originally posted 3/22/2012
My son is 22 years old. He was sentenced February 20, 2012, in Collier County, Florida, to 10 years in prison, followed by 5 years Sex Offender Probation and permanent Sex Offender Registry thereafter.
His crime was having a consensual relationship with a girl who was 14 when he was 20 – his first relationship and her second.
He wanted to marry her, but her parents wanted prison for him.
He was facing 80 years or more in prison if convicted (as the prosecutor counted each act as a separate charge) but took the 10 year plea offered by the prosecutor.
He is not a sex offender! He is undeserving of this sentence and the lifetime sentence of registration that follows the prison sentence.
Our hard earned tax dollars are paying our government to keep our young men locked up in prisons where they cannot be productive citizens and face many horrors and humiliation; they must become part of a free labor force, and if/when they come out, they face bleak futures.
We must act to Reform Sex Offender Laws.
s.