With the memory of serial rapist Brent J. Brents still fresh in the public memory, we welcome a task force’s initial recommendations for strengthening the system for identifying sexually violent predators and making notification mandatory when such a person moves into a community.
Under current law, community notification of sexually violent predators isn’t automatic, but it would be under the proposals. The requirement also would apply to offenders whose crimes meet the criteria but were committed out of state.
Equally important, probation officers, who work for the judicial branch rather than the Department of Corrections, would be given primary responsibility for determining whether an offender is a sexually violent predator.
Corrections officials have come under fire for their handling of evaluations of offenders and of community notification.
The panel suggested defining a sexually violent predator first as a person who has been convicted of an offense such as first- or second-degree sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, sexual assault on a child or sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust. Other elements would include the offender’s relationship to the victim and assessments by a Sex Offender Management Board and parole officials or a court that the person is a sexually violent predator. The task force also recommended that the designation be applied at sentencing.
Arrest would be mandatory – not discretionary – for sexually violent predators who fail to register as required.
The new steps are in a report released Friday by Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General John Suthers. “These changes were very important and we’re ready to move ahead with the legislation,” Owens said.
Owens has lined up Republican legislators to sponsor the bills, and Democratic lawmakers have been working on similar legislation.
“I think most of the proposals sound very sensible to me,” said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. “There’s broad bipartisan support for protecting our constituents from sexually violent predators.”
Final recommendations are due Nov. 1, but the task force has made a good start toward closing loopholes that have allowed monsters like Brents to terrorize whole communities.
