New Colorado legislation could make prisoner locations public

On Monday, a bill that would require the Department of Corrections to tell crime victims the location of a prisoner before transfers took another step closer to becoming law.

Colorado Senate Bill 18-014, which was proposed earlier this month, was cleared by a Senate Judiciary Committee.

Our news partners in Denver, KDVR, spoke with Tom Sullivan, who lost his son in the Aurora theater shooting five-and-a-half years ago.

“It got to the point there was nothing we could do,” Sullivan said, speaking to the struggle to find out the location of shooter James Holmes.

For two years, Holmes’ location was unknown, and Sullivan said that alone was torture for many victims.

“I believe if you can find out and you can tell those people ‘this is where the bogeyman is here. Here is a picture of the prison and he’s not getting out that would relieve some of the anxiety,'” Sullivan said.

It wasn’t until late 2017 that Holmes’ location was revealed to be a prison in Pennsylvania.
Sullivan is now speaking out as an advocate for SB 18-014, with hopes that other families will not have to struggle in similar situations.

The bill does call for some exceptions, including if the Department of Corrections determines the information would put the prisoner, victim or corrections staff in danger.

Republican State Sen. John Cooke is sponsoring the bill along with Democratic Sen. Rhonda Fields.

If the bill is passed, the Department of Corrections said only four or five prisoners’ locations would be withheld if the information would become public.