(1) As soon as is practicable, the department shall give written notice of the release of a person in the custody of the department to any victim of the person who is alive and whose address is known to the department or, if the victim is deceased, to the victim’s family, if the family’s address is known to the department. Failure to notify is not a reason for postponement of release. This section does not create a cause of action against the state or an employee of the state acting within the scope of the employee’s employment as a result of the failure to notify pursuant to this part.
(2) If a person in the custody of the department who has an active or pending term of probation, community control, parole, conditional release, or other court-ordered or postprison release supervision is released, the department must immediately notify the Department of Corrections’ Office of Community Corrections in Tallahassee. The Florida Commission on Offender Review must also be immediately notified of any releases of a person who has an active or pending term of parole, conditional release, or other postprison release supervision that is administered by the Florida Commission on Offender Review.
(3) If a person in the custody of the department is released, the department must notify the Department of Law Enforcement and the sheriff of the county in which the person intends to reside, or if unknown, the sheriff of the county in which the person was last convicted.
(4)(a) The department, in conjunction with the Department of Law Enforcement, shall enroll and maintain a sexually violent offender in the arrest notification program through the Florida Criminal Justice Network maintained by the Department of Law Enforcement upon such offender’s release from the department’s custody. Upon receiving an alert that a sexually violent offender has been arrested for a criminal offense subsequent to his or her release, the department must immediately notify the state attorney of the circuit in which the arrest occurred.
(b) As used in this subsection, the term “sexually violent offender” means a person who has been committed to the department as a sexually violent predator or who has been in the department’s custody based upon a court finding of probable cause to believe the person is a sexually violent predator.
History.—s. 18, ch. 98-64; s. 21, ch. 99-222; s. 7, ch. 2014-2; s. 10, ch. 2014-191.
Note.—Former s. 916.46.