Action Needed: Andrew Warren to chair Democrats’ new criminal justice reform task force
State Attorney Andrew Warren will chair the Florida Democratic Party’s new Safety and Justice Task Force with a goal of improving safety for Floridians while respecting individuals’ rights. This task force will also be looking at ways to increase transparency and cut down waste.
Florida Action Committee does not take a stand on politics but would like to see all political groups come together in bringing about much needed criminal justice reform in the state of Florida. We do not support any political candidate, but we do want to make sure that any task force formed to bring about criminal justice reform has the correct data on people who are forced to register: the re-offense rate, the punitiveness of the registry, the cost ineffectiveness of compliance checks, where to look for future sex offenses, etc. If this task force uses research-based facts, then registrants should be included in this reform, and we as members of FAC need to make sure that this task force is aware of the research.
We need to organize as a group on this matter and give it all we can. That means many contacts by many FAC members, sharing anything you have on why the registry is punitive and cost ineffective. Tell your own story or share some of the research or do both, but not all in the same letter. Make sure your letters are courteous as research shows that if you become the least bit aggressive, it completely turns off the reader, and then you have accomplished nothing, except make them less likely to listen to us.
It is best if your letters are short – less than a page. You can send the people on this task force many different, short letters, each containing only one or two main points.
Please refrain from mentioning Florida Action Committee in your communications with the task force members. Let your letters be from you as a single, but important, Florida citizen. Florida Action Committee will be contacting the task force members.
For those who are in need of research sources, some can be found at our website, floridaactioncommittee.org. On the Media dropdown box, click on Media. Then click on “Articles and Studies Containing Research”. We will be continuing to update our research at the FAC website on the Media page. Feel free to send research to share with others at media@floridaactioncommittee.org.
Additional research at the NARSOL website can be found at narsol.org. Click on Resources on the top bar. At the top of the dropdown box, click on NARSOL Resources Site. On the red bar, click on Research.
The results of this task force are due some time during the summer of 2022, so we have plenty of time to share the information and stories with this group. It would be so powerful if hundreds of us were to do so. With numbers like that, they would not be able to ignore us.
For those of you who will be closely following the formation of this task force, please notify us at media@floridaactioncommittee.org when you learn of anything new. You can also leave a message at 833-273-7325.
Currently, the only person appointed to this task force is State Attorney Andrew Warren, where letters can be sent to:
The Honorable Andrew Warren
State Attorney for the 13th Circuit of Florida
419 Pierce St
Tampa, FL 33602
Once the other members of this task force have been selected, their contact information will be posted for members to use.
In the state of Florida, every county and every city has a right to impose it’s own registry requirements. In Dade county it’s 2500ft from a school and 1000ft from a county or municipal park and day cares. In Ft. Lauderdale it’s 1400ft. but the state mandate is 1000ft. How can we be sure that if this task force does something that favors us, every county and city will follow suit?
Manny, I think you make some points about the proximity laws/ordinances that need to be addressed. I worried about these kinds of restrictions when I was on business in Brevard and Seminole Counties recently. You’re basically only allowed to drive thru those countries without stopping, as I understand their ordinances.
The state of Florida has preempted counties on plenty of things with three examples being:
the gun preemptive law (https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/04/28/floridas-gun-preemption-law-just-got-more-powerful/#:~:text=Fans%20of%20Florida's%20sweeping%20gun,more%20than%20a%20technical%20correction.&tex)
regulating hospitality rentals (https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/government/2021/03/02/florida-legislators-seek-control-vacation-rental-regulation/6866668002/)
preempting local COVID edicts (https://apnews.com/article/florida-coronavirus-laws-health-083b2c00304c9569a78040ca741aeba1)
” improving safety for Floridians while respecting individuals’ rights. ”
Here are some rights that were taken away and is punishment. How come NOBODY in out families are allowed to log into the next door app or site? yeah that is correct, all of our families who live in the same household are collateral damage. The real damage is punishing anyone associated with us who lives in the same house, apartment or dwelling.
Meanwhile: Help sought for ‘overworked and underpaid’ Florida prison workers
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2021/09/23/help-sought-for-overworked-and-underpaid-florida-prison-workers/
Secretaries for the Florida Department of Corrections and wardens have been warning legislators and governors for years of the danger of paying staff such low wages, but these legislators and governors chose not to listen but to kick the can down the road.
With Florida being a state that so far has not been willing to participate in any major type of criminal justice reform, the answer is always incarceration and more incarceration. Research shows that such a strategy is not the answer for many cases.
Florida is reactive rather than proactive. Prevention does not seem to be in the vocabulary of many of our political leaders. Using evidence-based policies does not seem to be either.
Any thinking person knows that education, prevention and mentoring would not only reduce the costs of the prison industrial complex in Florida but would also give us all a better world to live in.
Just a side note: I have met so many people on the registry who did commit a sex offense, but all that would have been needed would have been for law enforcement to let them know that if they ever committed another sex offense, then they would be spending years in prison, followed by a lifetime on the registry with a detailed explanation of how the registry would ruin their lives. That would have been all it would have taken to put a stop to any future sex crimes for many who are now on the registry. Think of the money that could have been saved by taxpayers, and the families that could have been helped. Prison, probation, extensive sex offense therapy and the registry would not have been necessary for these individuals to make sure they never re-offended. But think of the money that would be lost by certain entities if Florida were to become proactive rather than reactive.