There’s a line between controlling offenders that the public are frightened of and restricting them so much it actually backfires—requiring them to dodge the law in order to make it. That’s essentially what has happened in the Miami-Dade case of the Julia Tuttle Causeway bridge.

Once home to nearly 100 men and women, many sex offenders, the bridge was cleared out earlier this year. However, now those former residents are once again on the verge of homelessness and may end up right back where they were chased from according to the Miami Herald.

photo credit: lavocado@sbcglobal.net

Sex offender laws dictate just where a person convicted of sex offenses can live. They require them to keep a specific distance between their residence and places where children congregate, like schools and parks. This often eliminates a lot of potential housing for people whose income if often limited by their inability to get good paying jobs, also because of their prior convictions.

So, what happens when a sex offender can’t find a place to live that adheres to their sex offender rules? They lie or end up homeless—neither of which are good for the community. Camps such as the one under the causeway are popping up around the country as laws attempt to balance public safety with reasonable, effective laws.

The city and homeless agencies worked to find housing for the offenders living under the bridge. However, those leases are about to expire and many sex offenders are once again facing homelessness.

This isn’t just a problem affecting those convicted of sex offenses, however. Men and women released from prison are given a bus ticket and $100. If they don’t have a support system on the outside, $100 doesn’t go very far.

And while many in society have the attitude that the ex-convicts brought it upon themselves, they should know that lack of housing and employment dramatically increases the chances that they will reoffend. In other words, homelessness and poverty among felons becomes society’s problem whether they like it or not.

While the post-incarceration rules for sex offenders are most definitely the strictest, there are consequences for other crimes that far outlast any potential jail or prison time. Finding a job with a felony conviction in Florida or anywhere else can pose a whole host of problems, even if the charge wasn’t violent at all.

The best way to prevent these kind of long term consequences is to keep a conviction off your record. While this isn’t always possible, a good defense attorney will work tirelessly to ensure you get the best possible results.

Nice and thorough article over at Ars Technica about the different approaches state governments are taking to reforming sexting laws, and making important distinctions between charges of child pornography. The article discusses a paper by Dena T. Sacco of Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic. The point of the paper is that there is a wide range of behaviors and intent that constitute “sexting”, even when the images are originally created and distributed by minors.

There is a big difference when an image is meant only to be shared between boyfriend/girlfriend, and when it willfully or maliciously gets distributed more widely for any number of reasons.

This continues to be an interested area of the law that legislatures will grapple with. Both the article and the original paper are worth a read.

Lots of movement in the state legislatures across the nation to reform and update sexting laws, including Louisiana, Indiana, and Connecticut. While Connecticut and Indiana are making positive improvements, the goal of the Louisiana law appears to still emphasize punishment of teens.Connecticut announced the unanimous passage in both houses of “An Act Concerning Sexting”, which reduces the penalty for possession and transmission of nude or semi-nude images by electronic means to a Class A Misdemeanor under CT Law, for those between the ages of 13 and 18. The option is still open for prosecutors to not move forward with these cases if the facts don’t warrant a criminal prosecution.

In Indiana, the legislature announced plans to move forward with sexting laws reform after the upcoming primary. The goal of the bill will be to reduce and differentiate the penalty for teens who may be accused of sending sexually explicit photographs. The current Indiana state law only has provisions for felony child pornography charges.

In Louisiana, the facts are improved, although the state still retails the option to treat sexting as a serious crime. According to nola.com, the new bill that has come out of committee still looks to punish those under 17 with up to a month in jail for ” ‘knowingly and voluntarily’ use a computer or telecommunications device to transmit “an indecent visual depiction of himself”.

Fortunately, the law also has a provision for a suspended jail sentence in exchange for community service. But there is no indication of the use of the juvenile court system, options for future dropped charges, or any education programs, so the law still sounds punitive in nature.

Other state legislatures are getting on the bandwagon and making noises about trying to reform laws that treat teen sexting as a felony sex offense.

In addition to efforts in Arizona and Pennsylvania, now new efforts are underway in Illinois and Florida.

