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July 15, 2009
"Sex Offender Begs For More Jail Time"
The title of this post is the headline of this new piece from ABC News that discusses sex offender residency restrictions and other challenges that sex offenders now face as they seek a return to society. Here is how the article starts:
Florida sex offender Raphael Marquez was just released from an eight-year prison term, but now he's begging the judge to send him back.
Marquez is one of many sex offenders who have run afoul of a patchwork of laws designed to protect the public from sexual predators. These laws require offenders to register with the communities in which they live and stay away from schools and playgrounds, leaving some who have served their time and are trying to comply with the law homeless.
Marquez was released June 20, but the only legal and affordable option he could find was a rat-infested overpass in Broward County next to a park filled with 100 other sex offenders. "This is a very nasty crime, but I deserve a second chance," said the 38-year-old former cabinet maker who was charged with sexual battery of a 12-year-old relative. "I am positive I won't do this again, but I need all the support and help I can get," Marquez told ABCNews.com. "I am willing to risk my life on it."
Marquez is just one of hundreds of sex offenders who are unable to find work or housing in Broward County. One local blogger describes his plight as being "under house arrest without a home." And the problem isn't just there. In Miami, a legal battle has erupted over a growing colony of sex offenders who have been forced under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. The vagrants live in shacks, creating a national dialogue over the unintended consequences of residency laws.
The headline of the article comes from the fact that Marquez realizes it will be easier (and cheaper) for him to be law-abiding in jail than on the outside:
"I'd rather be here than violate my probation and run," said Marquez, stressed and losing weight in the Broward County Jail.
July 15, 2009 at 09:36 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Stressed and losing weight in prison?
This an important discovery.
Allot 10% of the cells to morbidly obese patients, voluntarily checking in. A nutritionist writes up a balanced weight loss diet. The "prisoners" are locked up, have no access to food. Let them have amenities such as TV's, computers, phones, and all exercise equipment they may want. That would be the weight loss part of the program.
They are released for an hour's exercise in an empty yard, with only water available. They run gauntlets of guards trying to hit them with nightsticks, launching tasers at them, spraying them with Mace. Get through those, and serial killers are let loose into the yard, with full immunity from the lawyer for all subsequent crimes. They have to defend themselves. Naturally, self defense and defense of another in mortal danger are justifications for what they would do to the serial killers, to burn calories. Cannibalism would be strictly prohibited. That would be the stress part of the program.
The prison charges $300 a day to patient or insurance. They may use the enhanced revenue for pay raises to the administrators.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Jul 16, 2009 8:28:00 AM
