With Unity Comes Change
Today, our FAC President Gail Colletta addressed the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva Switzerland to call out the United States’ failure to address the inhumane Registry scheme and specifically the practice of allowing states to create Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORRs). Gail had only two-minutes to define the problem and ask the UN to hold the United States accountable
Read moreThis thoroughly researched article from the The Appeal entitled HOW FLORIDA’S SLUGGISH VOTER REGISTRATION PROCESS SENT EX-PRISONERS BACK TO JAIL highlights the duplicity of the State of Florida when it publicly arrested select felons who voted, but did not qualify to have their voting right restored. According to this research, the individuals only voted after being confirmed by the State or local
Read moreI was reading reviews of a new book by Nick Cave entitled Faith, Hope and Carnage. The reviews included quotes from the book that made me stop to think. “Hope is optimism with a broken heart” and “This is how I chose to live my life – in uncertainty.” I recalled something I wrote to myself a few months
Read moreDear Members and Advocates, In just a few weeks, our president Gail Colletta will be traveling to Geneva Switzerland to meet with members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. She will have only a few minutes to speak to the full committee in a formal presentation. Afterwards, she will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the UN
Read moreDear Members and Advocates, In September 2022, our Florida Action Committee president, Gail Colletta, filed a Complaint with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva Switzerland, entitled “PETITION TO THE UNITED NATIONS TO INVESTIGATE THE UNITED STATES’ SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY AS A VIOLATION OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.“. That office is the leading United Nations
Read moreDear Members and Advocates, As Hurricane Idalia moves closer to shores, we are sending reminders to members to SEEK SHELTER. Our county-by-county listing of emergency shelters is a start, but this listing is not current so please confirm with your local sheriff offices. Thanks to a report from Unbroken Dreams in Hillsborough, there is a shelter in Tampa that is approved for registered citizens.
Read moreDear Members and Advocates, Florida homelessness ranks third in the nation, reporting 27,487 homeless people (HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report) We frequently receive reports and stories of persons and families forced into homelessness because of SO Residency Restrictions (SORR). Often, they have homes to go to during the day, but Residency Restrictions force them into the homeless status at night….you
Read moreUPDATE 9/12/2023 Open Flyer Please join the Racial Equity MCARE Zoom call 1pm Tuesday, September 12th, devoted entirely to discussing the Miami Beach City Commission’s meeting, 8:30 am Wednesday, September 13th at 1901 Convention Center Drive, and their plan (see Commission Memo and proposed ordinance here) to deport and arrest unhoused people. We’ll circulate talking points in opposition to this inhumane ordinance, and discuss constructive alternatives
Read moreDear Members an Advocates, 2023 marks the 50th year since the U.S. prison population began its extraordinary surge. To date over five million people are under supervision by the criminal legal system, and nearly two million people, disproportionately Black, are currently incarcerated in our nation’s jails and prisons. This represents a 500 percent increase since 1973. How did we get here? Many of the conditions
Read moreDear Members and Advocates, Take a minute to look back on the pandemic period of 2020. As the world was encouraging individuals to take every conceivable precaution to protect themselves and others from spreading the Coronavirus, those concerns did not apply to people required to register. In the middle of a pandemic, the Florida Governor still required people on the registry
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