the
Reporter
Stetson University | DeLand, Fla.
Vol. CXXIII Issue 12
Graduation outdoors
Just like the movies or a hot, wet nightmare? Kait Forsythe Staff Writer
Here’s the deal for graduation, seniors: It’s outside.
Sex offenders and allies advocate for registry relaxation Jason Cruz Staff Writer
Criminal justice reform: Protesters and politicians have spent much of the past 18 months arguing for criminal justice reform as the United States reckons with its standing as the world’s number one incarcerator. Much of this discussion revolves around non-violent drug crimes, but last Thursday Stetson’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union brought reform advocates focused on a group most people do not think need laxer laws: sex offenders. Gail Colletta is the president of the Florida Action Committee, and she brought three sex offenders (she uses the term “registered citizens”) to the Stetson room to share information regarding what she believes to be utterly draconian laws making it difficult for registered offenders released from prison to find housing, employment, and become productive members of society. She and Cary Ragsdale spoke vehemently against the way people become registered sex offenders and the registry itself. Ragsdale began by decrying “outright lies which have contaminated the conversation for 25 years.” He and Colletta repeatedly cited a 2005 Department of Justice report claiming only 5.3% of registered offenders are repeat offenders. There are currently more than 800 thousand registered offenders today. Ragsdale claims tens of thousands have absconded from their registered locations because they could not live under the housing restrictions, which often require that offenders live no closer than a thousand feet from places where children congregate. Ragsdale said he once tried to find a home for a sex offender and discovered that only two blocks in Seminole county fit the requirements. Ragsdale told the crowd, a mixture
of students and older citizens, he was molested at age 12, but still believes that the current procedures for handling sex offenders are inhumane, unconstitutional, and ineffective. He claimed that the prevalence of plea bargains, which he argued make up 90 percent of criminal cases, erodes due process rights, while the inability for registered offenders to freely choose their residences or jobs makes it almost impossible for them to become productive members of society after their punishments end. He criticized the apparent hypocrisy of forcing sex offenders to register for life while murderers and other criminals, who he said have higher recidivism rates, go unmonitored. Once Colletta took the stage, she began with awkward discussion of the changed morality she sees as causing much of the problem with sex crimes. She claimed there are now 189 offenses which could result in being forced to register, many of which describe formerly commonplace practices. Colletta remarked “how many of our soldiers in World War II left behind 15 or 16 year old brides with children? They would be sex offenders by today’s standards. In the time of Biblical scripture, families married girls off to 20 or 30 year old men as soon as they could bear children, and those men would now be sex offenders. We haven’t changed biologically, just how we think about it.” She even told the crowd that both she and her mother were with their older husbands by the time they were 15. The Florida Action Committee president explained that she became involved after her son was arrested and convicted for possession of child pornography. According to her, her bipolar son was experiencing a manic episode, remembered what someone told him to google, and stumbled onto the images, proceeding to download some. When he awoke in a See Offenders, Page 2
If you were not familiar, in previous years, the Stetson Commencement ceremony has been held in the Edmunds Center, which has a holding capacity of around 5,000. Last May, Stetson University said a proud goodbye to 549 graduates in total, but the students were broken up into three separate sections, whose ceremonies spanned the entire weekend. The graduate school would get things started, followed by the College of Arts and Sciences, and ending with the School of Music and the School of Business Administration. Now, in high school tradition, there will be a singular graduation ceremony, which willl take place at Spec Martin Stadium, located a little over a mile from campus. Beginning around around 8:30 am and ending around 11am, the ceremony this year will include all undergraduate and graduate students together rather than division based on the various schools within the university. The motivation for change, according to Director of University Events Julie Hunter, was safety. During Commencement last year, Edmunds reached full capacity and was at risk of violating fire codes, putting the event was at risk of being shut down. See Graduation, Page 3
Mock Trial team celebrates success at recent tournament News, Page 4 Q& A with Dublin native and tennis player Cóilín MacNamara Sports, Page 7