These efforts are welcome, and long overdue. We will continue to track the progress of this legislation in different states across the nation.

Arizona legislators hope to finish up work on a bill that would reduce penalties for juveniles who send nude pictures to other juveniles.

Under current Arizona law, a minor could be charged with felony sexual exploitation of a minor for sending a nude image via text message, or sexting to another minor. It can also result in a lifetime designation as a registered sex offender.

Under the changes in the proposed bill as it currently stands, lesser penalties for juveniles could include probation, participation in diversion programs or fines.

More here:

It is great to see some real movement in the goal to reform sexting laws.From the New York Times, to other local papers, news sources and smart commentators, the message is getting through. Punishing teens as sex offenders for sending suggestive photos of themselves or other teens is an insane overreach. It is criminalizing dumb behavior. Juvenile court, and education programs make sense. Life-long (and life-destroying) felony sex offender labeling does not make sense.

The US 3rd Circuit Court has ruled that a 16 year old girl could not be charged with child pornography for simply appearing in a photograph without any evidence that she was responsible or aware or it’s distribution. This decision is a blow to aggressive prosecution of sexting, and an interesting case in particular, where the prosecutor attempted to threatening the defendant into agreeing to a sexting eduction class in exchange for not bringing the felony child pornography charges. The defendant refused.

The local judge also had ruled that the pictures themselves, which had been distributed among a number of students in Pennsylvania, was not child pornography, but the circuit court did not take up that aspect of the 1st amendment argument.

In Massachusetts, there are law enforcement officials who think that criminal punishment a a reasonable thing to to as a deterrent to teen sexting.

According to the Boston Globe (via True/Slant), local police and prosecutors are investigating and considering child pornography charges in this a sexting incident at a local middle school.

Most people would call this “criminalizing bad behavior”. Is sexting a good idea? Of course not. But who is served by ruining a teenager’s life for something stupid? We can understand that there is a huge difference between adults peddling nude pictures of children, and young teenagers foolishly forwarding pictures sent to them.

Massachusetts, like most other states, needs to reform it’s child pornography laws to account for this kind of bad, but understandable teen behavior. Juvenile courts and education programs should be the only law enforcement involvement in this cases, not felony charges and sex offender registry for life, which appears to be the only possible punishment under Massachusetts laws as currently written.

A television special on MTV will highlight the dangers (and overreaction) that can result from a teen sexting charge.

18 year old Phillip Alpert is faced with being a convicted child pornographer and a registered sex offender for years, after forwarding a picture of his teen girlfriend.

His dreams and future opportunity have been ruined by what amounted to a (very) dumb mistake.

Alpert willingly admits that is was a wrong thing to do, but most people can understand that there is a difference between is action in this case,

But the sexting laws in most states make no distinction between teens acting thoughtlessly and irresponsibility with their phones, and adults exploiting children as sexual predators.

Now Alpert find himself unable to live in his father’s home, unable to send an unmonitored email, and attending weekly re-education classes with “other” sex offenders and pedophiles.

Two Indiana middle school students, aged 12 and 13, are facing criminal charges of child pornography and child exploitation for exchanging explicit pictures of each other via cell phone, or “sexting”.

According to the Northwest Indiana Times, the students in Valpariso, IN would face felony charges and sex offender status if convicted in adult criminal court.  Prosecutors expect to deal with any criminal issues through juvenile court, which gives the students a chance to avoid the harsh sentences and penalties in the adult criminal justice system. Juvenile court programs allow students to undergo counseling and education programs in place of more serious penalties, and often will allow criminal charged to be dropped or voided if the programs are successfully completed, and there are no other criminal incidents.

There are some new  pilot “diversion” programs around the country for teen sexting charges, such as one in Montgomery County, Ohio.

Most state child pornography laws don’t make the distinction between teen sexting incidents and more deliberate acts of distribution child pornography.

But that many be changing. According to NBC Chicago, the Indiana legislature is considering legislation to make the distinction between adolescent/teen sexting, and adult possession of child pornography, and related sex offenses.