Surprise! Lauren Book "sprinkles" herself with $500,000 more Floridiot taxpayer bucks

"Woo hoo! More money for ME!"

According to the Florida Bulldog, 37 of 45 bills introduced by Lauren Book didn't even make it out of committee.

In case you want to keep score, these are the only bills she helped pass:

1. The sex doll ban
2. An administrative bill changing agency names for the state's elderly care department
3. "Andrew's Law" yet another named law, this time targeting school hazing
4. Creating a new bureaucracy, the "Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission"
5. A bill revising rules for Stroke Centers

The rest died in committee or failed to pass later.

Remember the Progressive Ad "Only Winners Get Sprinkles"? I don't think Senator Bimbo earned her sprinkles this year.

https://www.floridabulldog.org/2019/05/legislative-sprinkle-extra-half-million-dollars-to-state-senators-nonprofit/

Legislative ‘sprinkle’ adds extra half-million dollars to state senator’s nonprofit, quietly doubling state payout to Lauren’s Kids

MAY 22, 2019
AUTHOR: FRANCISCO ALVARADO

In the waning days of the most recent Florida legislative session, it appeared the nonprofit agency founded and run by Plantation State Sen. Lauren Book would walk away with only half-a-million dollars in taxpayer funding after consecutive years of receiving seven-figure sums.

Then came the April 30th meeting of the budget conference chairs. That’s when Lauren’s Kids got sprinkled.

The so-called “sprinkle list” is used to describe how legislators shower favored organizations with additional dollars near the end of session.

Toward the end of the hearing, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Rob Bradley, R- Green Cove Springs, announced that the children’s cancer awareness foundation Live Like Bella and Book’s organization, Lauren’s Kids, had been erroneously left off the list. He said each would receive an additional $500,000.

With a stroke of a pen, Bradley made sure his colleague’s nonprofit walked away with $1 million for its educational outreach program aimed at preventing sexual and physical abuse against children, as well as encouraging the reporting of child-abuse cases. Book later voted to approve the budget bill containing the allocation for Lauren’s Kids.

But according to ethics watchdogs, the large allocation of public funds to a senator’s nonprofit  raises concerns about whether Book, a Democrat, properly disclosed her ties to Lauren’s Kids. Likewise, they question the legislative practice of doling out public dollars to private groups after legislative committees have already voted on how much money the groups should receive.

Subversive sprinkle

Peter Cruise, executive director of Florida Atlantic University’s LeRoy Collins Public Ethics Academy, said the sprinkle list subverts the committee process. “It becomes more concerning if it involves a legislator and the organization has her name on it, even if it’s for helping abused kids,” said Cruise, who is also a Palm Beach County ethics commissioner. “Things like this should not happen, no matter how worthy the cause is.”

Ben Wilcox, research director for the watchdog organization Integrity Florida, said legislators only have to disclose a possible conflict of interest if the appropriation directly benefits them. “She can argue that it is not a direct benefit to her because the allocation is to the nonprofit,” Wilcox explained. “But it is a really gray area. If I were her, I would err on the side of full disclosure.”

Furthermore, Book should have sought an opinion from the Senate’s general counsel before voting on the state budget, Wilcox said. “If you don’t take some steps to fully disclose what could be a potential conflict, it doesn’t look good to the public,” he said.

Since its inception in 2007, Lauren’s Kids has sought and received grant funding from the state, collecting more than $13 million in the last five years alone. The senator, a rising Broward Democrat whose father is powerhouse lobbyist Ron Book, receives a $144,250 salary as Lauren’s Kids CEO, according to the nonprofit’s 2016 tax return, the most recent available. The same document shows that government grants represented 68 percent of Lauren’s Kids 2016 $4.1 million revenue. Book’s Senate salary is $29,697.

In a 2017 interview before the start of her first year in office, Book told Florida Bulldog that she consulted the Senate’s general counsel about voting on issues relating to Lauren’s Kids. She said she was advised “that I do not abstain on these matters unless the funding directly inures to my benefit, which it will not.” Book insisted that her CEO salary was restructured so that is not paid with state funds and that she derives no personal benefit from public tax dollars.

