I want to thank the South Florida Daily Blog for linking to my recent post, Move Over, Julia Tuttle.
F- Smashed Frog details her family's search for housing that is complicated by a family member's status as a sex offender.I am happy report that the home (well, more a shack at this point) was well over 1000 feet as the crow flies from any day care, school or park. God knows how my family member could fly over or walk through houses to gain access to areas off limit to those convicted of what Florida calls a sex offense these days, but we are definitely using the morality compass as we plan our Sex Offender Tour of Homes.
For those of you who haven't paid a visit to SFDB, it's a great way to start and end your day. Lunch time reading is highly encouraged.
Speaking of encouragement, comments left by two thinkers were especially so. (Read their thoughts here).
I'd like to repost my response.
I'm not asking for pity. I'm asking people to become educated about this issue and question, question, question as both who posted comments have done.
I also ask thinkers to consider how family members suffer the collateral damage of these laws, having committed no crime but to stand in support of a loved one. Yet, their privacy rights are compromised every day.
And as noted by Incertus, "...these sorts of restrictions are unfair because they continue to punish offenders after they've done their time." That's called ex post facto punishment...and that's supposedly unconstitutional in this country.
I would highly recommend the Voice of Reason for those interested in learning more about the research, news, court findings as well as the legality of this issue.
I leave you with a thought expressed by Senator Jim Webb as he introduced S. 714 on 3/26, a bill to establish the National Criminal Justice Commission:
"I start with a premise I do think not a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5 percent of the world's population. We have 25 percent of the world's known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world's greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the incarceration rate in the rest of the world.
There are only two possibilities. Either we have the most evil people on Earth living in the United States or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice."
Thank you for reading Smashed Frog.
