An all-too-common theme for politicians who are campaigning for an election
This all-too-common theme is to promote harsher laws for people with a sex offense all in the name of protecting our communities.
Political leaders in Tallahassee, along with our Florida governor, have passed and signed into law Bill 537 that effectively removes the possibility of any gain time while incarcerated for people who have been charged with an “attempted” sex offense.
If our political leaders truly wanted to reduce the number of sex crimes, thereby making our communities safer, they would pass a bill that funded research-based preventive measures so that we would not have so many sex crimes (victims) in the first place.
As shared before at this site:
Use funding to educate PARENTS to:
- Be aware of the adults in their child’s life.
- Set boundaries/house rules (kids do not sit under blankets with other people, kids are not allowed alone in rooms with only one adult, doors are not closed, house rules must ALWAYS be enforced, etc.).
- Have open communication with their child from an early age about their bodies and protecting their bodies. Maintain this dialog with their children to intervene BEFORE harm occurs.
- Be aware of specific ways that perpetrators target children on the internet and how to prevent this targeting.
- Monitor their children’s real-time internet use in order to learn how to abruptly put a stop to any inappropriate activity.
- Help their child recognize “grooming” behaviors.
- Teach their children to reach out to adults if there are any concerns.
Use funding to educate in SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, WORKPLACES, AND OTHER PUBLIC VENUES to:
- Stop the cycle of abuse.
- Present programs that teach good touch/bad touch, grooming techniques, and the importance of telling someone.
- Raise awareness of the consequences for would-be perpetrators. Research shows that awareness of the consequences is a major deterrent to committing a crime.
- Fund after-school and summer programs for children whose parents could not otherwise afford it. One study showed that most individuals who were abused as children were abused in the after-school hours or during the summer months when there was limited parental supervision. (City University of New York, “Preventing Sexual Violence Where It Most Often Occurs: An Investigation of the Situational and Structural Components of Child Sexual Abuse in Residential Settings”, Nicole Colombino 2017, page 52)
- Identify support resources.
- Ultimately restore families.
- Teach and encourage bystander intervention programs.
- Provide counseling to young people with risk factors or tendencies for sexual violence. Stop requiring counselors and other selected professionals from having to report to law enforcement if an individual reaches out for help with their deviant thoughts, as long as they have not committed a crime.
- Fund efforts to research and advocate for rational and rehabilitative, evidence-based laws.
Use funding to increase victims’ services.
I did about 60% of my sentence in prison and just as I was getting out, the new people were subject to 85% needed to be completed before release. Not surprised they changed it again.
What incentive is there to behave if there is no goal to work towards. When you get in trouble, they can take some gain time away. If there is no gain time to look forward to, the guards are going to have some more issues to deal with. Great job Florida.
Exactly, Cherokeejack.
When they treat the inmates like human beings, they get human behavior (most humans are halfway decent and have at least some warm and fuzziness).
But when they treat the inmates like animals in cages that’s the behavior that they get.
I saw it first hand at Cross City, CI. – It used to be a quiet, dignified place (for the most part). Then they started adding fences, checkpoints and lockdowns. The result was a rash of stabbings and slashings all of a sudden! Suddenly the rec yard was full of animals instead of men.
To elucidate (just in case someone isn’t familiar with the gain time laws in Florida prisons):
Gain time is a maximum of 85% – one must serve 85% of sentence (since 1994, as I recall) – it was a “tough on crime” bill that raised the minimum from 65% to 85%.
So, there are some crimes for which there can be no gaintime at all (not even the 15%). One of these is Sexual Battery. Another instance is if you commit a crime within 3 years of a former release. Those crimes include stuff like robbery, sex crimes, arson, kidnapping, etc.
So if you got charged with lewd and lascivious, then you get gain time (up to 15%). But if you have a sexual battery, then you get zero gain time.
Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) always applied the no-gaintime rule to attempted sexual battery cases, as well, even though it was not codified in law.