During her first term, Book has quickly risen up the ranks in the Republican-controlled Legislature. She is chairwoman of the Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee and is a member of the Appropriations Committee and two appropriations subcommittees that oversee education, health and human services. However, she has been mostly ineffective in passing her own legislative agenda.

According to her Senate website, 37 of 45 bills Book sponsored died at the committee level, including measures to establish trust and compensation funds for victims’ families of the Feb. 14, 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High mass shooting.

A ‘scrivener’s error’

As a member of the Appropriations Committee and subcommittees, Sen. Book was at the April 30th budget conference. When Bradley said a ‘scrivener’s error’ had mistakenly left off funding for Live Like Bella and Lauren’s Kids, Book was a few feet away from the Senate appropriations chairman, according to video footage of the meeting.

“As an appointed member of the overall Joint Budget Conference Committee and a member of both the Education and the Health and Human Services Budget Conference Sub-Committees it was my duty to be there,” Book said in an emailed statement. The senator said the $500,000 sprinkle for Lauren’s Kids was requested by Democratic Sen. Bill Montford of Leon County, who also is the CEO of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. Bradley and Montford did not respond to phone messages and emails requesting comment.

Book said she became aware of the scrivener’s error during the budget conference, but that she did not discuss Lauren’s Kids funding with any of the legislators or Senate staff in attendance.

Lauren’s Kids spokeswoman Claire VanSusteren told Florida Bulldog that Book has not been involved with any legislative funding requests related to the nonprofit.

“She does not lobby her colleagues on the budget, and does not participate in foundation-related legislative updates as she is no longer a member of the Lauren’s Kids board of directors,” VanSusteren said. “The only exception has been to vote on a final state budget as is required of her as a state senator.”

Cruise, the ethics commissioner, said having a colleague like Montford sponsor funding for Lauren’s Kids puts some distance between the senator and her nonprofit, but that the sprinkle list subverts the vetting process undertaken by the legislative committees.

“The appropriations process is extremely political,” Cruise said. “It is hard to get on an agenda and organizations can get knocked out at the last minute. To have something come out of left field is not the way the process is supposed to work.”

Controversial agencies GEO Group and Correct Care Solutions are among the sponsors of Lauren's Kids

I remember when GEO Group denied giving their blood money to Senator Lauren Book in an article discussing their plans to sue Dream Defenders, a pro-immigration group that protested GEO Group's treatment of immigrant detainees.

The Florida Democratic Party also banned candidates from accepting GEO Group funds, but Lauren Book STILL received money from them.

Well, guess who is still taking GEO Group blood money? You guessed it-- Lauren Book. Below is a screenshot from her organization dated today.

Am I the only one finding it interesting that Lauren Book has accepted over $100k from a private prison group responsible for some of the worst cases of physical and sexual abuse in a juvenile detention in American history?

While we're on this subject, what about the fact Correct Care Solutions (which merged with Correctional Medical Group Companies to form a new company, Wellpath) also sponsors Lauren's Kids? They're the subject of a major lawsuit where neglect and abuse have led to miscarriages, stillbirths, and dangerous prison births. Remember the recent story of the mentally ill woman in Broward County who gave birth in her own jail cell after no one would come to her aid? That was Correct Care Solutions.

Why is it the media won't grill self-professed victim advocate Senator Lauren Book on the fact she continues to accept blood money from groups that have abused women and children? Am I the only one that finds it odd that her acceptance of this money is hypocritical of her as well as unethical? As the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase once said, "Everybody's Got a Price." We all know the Books have a price, and it is paid with GEO Group blood money.

Despite knowing her Backpage law backfired, Senator Lauren Book pushed ahead with the Prostitution Registry

Senator Bimbo obviously doesn't understand how the Internet works; she thinks if this registry backfires, then it can just be taken offline and all will be fine.

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7xgx7a/florida-bill-soliciting-for-prostitution-public-database

SEX WORK
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By Samantha Cole
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May 10 2019, 9:30am
A Government Database for People Who Pay for Sex Is a Terrible, Dangerous Idea

A set of bills pass this month in Florida that, if they become law, will build a “Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database."


