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American Morning

Colorado Sex Offenders Released from Custody Today

Aired July 25, 2001 - 09:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you a moment ago, in Colorado today, hundreds of convicted sex offenders are being released from custody or from parole and that has many people there concerned.

First, let's hear from CNN's Gina London with details of what's happening and why it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GINA LONDON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marianne Opl is a survivor of a sex crime. She says she's reminded of her assault every day.

MARIANNE OPL, VICTIM OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: It's a trauma. It's something that you live with. The wounds never heal.

LONDON: And now the emotional wounds of Opl and many others like her may be torn open again with the release of some of Colorado's convicted sex offenders.

The state Supreme Court sought to clarify some confusing sentencing and parole laws put on the books between 1993 and 1998. In so doing, it got rid of a 1993 law requiring all sex offenders to serve parole at the end their sentence.

KEN SALAZAR, COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL: The essence of the decision is that the sex offenders who committed their crimes here in Colorado between the time period of 1993 and 1998 will not be subject to the mandatory parole provisions of the law.

LONDON: The attorney general asked the court to reconsider, but Monday, the court denied that request. As a result, the Colorado Department of Corrections says a number of convicted sex offenders will be affected.

Seventy-two offenders now in custody on mandatory parole violations will be immediately released; 44 sex offenders in custody on mandatory parole violations will be released after courts complete their paperwork; 251 offenders now serving mandatory parole will be released from that provision and 1,145 sex offenders currently serving sentences will eventually face discretionary, not mandatory, parole.

The Department of Corrections points out, however, these people are not simply being set free. JOHN SUTHERS, COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: They have to give us an address where they're going to live. We locate the -- we notify the local police and if they don't register within 72 hours, they commit a felony.

LONDON (on camera): The registry law is just one in a series of tough laws now enacted in Colorado. Under another provision, this one since 1998, anyone convicted a sexual offense gets lifetime supervision.

Gina London, CNN, Denver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: For more now on this controversial release, we are joined by John Suthers, who is executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. He's live from Colorado Springs. And Marte McNally, who is clinical director of RAAP, the Rape Assistance and Awareness Program. She's in Denver.

We're going to begin with Mr. Suthers. Thank you for joining us, both of you. Mr. Suthers, what does this release mean for the public safety of the people in Colorado? Who is going out and where are they going?

SUTHERS: Well, it's not good for public safety. What we know from research is sex offenders need supervision and the upshot of this case is that this group of 1,500, when they end their term of incarceration, will have less parole supervision than they otherwise would have had.

I don't think that it's cause for panic. The fact of the matter is that we release sex offenders into the community on a regular basis, four or five a day in Colorado. We have 8,600 people on the sex offender registry. People ought to be diligent all of the time to make sure who their kids are associated with, who their kid's coaches are, who their kid's scout leaders are, who their kid's teachers are, and while we always ought to be concerned, I don't think that this case should cause us to be more or less concerned.

FRAZIER: Well, after these people register with you, how does the community know about those registrations?

SUTHERS: They can go to their local police or sheriff's department and request a list of the sex offenders who live in their adjacent neighbors. I think they can get it up to a mile radius.

FRAZIER: In some parts of the country, that's on the Web. Is that the case in Colorado?

SUTHERS: The only thing that's on the Web in Colorado are those who fail to register, but they do have to go to the local police and sheriff to get a list of those who have registered and live in their community.

FRAZIER: Is there -- is it fair for people in Colorado to expect that anything has happened to these people while they've bee in prison? Has there been any effort to rehabilitate them or work with them?

SUTHERS: Absolutely, we have sex offender treatment programs in the department. In Colorado, ours is kind a state-of-the-art program. It's a very rigorous program. Only about 50 percent of the sex offenders who participate successfully complete it, and it has a lot to do with whether or not whether or not they get discretionary parole.

But the important thing to remember about sex offenders, particularly child molesters who suffer from pedophilia, this is not something you cure; this is something you manage, and that's why supervision is such an important part of it.

FRAZIER: And do you have any sense that people are managing their condition, if that's the right way to call it, that they've been changed by this program?

SUTHERS: We do have a sense that they are changed by it. Certainly we cause them to confront -- you know, you have to confess the nature and the extent of the problem, and most sex offenders are in a tremendous state of denial when they come in and it's only after a series of polygraphs and a whole bunch of other sorts of processes that we're able to break them down and they confront the fact that what a serious problem they have.

FRAZIER: And acknowledgment of the -- like a 12-step program, almost?

SUTHERS: Very much similar.

FRAZIER: Mr. Suthers, thank you for that. We're going to turn now to the other side of the debate, if you'd indulge us. We're going to go live to Denver to speak with Marte McNally, who, as we mentioned, heads up a clinical program, called RAAP, Rape Assistance and Awareness Program. What do you make up of these developments, Ms. McNally?

MARTE MCNALLY, RAPE COUNSELOR: I believe that it's really discouraging and disheartening to victims of sex assault. And in a larger sense, discouraged people from reporting. We already know that most sex assaults are not reported, that only about 16 percent of sex assaults are ever reported and that's for many, many reasons, but one of the reasons is a lack of faith in the system that a complaint will a), be taken seriously and, b), that if someone is convicted that they'll actually be punished in the accordance of the severity of their crimes.

So, for many victims, at least what I've heard from the clients is anger and a sense of see, I always knew...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: We've heard for a long time that stepping forward to try to affect some kind of prosecution is often more difficult for the victim of an assault than the alleged perpetrator. Is that still the case where you are?

MCNALLY: I would say that prosecution is very difficult for victims, that it's traumatizing, that unfortunately, sometimes the system is such that they're met with skepticism, that the sense is, obviously, that they have to prove or it has to be prove that that can be a very difficult and traumatizing process for someone to go through, and it's no wonder that lots and lots of people choose not to do that.

FRAZIER: Is it your sense, if victims are talking to you about this change in the ruling now that the high court said these people have to be released, are they fearful at all that their attackers are coming back into the same neighborhood, the same towns?

MCNALLY: Yes, I have certainly heard that from people. When someone is released, it's already a pretty scary thing for victims when they heard that their perpetrator has been released. So, then to know that that's even going to happen sooner or that the person is to be released with less supervision than they thought that the person was going to have is even an additional trauma for them, certainly.

FRAZIER: Are they given special consideration? Are they told, notified by the sheriff's office or by the Department of Corrections that their attackers are coming back out?

MCNALLY: Yes, that's part of -- if the victim in this state chooses to be notified, they are notified when their perpetrator is released.

FRAZIER: What would you like to see happen given -- how should we go forward given the fact that this is going to happen?

MCNALLY: Well, I think that the problem is a bigger problem, and it has to do with sort of society's denial of how series this crime is and how it devastates human lives, and that in the same way that we've decided we're going to have a war on drugs or we're going to have a war on drunk drivers, that we need a war on sex offenders and it needs to be taken absolutely seriously and judges need to be monitored and that when laws are written and we're absolutely sure that they are good laws and laws that are going to stand up.

FRAZIER: A much larger campaign than what we're dealing with today.

MCNALLY: Yes.

FRAZIER: Well, Ms. McNally, thank you very much for joining us from Denver, and we will end our debate here with that.

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