January 24, 2008 Issue

It’s a new year and a presidential election year and suddenly the economy is at the forefront of the babble coming out of the mouths of the many candidates. In our community, the economy, particularly the real estate crisis, has been a topic of concern for a couple of years. We are all well aware of the lack of jobs that pay well, the lack of affordable housing for what once used to be the middle class, and our overall dependence on tourism as a driving force holding all the tenuous pieces together.

So it came as something of a surprise when I read in the newspaper about two men in the community who were convicted sex offenders currently on parole and who were arrested again after a surprise visit by parole officers who found pornographic material on the cell phones of both men. The short article listed the addresses of the men and it appeared as if each had a single apartment of his very own.

Let me get this straight. Two ex-convicts can afford private dwellings and cell phones. I know many are using a cell phone as their only phone and that makes perfect sense, but affordable apartments are not easy to come by, nor are jobs, so just how are convicts accomplishing this when honest citizens are struggling to find work and housing?

Every job for which I have ever had to fill out an application has asked me if I have been convicted of a felony. We know it is difficult for ex-convicts to get jobs and maybe that isn’t right if a person has served their time and been adjudged able to return to polite society, but if a prospective employer has a choice between two equally qualified candidates and one is a convicted felon…well, you do the math.

On the other hand, maybe the state finds both jobs and dwellings for those formerly living at the taxpayer’s expense. It would probably be easier and cheaper than keeping them in jail for another period of time. The Florida Department of Corrections website informed me that corrections has a budget of $2 billion annually, with $1.3 billion going directly toward the security of keeping the convicts inside and remaining $340.8 million taking care of food, clothing, education and medical needs. That’s a lot of dough and the cost doesn’t stop when they exit the gates of the prison.

Part of that $340.8 million includes the employment of 2,372 probation officers who supervise more than 153,000 offenders. These surely overworked public servants have to collect fees from those inmates required to make financial amends to victims, plus collect fees for drug testing, as well as help offenders find jobs and making sure they understand the terms of their freedom. Caseloads must be staggering.

First of all it doesn’t seem like nearly enough probation officers for so many people and I’m sure probation officers aren’t paid nearly enough to deal with the aggravation of such a position. However, with such a case ratio, it’s a wonder parole officers found the time to find porn on the phones of two out of the many hundreds of offenders who must live among us.

Don’t misunderstand me, I think all offenders who violate the terms of probation should be made to pay the consequences of their actions, but somehow I can’t get too worked up about porn on a cell phone. If possession of porn were a crime, half the population would be in jail. I know all the arguments about one celluloid image leading to the real thing, but the label of sex offender is very broad, as is the definition of porn.

Child pornography is almost always spelled out for its specificity, while regular pornography is not, leading one to believe the porn found on these phones was of the garden-variety type. The most dangerous of the sex offenders are those that prey on children and sex offenders need not be back alley rapists or child molesters to carry such an appellation. Whatever the offense of these two men, possession of any kind of pornography was a violation of the terms of their freedom, so they got popped back in jail where they will probably have to serve the remainder of their original sentences and that is as it should be.

On the upside, two apparently affordable apartments are available.

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