A set of bills passed the Florida House and Senate earlier this month that would build a database of people convicted for soliciting sex, and which sex workers and advocates say will ruin lives and put them at more risk.

Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851, when signed into law, will set up a database that includes anyone convicted of “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation,” according to the Senate's bill, which was drafted by Democratic senator Lauren Book. The “Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database” would filter everyone convicted of soliciting sex into one database. According to a spokesperson for Book, it would include already-public information from clerk of court including full legal names, date of birth, a mugshot, and the offense committed.

The database is aimed at clients, but advocates say it will harm sex workers and trafficking survivors by making it more difficult to screen for dangerous clients and increasing the probability of police stings and violence.

“Upon the person’s conviction, the clerk of the court shall forward the criminal history record of the convicted person to the Department of Law Enforcement for inclusion in the database,” the bill states.

“It becomes impossible to tell the difference between somebody who is scared and somebody who is scary.”

Publicly shaming clients for soliciting sex, and attempting to reduce demand for sex work, will only make it harder for workers to screen for bad dates, experts told me. Screening dates usually involves giving a provider personal information—something clients might be less willing to do if they’re worried about ending up on a database.

“When you make clients afraid, it becomes harder to screen out predators,” Kaytlin Bailey, communications director for advocacy group Decriminalize Sex Work told me in a phone call. “It becomes impossible to tell the difference between somebody who is scared and somebody who is scary.”

Now that the bills have passed, they’re headed for Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s desk to be signed into law. I’ve reached out to co-sponsor Florida Republican Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, and DeSantis, and will update if I hear back.

Like the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which passed last year and immediately started hurting sex workers, this bill is written under the guise of combating human trafficking.

“When we curb the demand for the illegal sale and purchase of sex, we will also curb the profitability of human trafficking,” Book said in a press release. In a statement sent to me via email, Book said that the goal of the database is “to curb the demand for paid sex, and therefore impact the supply.” She said that the database will also be studied by Florida’s state research arm, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, for three years, to determine its effectiveness in curbing human trafficking.

“We don’t want to create the type of issue we saw with the well-intentioned elimination of Backpage, which only forced trafficking deeper into the shadows,” Book said. “So if it doesn’t work, the database will cease to exist.”

But activists, harm reductionists, and years of research into policies that aim to end demand for sex work say otherwise. Studies show that sex offender registries can increase recidivism and cause more harm than good.

Even though the bill is allegedly aimed at stopping sex trafficking, its opponents—several of them survivors of trafficking or abuse themselves—say that this will be catastrophic for people working in the consensual sex trade, especially those already engaging in survival sex: to procure a place to sleep, food, or safety. Several studies have shown that criminalizing sex work increases violence and health risks for workers.

Read more: A New Zealand Woman Was Charged for Doxing a Sex Worker Online

“The causal relationship couldn’t be clearer: When you increase criminalization, you increase violence against sex workers,” Bailey said. “This is true whether you’re talking about criminalizing sex workers themselves or criminalizing clients. Everywhere we’ve see end-demand policies enacted, such as Sweden and the Netherlands, you see violence increase against sex workers. Because it diminishes our negotiating power.”

Under sex work criminalization laws, sex workers working or living together for safety can be charged with solicitation. Because the database will include anyone convicted of soliciting sex, sex workers will likely end up on this list alongside clients—effectively revealing their personal information to predators via government public records, leaving them even more vulnerable than before.

"If the representatives aren’t listening to the people the laws are going to affect, what are they doing in that position"

According to all of the sex workers and activists I spoke to about this bill, trying to lower demand by publicly shaming clients is not going to stop sex work, but it will make it more dangerous. Some of the repercussions for lowered demand within an already criminalized industry include being more likely to work longer, more dangerous hours; being more likely to be pressured into acts they don’t want (like being bullied into not using a condom); taking on clients they are uneasy about, or unable to properly screen; and being pushed back into homelessness, substance abuse, or abusive relationships with partners or managers out of need.

Alex Andrews, lead organizer at advocacy organization Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Behind Bars, told me in a phone call that to see this bill pushed through to the detriment of already-marginalized communities is deeply disheartening.

