TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Two state legislators on Wednesday introduced bills that would outlaw any contact with pornography for sex offenders on probation.
Existing Florida law prohibits probationers from accessing, viewing or possessing any “obscene, pornographic or sexually stimulating” material “relevant to the offender’s deviant behavior pattern.” The proposed legislation, introduced in the state House by Rep. Katie Edwards [D-Plantation] and in the Senate by Sen. Kelli Stargel [R-Lakeland], would criminalize any contact with any material in any medium — visual or auditory — that could be deemed pornographic.
“It’s imperative that Florida act now to close a loophole in the law that restricts the court’s ability to keep the public safe from sexual offenders,” Edwards told the House. “This bill gives us one more tool to make sure sex offenders don’t risk relapse.”
Though the intent of the modifications seems pretty clear, Stargel insisted the proposed legislation was designed to simplify sentencing and monitoring of sex offenders, not to deny felons civil liberties guaranteed by the First Amendment. The bills would not prevent convicted sex offenders from reading men’s magazines or watching cable television, she said, unless a court deems the material under consideration pornographic.
“Currently, a sex offender can view pornography if it is not relevant to their sexual offense,” she told the local media. “I believe it is in the best interest of the offender and the public that all pornography is prohibited to sexual offenders, regardless of the person’s prior deviant behavior.
“The only difference [between current law and the proposed legislation] is that now [courts are] having to take an extra step to determine if the pornography is relevant to the offender’s past offense,” Stargel added. “This would eliminate that step and say [offenders on probation] can’t have any kind of pornography at all.”
The companion bills, Senate Bill 182 and House Bill 73, already seem headed for trouble with First Amendment advocates. The Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has pointed out that not only do the bills pose significant constitutional questions, but they also present logistical minefields in terms of enforcement.
In addition, the ACLU noted in a prepared statement, no empirical evidence exists to support the legislators’ claims that pornography encourages sex offenders to commit additional crimes.
“By expanding the universe of banned materials to any material that could be ‘sexually stimulating,’ the bills would make the law vague and subject to inconsistent and abusive application,” the ACLU’s statement warned. “Reducing recidivism and ensuring public safety require looking at genuine policy solutions based on facts, not fear.”
If passed, the law would take effect July 14, 2014.
