Media Committee: Missed opportunity for meaningful juvenile justice reform in Florida
We thank Ms. Tachana Joseph-Marc for her opinion piece in the Florida Times Union: “Guest Column: Another missed opportunity for meaningful juvenile justice reform in Florida”. The major flaw in the vetoed bill, though, was that it excluded those whose offense as a juvenile was a murder offense or sex offense.
To Ms. Marc, I say:
Thank you, Ms. Marc, for keeping the citizens informed on this important issue.
Everything you pointed out in this article was “right on”. Many people are in hopes that one day not only will this legislation be passed and signed by a Florida governor, but that it will also be extended to people who as juveniles committed a sex offense and have never re-offended (committed another sex offense).
Not everyone on the sex offense registry committed a violent, sexual assault. There are people on the Florida registry who, as juveniles, sent inappropriate pictures of themselves through a text to another juvenile. That constitutes distribution of child pornography. There are 17-year-olds who had consensual sex with a 15-year-old. There is a former high school cheerleader who “mooned” some other people. We are not saying there should not be some consequences – just not lifetime registration as it is now in Florida and not registration for someone whose judgment part of the brain was not fully developed at the time of the offense.
In addition to all the negative, collateral consequences you mentioned, being on the registry means that many cannot return to their childhood homes due to residency restrictions, very few homeless shelters will take them in, they will not be eligible for federal housing assistance, their driver’s license will be “branded”, and the list goes on.
A must-read article: https://jlc.org/sites/default/files/attachments/2020-09/Labeled%20for%20Life%202020.pdf
But this is not Punishment!!!!!
Sorry if someone already posted this but another sting operation here in central Florida. Even a local firefighter was caught in this one
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/apopka-firefighter-3-registered-sex-offenders-among-several-arrested-in-multi-agency-sex-sting/ar-AAMDiRa?ocid=msedgntp
Oh and this one is major because 3 people on the registry were also arrested so going to make it sound real bad for us.
Excuse me Cherokee! Tell us about leading one astray about setting up and pre-planning to lead in this ordeal, or who pre-concieves to alter the nature of a evil heart. or should we be talking about Adam and Eve. While the police may be doing their duty they are just pulling the trigger lock to open the minds in a corrupt manner, or who is leading who into temptation.
While being ordained to lead, a minister can be just as guilty when push comes to shove or is it the spirit within to lead one astray. We all are a spirit even though one a lie detector operator told me when I asked – isn’t God a spirit and he said to me no he is an entity. So who is putting enticement in front of another. Its sort of a tightrope type of affair in this game and deception is deceptive in many of these ordeals. So who is double teaming another? Talk about rulers of this dark world. So what is justice?