“It’s frustrating because these things are impacting our community big time,” she said. “They’re very harm-causing, they displace a lot of workers, they mess up lives.... to add a registry to it makes it even worse.”

Some of the legislators working on this bill have made it clear that they aren’t interested in hearing feedback from sex workers. In a Florida subcommittee hearing in March on bills that would require hotel staff to be trained to profile women who might be trafficked, database bill co-sponsor Fitzenhagen told the committee, “In case it was lost on you, a consensual sex worker, AKA a prostitute, is committing a crime. It is not my intent to work with them moving forward."

Kristen Cain, a sex worker and activist at SWOP Tampa Bay who testified at the March hearing, said that she and other sex workers have presented their concerns to legislators, but they don’t seem to be listening.

Read more: Sex Workers Don't Trust Kamala Harris

“I already have friends that are attacked and assaulted during sessions—they can’t go to the police and say, ‘I was assaulted and need some help,’ because all of their info is entered into public record,” she told me in a phone call. “This makes it even harder to say, 'hey I was assaulted,' because not only is it public record, but it goes on a database specifically for this.”

Cain told me she expects the bills to be signed into law by DeSantis, whose voting record includes making it more difficult for ex-felons to vote, and arming school teachers instead of implementing sensible gun law reform.

“To be honest with you, if the representatives aren’t listening to the people the laws are going to affect, what are they doing in that position,” Cain said.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Ron Book thinks sex offender laws should continue to torture elderly, invalid individuals on the registry

The mentality of Ron Book doesn't surprise me, given that Book allowed sick,elderly registrants rot in homeless camps throughout Miami-Dade County.

By the way, a drunk driver is a drunk diver, doesn't matter if he's 18 or 98. Lock his ass up already!

https://www.wftv.com/news/florida/housing-elderly-sex-offenders/945769719

Housing elderly sex offenders

By: MERYL KORNFIELD of Fresh Take Florida news service, Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida

Updated: May 2, 2019 - 3:39 PM
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Housing elderly sex offenders

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Since 82-year-old Leonard Bailey hit his head in a fall eight months ago, he can't remember to take his medicine.

His ex-wife, Marianne Devita, calls him 11 times a day to remind him about his appointments.

At that stage of dementia, many families would consider admitting him to a nursing home, but Devita said she has a list of assisted living homes that have rejected Bailey. The pages lined up are as tall as Devita's grandson - whom Bailey has never seen.

"Nobody wants him," she said. "Nobody wants a sex offender."

Bailey is among a growing number of elderly sex offenders: People on Florida's list of 73,000 registered offenders who are 65 and older jumped 2 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to the state's legislative auditors, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Florida's registry has about 10,200 elderly offenders.

The problem is sparking a national crisis of social and justice policy: How and where do we allow the most-reviled class of citizens to survive their silver years - especially those with serious age-related medical problems - after they have served their prison terms, while striving to protect children who may be living nearby?

For offenders like Bailey who can't live without assistance, nursing or retirement homes are not a guarantee. Even if the retirement home isn't within 1,000 feet of schools and parks, as required the state's sex offender residency restrictions, managers of nursing homes often reject elderly felons.

The state policy for long-term care homes is this: Management can choose to accept or reject applicants. Some other states, and Hillsborough County, have residency restrictions within 1,000 feet of places where seniors live, including nursing homes. States, counties and cities have different rules limiting where offenders can live.

In Iowa, the 2017 legislature considered a bill that would have created a committee that studied the feasibility of building a long-term care facility for offenders.

Privately owned assisted living homes have reasons for rejecting offenders. They may be financially responsible for lawsuits if a resident is assaulted by another resident with a criminal history. A Pennsylvania nursing home agreed to pay $6.75 million in damages to the estate of a resident who was assaulted there. The home knew the resident who assaulted her was a registered offender.

Oak Hammock, a University of Florida-managed retirement community in Gainesville, said it prioritizes resident safety and screens for sex-related criminal histories. It does not accept predators.

Assisted-living homes may also face reputational damage and lose other prospective clients if their commercial addresses show up on sex-offender registries.

