee, and Collier counties.
December Events
Dec 3 Thursday at 8:00pm ET / 7pm CT – Monthly Membership Call – phone 319-527-3487
Dec 5 Saturday from 1:00-5:00 pm – Apopka (Orange County) Holiday Lunch and Entertainment. RSVP for details to membership@floridaactioncommittee.org or text name to 904-452-8322.
Dec 10 Thursday at 8:00pm ET / 7pm CT – New Member Orientation Call – phone 319-527-3487
Dec 12 – Saturday – 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.- Zoom session for family and loved ones only (no registered citizens) . RSVP for details to membership@floridaactioncommittee.org or text name to 904-452-8322.
SOME HEADLINES FROM THE WEEK
Cop kills dog during sex offender compliance check at wrong home.
Officer James Freeman of Greenbrier, AR was doing a sex offender compliance check on private property when the homeowner’s dog barked at him. So Freeman shot the dog. The event would be an example of how mean some of the officers doing compliance checks can be to…
11th Circuit: Civilly Committed still have rights
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, in part, the complaint of an individual civilly committed in the Florida civil commitment center. The plaintiff, who remains confined despite completing his sentence, sued Geo group (contracted by the state to provide…
UPDATED: Sex offenders sue after North Carolina county requires Halloween registry check-in
A group of registered sex offenders in Western North Carolina say the sheriff forced them to check in with local law enforcement or face arrest on Halloween night in 2019. Now they’re suing. At least 11 men and the nonprofit group North Carolinians for Rational Sex…
Member Submission: Possible new scam alert
A member alerted us to a possible new misuse of registrant data to falsify identity and obtain opioids or other identity theft. He wrote, “Hello. I’m on the registry in Florida, Leon county. Today a cop showed up at more door. I thought it was a registry check. I went…
YES!!!!!
And tacit consent is consent, as well!
If we go to the registry office and we do not (respectfully) tell the registering officer that, although we understand that they are only doing their job, we still protest at having to register.
We must tell them that we are free citizens who have already paid out debts to society and that we owe the authorities NOTHING.
PAID IN FULL!
Abolition is the only path! The squeaky wheel gets the grease! Make sure to SPEAK UP!!
Well spoke FAC. Considering the time, money and results achieved on previous attemps to right a wrong, perhaps IT IS. time for a change in tactics.
Regarding the registry, LE has our DNA so in the event of a re-offense, LE knows who the offender is. Considering the convoluted nature of laws state to state, maybe the best solution IS to kill the registry. Perhaps by chipping away at the registry, our efforts have actually validated the concept of the law. We accept the laws as you so accurately observed and we have tried to make them less onerous. The point being, why do we have a useless, punitive law Ex post facto AT ALL. We have been trying to turn the temperature down on a pot of water when we should be focused on taking the pot off the stove all together.
The SO registry is a Punishment and the Lawmakers know this. It’s all about getting Votes and monies from the people. I believe, God will and Shall abolish such a moron Punishment. Taxpayers monies are going down the Drain. The registry is not a Prevention. It’s a Punishment!
This message has been a very, VERY long time coming.
I’ve been dumped on by many “registry reform advocates” for espousing this message over the years but I never let those folks shame me into watering down my efforts to abolish this useless, bloated government blacklist.
Long before there was an FAC or an ACSOL, back when the big group was SOHopeful, and when NARSOL was just RSOL and RSOL was little more than an online petition, and even before I even started what became OnceFallen, I was already shunned by some for this message because it was “too harsh” or “too radical.”
But here we are, over a quarter century after the passage of the Jacob Wetterling Act, the first federal law forcing sex offense registration upon us, and the registry is entrenched in our society. This ANTI-REGISTRY MOVEMENT has settled for begging for minute changes to the registry yet the registry continues to grow. We pushed for states to remove juveniles from the registry, yet a new report from the Juvenile Law Center just reported that we now have about 200k juveniles on the registry.
We patted ourselves on the back when a certain West Coast state adopted a “Tiered registry.” I still maintain advocating for a Tiered registry is advocating for a registry. In advocating for this tiered registry, the leader of this group proclaimed a tiered registry protects the public. Why would we say such a thing? Now this state has a tiered registry, but there’s still no guarantee people are going to get off the registry, since the new law still required a court hearing to determine whether or not you get a reprieve.
I belief this effort hurt our cause. This leader believes in an “incremental approach” to reforming the registry, but at what cost? I can see the words this leader spoke being weaponized in future efforts to chip away at the registry.
But I digress. For years, I’ve said this registry is like the mythical hydra. If we cut off only one head, it’ll simply grow back. It would only take one tragic case to change all that. Florida knows this all too well. After the Cherish Perrywinkle murder in 2013, Florida legislators vowed to make the state “scorched earth” for all registered persons.
Anyone who believes the registry can merely be “reformed” is merely fooling themselves.
FAC’s basic position on registries has shifted just in the last few weeks. In our last member conference call with committee chairs and volunteers, it seemed quite a bit different.
Is FAC in favor of a pared-down, non-public, risk-based registry, or outright abolition of the registry? What is FAC’s basic message to state lawmakers on this question?
Someone mentioned how in another state, people successfully advocated for a tiered system, and that didn’t solve the problem. And it’s true, tiers in themselves do not solve any problem. They can, but it depends how those tiers are defined and how they are administered, and the majority of tiered state registries fail in this area.