Connecticut residents added retroactively to the sex offender registry seek relief
Throughout our nation, there are some legislators who are beginning to listen to the research, but there are still too many who refuse to listen to the truth, particularly in an election year.
Individuals whose sex offense in Connecticut was committed before the registry was instituted are asking their state legislators to allow for their removal from the registry.
The battle has been a long, slow one for these people, but they saw a glimmer of hope this past session only to be put out by a group of legislators who want to make sure that their punishment continues for a lifetime.
According to Jaden Edison with CTMirror, Gary Winfield, co-chair of the Connecticut Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, advocated for a bill this year that would have ended registration requirements for people in Connecticut whose sex offense was before 1998 when the public registry was enacted.
The bill passed successfully through the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate. For the first time it appeared that the bill had a real chance of succeeding until it reached the House where it died, mainly due to false information.
We hope that the registrants who spoke to the Connecticut Legislature and Cindy Prizio, Executive Director and President of One Standard Justice, will continue this fight.
I am in Florida, but many of us were added to the registry while we were in prison, or for me, the day I stepped out of prison. We got no chance as using registration as a bargaining chip to get a lower sentence. But didn’t happen.
Many of us were handed a life sentence, even after we completed our actual sentences.
We can borrow a bible verse, Let us go that we can finally do good and serve our community. ( I just changed the words to fit our situation)
Can someone please explain what is the legal definition of the saying, “to be automatically added to o the registry”?
Would this not be for everyone because your forced on it either way and it is not like any of them had a choice whether they wanted to be on the registry or not.
So, automatically seems broad but really it covers every case of the registry.
I’d like to provide some input that may assist in repealing registry laws, I.e., via litigation or conversations with legislators.
Florida Statute 20.315 (2) (a), states, in pertinent part:
(2) LEGISLATIVE INTENT.—It is the intent of the Legislature that:
(a) The department focus its attention on the removal of barriers that could prevent the inmate’s successful return to society..,
However, ironically, they have also promulgated a registry law that completely nullifies, circumvents, and conflicts with that legislative intent, I.e., as applied to sex offenders.
Politically, that would provoke one to question the integrity and veracity of the legislative representatives.
In fact, I have successfully re-integrated back into society to the point that two separate home lenders have approved loans for my wife and I to purchase a home.
However, the registry law has formed a substantial barrier; in that, every home I have attempted to purchase, in areas that we can afford, has been within 1000 feet of the various places prohibited by that law.
Therefore, as applied, it has caused me to be banished from various societies where I live.
Formerly, judges could sentence defendants to banishment from certain societies; however, decades ago, the US Supreme Court has ruled that such banishment is unconstitutional.
Hence, it is my belief that the residency and Internet restrictions imposed by the registry laws can be successfully challenged as a form of banishment.
Connecticut is a 10 yr registry state. Why are they putting people on for “life” for offenses that happened prior to the registry?
@Meastro
I will enlighten you. They do it for:
Money, Funding, $$$, Mula, Cha Ching, Cash, Bucks, Green backs.
In other words, we are their cash cow. If we have a path off the registry, they would have to lay people off. An entire network and new careers were created by having registry enforcement.
Do you think for one minute they are going to put our constitutional rights over their livelihood? We are walking stacks of cash to them. That is why when one of us gets removed from the registry it is not a big blow to their scheme. But when the entire registry comes down, registry workers will have to actually find a real job that does harass people who have done their time.
(These comments and claims are solely the opinion of me. However, I think most if not all of you will agree)