Living at home isn't always an option for offenders either. When offenders' families are unable to move from areas near school or parks, offenders seek housing elsewhere.

Bailey was arrested for touching a minor in Florida while he was on vacation with Devita from their home in Long Island, New York.

Devita is still in New York, driving her 14-year-old grandson to school in the mornings, helping her daughter-in-law with chores. Bailey remains near where he was in prison. He is driven to court-mandated therapy and the sheriff's office.

When Bailey put a girl's hand in his pocket and asked her if she felt his "little leg," he was 74. Now Devita said Bailey, who uses a cane, can't live on his own anymore. After he hit his head in the bathroom, it took her calling him 37 times before he was able to reach for the phone.

"Help me" is all he said.

Since then, he often forgets his "black box" that pairs with the bracelet around his ankle to monitor his location. He's already been sent to prison for misplacing the device before and his parole officer has warned him the next time it happens he will be sent back.

Bailey can't help but forget.

"I'm getting too old to fight about this," he said. "I don't care."

For some victim advocates, any risk that a sex offender might lapse back into criminal behavior is too high. Ron Book, a former legislator, lobbied for Florida's restrictions after his daughter, who is now a state senator, was assaulted by her nanny in the late '90s and early 2000s.

He said he has met elderly offenders and is aware of cases when they committed new crimes. He does not think the state should change laws to account for the aging offender population.

"Sex crimes are sex crimes," he said. "Doesn't matter if they're 18 or 98."

Researchers have found that the chance of recidivism decreases by half every five years an offender is out of prison, said Jill Levenson, professor of social work at Barry University and an expert in sex offender treatment and policy.

She predicts that offenders will live together and provide care to each other.

This is already happening, according to sheriff's offices responses in the state's accountability office survey.

Residency restrictions are the most common hurdle for offenders searching for housing, with unwilling property managers a close second reason. Both contribute to the growth of enclave communities where offenders live together, usually in mobile home parks.

There are no known, comprehensive lists of communities or neighborhoods that accept sex offenders. Some in Florida include a St. Petersburg trailer park that was the subject of a 2016 documentary called "Pervert Park."

Lori Nassofer, who helps sex offenders 55 and older find housing in Central Florida, owns three mobile home parks near Orlando. "NO CHILDREN" signs are posted at the driveway.

The business of finding offenders housing is booming. There are no vacancies in Nassofer's parks.

Ron Johnson manages Overland Village for Nassofer, a mobile home park in Apopka. He said he receives 30 to 40 calls a week. He is kept busy coordinating housing for sex offenders recently released from prison.

Sex offenders in Florida must already have an address they will live at before they can leave prison.

"It's taking calls all the time," Johnson said. "Taking phone calls, dealing with probation, prisons, release coordinators, hospitals - you name it."

Finding housing is considered one of the biggest barriers for sex offenders recently released from prison. Federal rental assistance in public housing is not available to sex offenders.

Johnson said sex offenders risk being gouged for rent when they have no other options. At Nassofer's parks, most offenders already own their trailers or rent from each other. She charges $350 for land rent and covers utilities.

Many of the offenders have Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid. Some get financial help from family or friends. Few have jobs.

Bailey receives $1,200 a month for Social Security and pays his roommate, Paul Casey, $500 for a room in his trailer.

Most of the elderly offenders in the park have relatively younger roommates who take care of them. Johnson takes care of elderly in his park, including a man in a wheelchair.

"I shouldn't have him because I can't care for him," he said. "But what is he going to do?"

When Bailey's doctor told him he could no longer drive because of the dementia, Casey started using Bailey's Lincoln to take him grocery shopping.

Gail Colleta, an advocate for sex offenders, has asked lawmakers to consider lifting the state's residency restrictions if an offender is a certain age or has ailments.

"This is a humanity issue," said Colleta, president of Florida Action Committee. "We're more concerned about stray animals than we are about people with issues, that need to have medication, that need to have oxygen, that are just human beings."

Bailey has given up trying to take control. Sitting in a fold-out chair at the picnic area of his mobile home park, he pointed at the ground. He said he'd rather be under it.

"I'm just so tired of hanging around."

___

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.