The only woman at a treatment facility for sex offenders on McNeil Island in South Puget Sound has been conditionally released in Pierce County.
Laura McCollum, 61, left the Special Commitment Center on the island earlier this month. McCollum was profiled in Episode 2 of KNKX's podcast about McNeil Island, Forgotten Prison.
The release was ordered by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff on April 25. The order comes with strict conditions on McCollum's actions and continued treatment.
CIVIL COMMITMENT
McCollum pleaded guilty in 1990 to first-degree child rape for molesting a toddler she babysat, according to court records. She volunteered to be civilly committed for treatment after serving five years in prison.
"She thought it was a place where she might be able to get treatment to stop doing what she was doing," Forgotten Prison co-host Simone Alicea told KNKX Morning Edition Host Kirsten Kendrick.
Washington state's sex offender civil commitment law was only five years old when McCollum entered the system 24 years ago. She was the first woman in the country to ever be labeled a "sexually violent predator."
The Special Commitment Center has been on McNeil Island since 1998, when it was co-located with a state prison on the island. It moved to a separate facility on McNeil in 2004 and has continued to operate there since the prison closed in 2011.
Unlike prison, which has a set release date, residents are committed on the island indefinitely.
"You aren't released until it's deemed that you are safe to release into the community, so you can be there decades, like Laura," said Forgotten Prison co-host Paula Wissel.
'I DON'T WANT TO DIE IN THIS PLACE'
Special Commitment Center residents can be released conditionally or unconditionally. McCollum's conditional release means she is subject to a host of restrictions.
The 20-page court order outlines those restrictions. McCollum will not be allowed in the community without a chaperone. She also has a curfew and is subject to GPS tracking. Many aspects of her life, from visitors to entertainment options, have to be approved by a transition team. She will also continue to undergo treatment.
Violations of any of those conditions could send McCollum back to the Special Commitment Center.
The state Department of Social and Health Services will continue to pay for McCollum's treatment, as well as her rent and some other expenses.
Through her attorney, McCollum declined to be interviewed about her release, citing privacy concerns. But she told KNKX in November, as she was submitting her release plan, that she felt she had changed and was determined to get off the island.
"I don't want to die in this place," McCollum said. "To have this stigma and to die here too...I at least hope I'm on the other side."
