For Some Convicted Sex Offenders, Finishing Their Sentences Doesn’t Mean They Get To Go Home
The civil commitment fiasco gets covered in the publication Route Fifty: ”’There is no evidence that having these programs reduces sexual assaults,’ said [ACLU lawyer Ben] Wolf. ‘We have a good lab: Lots of states have these programs and lots don’t. There is no appreciable difference [in the number of sexual assaults reported]. If the goal is community safety, the program is a failure.’”
As Guy Hamilton-Smith separately observed on Twitter:
“Since these programs exist in fewer than half the states, that’s perfect conditions to test if they have any impact whatsoever on rates of sexual harm.
Wouldn’t you know it, they don’t.
They are incredibly expensive however.
They’re essentially ways states can ‘constitutionally’ retroactively increase someone’s sentence to life by calling it treatment as opposed to punishment.
If we want to give these people life sentences, there’s a way we’ve agreed to do that under the law. This ain’t it. “
If you appreciate the Route Fifty article’s coverage, scroll to the bottom of the article for instructions on how to email your feedback.
Here is a little something to think on – The Jimmy Rice Act is a method of incarceration that keeps the most dangerous and most likely to reoffend criminal under continued supervision within the prison/mental health confines until a court determines they are safe to return to society. If this program exists which it does – then why are those of us the courts already deemed safe to return to normal lives consistently punished after the sentence has been handed down. The tools exist to keep the people safe but are never told to the public. They exist so they can make all these feel good laws to punish those who have already been deemed safe. This should be the way to fight the ex-post facto challenge as well. When we are deemed to re-offend? The courts had that power at conviction time to keep the public safe if warranted, but choose to let fear and political agendas take away fair and just sentencing for those that should be allowed to complete a sentence and be free like any other felon with their rights
Who I am… I’ve been watching FAC off and on for a long time. I’m Allan Day in Lee County who you will be hearing about soon enough if you know what I’m showing here. This article hits home because of what I went through. I was in modern day “Auschwitz” ADTC in Avenel, NJ when Megan was killed in July of 1994. When it hit the news we were devastated and we were attacked as monsters. You could tell who was a victim in their past as the hurt we felt for that child was strong. When we received a copy of the law it had specific law on civil commitment on people from there. I was released a month after it was put on hold an lived in fear that they could just come up an snatch me at any time even if I was convicted before the laws. When I had the Civil Due Process ( That Law Enforcement refuse to honor ) I had the burden of proof on me at the time and I came out of it as a tier 1. ( Pre-5/17/96 ) I have never fought this being placed on the public registry because I’ve lived in fear of threats by a Sgt. in Lee County. I need FAC’s help. I need to know if there are any others here in Lee who she has done this against. I have told many people about FAC. I will not and can not put my name to any fight against the registry and they know to use that. I feel the Florida law is unconstitutional as it does not give any offender the ability of getting off the public registry. Where I have a win is they are enforcing constitutional law Expose-Facto. I was convicted before 9/13/94 on a Federal level. I’m also a NJ tier 1 with an actual Civil Court Judgement that was reduced by the court. ( I’m a 52er ) Florida has if you had to register in another state you have to register in ours. Were gonna find out how far back they can actually go with putting people on the public registry.
Civil commitment is nothing new. Illinois was doing this back when I was locked up from 2000-2007. Obviously I was spared that fate but a friend wasn’t so lucky. He was held for 12 years solely because he was homosexual and the state felt his sexuality was in convict with his religion (Catholic) and as such had no healthy outlet for his sexuality. The concept that they can lock someone up because the state feels they might commit another offense at some undetermined point in the unforseen future is not just shocking – its down right disgusting.
It would seem to me that if you can’t control yourself (as alleged by the people saying you need commitment), then you are mentally ill and should never have been convicted and sent to prison. Commitment and treatment would be the remedy.
If you are sent to prison as punishment for a crime you should’ve known better than to commit, that means they expect you to learn from your mistake and you don’t need commitment.
Which is it?
One could argue that if the state found you of sound mind at the time of your offense and punished you for it, then commitment is unnecessary as you have the ability to control yourself.
But florida is eating its cake and having it too. Complete B.S.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/the-tortured-bond-of-alice-sebold-and-the-man-wrongfully-convicted-of-her-rape