Source: prisonlegalnews.org 6/1/26
Stonewalling by the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) in providing treatment to people convicted of sexual offenses has allowed some of those people to be released without any treatment and at the same time delayed parole consideration for others. In 1998, Colorado lawmakers overhauled the system of sentencing and monitoring people convicted of sex offenses to include a lifetime supervision policy as a “comprehensive way to protect the public and stop further crimes.”
The new system required those convicted of sex offenses to receive treatment while incarcerated before they could be released and to be under continuous supervision after release. The new sentences for these crimes would be “indeterminate,” such as “two years to life,” meaning the person would be eligible for release on parole after two years, but could remain in prison for life if he or she would not or could not complete the treatment.
At the time the new system was adopted, former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant praised the new approach, asserting “the problem is going to be addressed and that offender is not going to recidivate.” Well, the panacea of the new system has failed to reach fruition. Almost 30 years later, DOC officials have failed to hire sufficient staff to provide the legislatively mandated treatment. Several hundred prisoners in the DOC’s custody are on a waiting list for their turn to receive the treatment. As of July 2024, more than 160 of them were long past their parole eligibility dates but remained incarcerated “because of a years-long shortage of therapists and resistance by state officials for allowing alternative forms of treatment,” the Denver Post reported. Disturbingly, more than 2,000 people convicted of similar and even more severe crimes were released untreated in the past five years.
The prisoners released without treatment had “determinate” or “fixed” sentences that meant their release dates were certain and they had to be released whether or not the DOC provided treatment to them. And without treatment, they are generally at higher risk of returning to prison. DOC spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia said the agency “was charged with carrying out laws passed by the legislature and that people released without treatment would still be required to receive it while under supervision in the community.”
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