Polygraphs and Probationees

Someone, somewhere will get a joke.
But it isn't one.

Trigger Warnings

I talk about self-harm and suicide potentials in this post.
I also discuss sexual offenses in general terms.
It's heavy, but this picture must be framed.
Also, some spicy language is used.

And now: Onward!

Depending on the crime committed, a person released on probation in the state of Florida has to submit to polygraph testing at their own expense at least once a year for the rest of their life.

Polygraphs themselves are inadmissible as evidence, but they can be used as a reason to ransack that person's home, trawl through their online life, investigate their phone calls...

What happens, though, when you get a person who was coerced into pleading guilty in the courts for something they did not do, force them to serve a sentence, and harass them for the rest of their life within your borders?

Those who can escape the state of Florida for places that will not abuse them will, and gladly do so.

Those who cannot, however, are stuck in a prison called the State of Florida, living in an overpriced, run down apartment, waiting for their next polygraph until something inside them breaks. They get tired of being told they're guilty of a crime they did not commit. They're tired of paying for the rest of their lives to prove they aren't committing thought crimes, much less actual crimes. The mental stress that builds up in their heads begins to crack the rock in their skull, and soon, they become another news headline in Florida:

Thanks for tuning in to Channel 999 News; I'm Bob Syeruncle. Tonight, we report on an apparent suicide in Armpit Park. A man was found hanging from a spider oak tree by two tied together bedsheets...

Congrats, Florida. That's how you keep your execution counts down: by causing so much mental stress and psychological torture that those who have served sentences in your state lose their everloving shit, self-harming or committing suicide.

Something to say "wait, what the f?" over:

For sex-related offenses ONLY, Florida mandates that when someone who has served their time moves into a neighborhood, everyone living near there is told who they are, the crime they committed, when it was committed, what they look like.

Again: This person has already served their prison sentence. They've done their time. They're trying to live their redemption arc, do good, be better, but...
Florida has codified harassment into law for their (alleged) crime, but not for the guys bilking grandmas out of their life savings, or the folks slinging fentanyl-laced everything, or any other crime. Florida paints a bright red dot on their faces, and squeezes the trigger for effect.

Yet and still, fentanyl-related deaths rip up these communities, elderly people lose their homes over a promise of thousands of dollars from scams and scammers, but no-one points a digit? No neighborhood alerts are posted when they show up in our communities? No one insists these crimes merit a polygraph every 3-12 months to check for thought crimes?

Because polygraphs aren't worth the electricity they use!, I'd ROAR at the top of my lungs if anyone were listening. Because no one cares about the damage crimes do to communities until sex comes into question!

Crime is crime, people.
Categorizing beyond a yes/no answer to "Did they do a crime?" is disingenuous.
Continued punishment beyond the length of someone's sentence in jail or prison is, oh, I don't know... harassment. Which I thought it could be a crime in and of itself, but seems to get a free pass when targeting a specific group.

We have laws here in Florida that are effectively NIMBY laws.
Not familiar with that term?
Not In My Back Yard is a great and horrible way to harass people out of living in specific areas.
To wit: a person who is required to register as a sex offender cannot live within a specific radius (straight line) of certain structures, of which the list is so large that it pushes that offender just about all the way out of several counties.
Bus stops, shopping malls, parks, schools, you name it -- that person basically has to live in the sticks and own a car that, in some cases, they can only use with the permission of their probation officer.

Rank Up: 'Civil' Commitment

Assume, for a minute with me, that this person failed their polygraph test, but despite a thorough ransacking of their home, possessions, and privacy, the person is clean. It's entirely possible the person had an off day, or was thinking of something else completely unrelated, or the polygraph simply proved its unreliability as an over-wired coin flipper.
There's nothing that can be used for sending them back to prison...
So let's subscribe them to Prison+.

Introducing Civil Commitment, where there ain't a thing that's civil about it!
A person who has SVP status (that's 'sexually violent predator') gets to worry during and after their prison sentence that instead of going home after serving their time, they'll go straight from the front gates of their prison into a van, and be driven straight to a center from which there is no timed release.
This is a sentence on top of a sentence, in a place that makes prison look like a posh, lavish resort with amenities.
All it takes is for someone to check off a box during your exit interview, or for someone to simply claim you are likely to be a threat to others in your community, and you can be disappeared into one of these places against your will.

In Florida, WellPath operates the civil commitment center based on an eMessage I received in October through our tablet provider, Securus, who self-identified as their phone provider.

If you're into having nightmares, have a search online for Civil Commitment, death and release rates, average time spent by individuals...
And someone, somewhere, sanctions this sordid behavior against people who have already spent their time penitent in prison?

But, enough conjecture from me on (un)civil commitment. I'm sure you're already scared enough of its negative potential.

Back to your back yard.

In Florida, as well as several other states, the guidelines for where someone can live because they previously committed a specific type of crime are so strict as to make it nearly impossible to live in the city, or even the county in which they previously offended.
This is after serving their time in prison.
I see this as illegally extending their sentence, refusing to forgive a person their past sin even as they work to show their worthiness for redemption.

Bandying about the person's past, over and over without end?

How is this showing karuna toward others?
Where is the compassion that's claimed?

There is no compassion in this act! There is only the NIMBY Monster.

I would ask how this is supposed to make things better, but I'm not looking for justifications borne of the knowledge of guilt being presented before the collective audience of Earth, Florida.

So to that...

I drop my microphone, and I leave with a sigh.