Public notices about released sex offenders can escalate risk, expert says

Residents of Toronto were warned on Tuesday that a sex offender had been released into their community. The offender in question had completed a 21-year sentence for a litany of offenses against young victims.

He had done his time, paid his dues. There is now nothing standing in the way of him returning to public life.

And so it is that in the case of James Alfred Cooper – a sexual offender once called “pure evil” by a veteran Crown attorney – that he could be released into the public with little more than a community notice from police.

Watch out, he’s out there. He has the potential to reoffend. And there’s not much else we can do about it.

An official press release from the Toronto Police Service notes that Cooper, 79, was released from prison at the end of his 21-year sentence for a slew of charges, including two counts of rape, one count of buggery and one count of sexual intercourse with a female under the age of 14.

He has been ordered to submit weekly reports to authorities, avoid daycares, schoolyards, playgrounds and public parks, and not have contact with anyone under the age of 16.

"Toronto Police Service Sex Crimes is notifying the public about his release because of his potential to re-offend against children," the release concludes. “He will be residing in Toronto.”

The Toronto Star notes that his crimes came between 1967 and 1983 against five victims he had contact with through two of his three marriages.

The story further notes that Cooper has been re-arrested while out of statutory release on several occasions.

In 2012, the Hamilton Spectator published a lengthy feature on Cooper while he was seeking parole despite these previous violations. His victims stepped forward to discuss his crimes, and send a powerful message about the dangers of returning him to public life. The details are graphic and hard to read.

It was on this occasion that Toni Skarica, the prosecutor in Cooper’s 1993 case, referred to him as pure evil, adding, “It’s like he had no feeling at all. No conscience. He is so out there, the normal rules of behaviour don’t apply.”

But with Cooper’s sentence now completed, there is little to be done to keep him from re-entering society. Police are able to alert the public, but little else. Canada’s justice system does have a few ways to monitor sex offenders, however.

When Correctional Services Canada has reasonable grounds to believe an inmate could pose a threat after release, it provides local police with information about that offender. Police have the ability to request a Section 810 “peace bond” which requires the offender to agree to keep the peace. Breaching the peace bond can result in a two-year prison sentence.

Sex offenders are also included on a national registry upon conviction, which requires the offender to maintain contact with local police. They could also be required to submit samples to the National DNA Data Bank.

Police also frequently issue notices to the public before an offender is released, alerting residents that they will be present and could re-offend and identifying them as a cause for concern.

One agency that assists released offenders, however, says those notifications are a double-edged sword.

The Mennonite Central Committee, which operates the Circles of Support and Accountability volunteer group, says police notifications can create problems for the offender’s attempts at reintegration.

Eileen Henderson, the group’s Ontario restorative justice coordinator, says she appreciates why the public wants the notices but says they can escalate risk to the subject, create problems getting settled and even push them into another community.

“There are many times that the police are required to do a community notification because the public demands it and asks, ‘Why aren’t you telling us these people are in our community?’” Henderson told Yahoo Canada News. “The reality is that there are lots of things that can happen. If people are recognized and pushed to the margins they can’t find some of the basic necessities of life, like stable housing and a place to live.”

She added in a Tuesday interview that police notices can even give the community a false sense of security.

“If the community can focus on one person and point to them as the person they need to be afraid of, and say as long as we can visualize that person then we are all OK, that is just not the case,” she said.

“The majority of offending occurs in relationships where there is trust, where a relationship has already been built; not generally, though I wouldn’t say never, what we used to call ‘stranger danger.’”

There were 4,232 sexual violations against children reported in Canada in 2013 – an increase from the 3,953 cases one year earlier, even as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government took steps to crack down on sex offenders. The Conservative government introduced tougher punishments against child sex offenders in 2013, with mandatory minimum sentences and harsher penalties for those who commit crimes while out on parole.

But earlier this year, it appeared to take a step back in terms of handling those who might re-offend. In March, it was reported that the government drastically cut its funding for Circles of Support and Accountability – the volunteer group that had shown effectiveness in reducing the rate of re-offending among sex offenders.

The group, which makes contact with soon-to-be-released sex offenders and helps them take accountability for their past actions while returning to society, had its federal funding cut from $2.2 million per year to $560,000.

According to the agency, those it worked with show a 71 per cent reduction is recidivism for sexual and violent offences compared to offenders with whom they did not work.

Henderson says the group has had success in creating a community network for those released from prison, providing volunteers that help them get established outside of prison. She says that by giving them a network to rely on they are more able to put their old ways behind them.

“The goal is community safety, with the belief that the more people are isolated to the margins, the greater their risk levels become,” Henderson said.

“We do not follow the belief that, ‘I’ve done my time so people should get over it.’ We are very firm about the fact that you have done your time and now the really hard work is just beginning, building a track record in a community where you have created problems.”