Press Release – FAC President addresses UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva

Here is the Press Release

FAC is in the News once again, this time in the global spotlight.  We give special thanks to attorney David Peery of Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equality (MCARE)  for connecting FAC to the Human Rights Task Force that organized the visit, presentations, and meetings in Geneva Switzerland last week.

Thank you to everyone who donated to the FAC General Fund in September that made this trip possible.

We will be monitoring the UN committee report to the United States, and the US response to the UN Human Rights committee, asking that the practice of Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORRs) be eliminated in the United States for several reasons, with just a few provided below (talking points summary page can be downloaded here):

• SORRs remove the freedom for registered persons to reside in facilities that provide needed services such as nursing homes and long-term care, or temporary facilities for medical or rehabilitative recovery.
• SORRs remove freedom for persons NOT on the Registry by effectively dictating to non-registered citizens who can and cannot live in their home; SORRs prohibit them from having a registered person live in their home when they freely choose to have them reside in their home.
• SORRs create barriers to reentry by fostering housing instability, separation from family and support systems, and isolation, all of which are factors that increase recidivism. Transient registrants are more likely than those with homes to abscond from registration.
• SORRs may cause higher levels of recidivism, according to ATSA, an international, interdisciplinary non-profit organization for the advancement of professional standards and practices in the field of sex offender evaluation and treatment,
• SORRs create a fiscal burden for taxpayers associated with mapping, monitoring, enforcement, court costs, and incarceration costs.
• Research suggests there is no evidence that SORRs reduce sexual offending or recidivism. This fact has been demonstrated across numerous studies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, which concluded that SORRs should not be viewed as a viable strategy for protecting communities.
• To the contrary, the research identifies the unintended consequences of SORRs including increased homelessness, separation from family, increased distance from employment, public transportation and social services.
• Research supports that the removal of SORRs will have no impact on public safety yet a failure to adhere to SORRs in Florida carries a penalty of a third degree felony.

Let’s end the practice of forcing people to live outside of their family homes, and distances from their jobs, services, and social circles under the guise of public safety.

Share this press release and the SORR talking points with your legislators and local decision makers.