FL Law Fails to Protect Against Sex Offenders

A multi-part investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reveals that the law meant to protect the public from the most dangerous sexual offenders is failing. The Jimmy Ryce law allows officials to keep violent sexual offenders locked up in treatment centers even after they finish their sentences. But as the recent death of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle of Jacksonville showed, it isn’t being enforced. The 
newspaper compiled a database of nearly 600 sex offenders who were released and then convicted of another sex crime in the years since the law was implemented.  Two offenders were released and re-offended -- sometimes only days after they get out -- for every offender committed under the law, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The acting chief of the Department of Children and Families, Esther Jacobo, said she will examine the findings.