In 2016 an inmate who was in prison for attempted sexual battery sued the DOC for his gaintime. Although a number of judges dissented, the ruling was that, indeed, the law only says “sexual battery” NOT “attempted” sexual battery. They gave the inmate his gain time.
The bill that Gov Ron DeSantis just signed formally codifies the attempted sexual battery into law, now making it ineligible for gaintime. (No more lawsuits).
In additional, this bill says that for ANY crime which is not eligible for gain time, the “attempted” offense is also not eligible.
As I understand it, gain time is still on the books at 65% and the FDOC still calculates it that way. The tough on crime bill just caps it at 85%. In a State without Parole of any kind, this was really shortsighted, especially for first time felons.
I believe it is 85%. HB 115 was filed this past session. It would have reduced minimum sentences for some from 85 to 65 percent. It died in the Criminal Justice subcommittee.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/115
Punishment does not promote positive change.
I would add in there to encourage people who are struggling with a mental illness. We can not treat anything that someone feels like they need to hide. I’m not saying to normalize any of those behaviors but if they feel like they will be incarcerated on the thoughts alone they will never seek help and will eventually or more than likely act on those thoughts. Where if they feel like they can come foward and seek help, they will seek help. That’s just my opinion.
[Moderated].
Good suggestion.
@JJJJ
Although I survived my time in prison (I am sure I was not in the worst one possible) but I would not wish it on my worst enemy (Maybe LOL).
I know it is supposed to be punishment but when guards stand around and allow someone to be beaten to a pulp and then claim they didn’t see anything, how are the guards any different than any other inmate? AND, sometimes the guards were the ones handing out the beatings. Thankfully I was able to access a phone and my parents were able to get me sent to a different facility. I agreed to take a polygraph, but the guards refused to take one. I guess that spoke volumes to the superintendent.
What a common theme to scheme or not to scheme. Politicians do it every day. Are we the people or who forms a more perfect union. Seems the make up of much of this sex registry is a bit of a bearing the sword of unjust law in many ways.
I never went to court and I’m sure many wrapped up in this sex registry were brainwashed into a plea bargain which is unethical so is government playing by their own rules. Even keeping one under the registry for life is a bit of a game changer.
Many were never told that they would be under the registry for the rest of their life by this branding. Talk about banishment or unjust to one’s character. Sound like a political move to me in this registry system. So many would have to say the theme is the scheme of shaming another. Wonder if politicians understand that.
Most sex crime convictions are ineligible for gain time within the FDOC since about October of 2014 per the Chapter 33(?) rules.
*I came across it within the law library at the time, haven’t been able to find it stated digitally.
The DOC must not have applied it retroactively. I was released in July of 2015, and had been accruing gain time. I was released when I hit my 85%.
Correct. It was for convictions on, or after October 1, 2014. As I said, for most but not all sex crimes.
Correction I did stand trail and plead guilty when I was brainwashed into a plea deal. Seems that’s the common theme of many and much of this registry. I was not given or granted a judgement by my peers. If the truth be known we are all guilty
many offenses and many offend in thought and deed.
Government seems to lead in their ban wagon unethical ordeals that entice just like the devil enticing eve. So is fair branding one for life?
Does that mean that someone with an attempted sex battery conviction who is incarcerated and has a release date that includes gain time will have that gain time removed?
The ignorance shown by this statement is mind-boggling to anyone with common sense:
“There is no meaningful difference between a criminal that committed a crime of sexual violence and a criminal that attempted but failed to commit that same crime”
So by this “logic,” an attempted suicide is the same as a committed suicide?
GTFOH
https://www.wral.com/story/central-prison-on-lockdown-after-inmates-beat-convicted-sex-offender-to-death/20456481/
They throw you in with inmates who have life sentences and have nothing to lose so what do they expect will happen. And I bet not a single person stepped in to help, even any guards. And the guards tell the inmates who the ones are with those charges. Safety is a low priority in most prisons.