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By STEVE KOBAK

Times Staff Writer


STAMFORD -- One year after finishing his prison sentence on child pornography charges, former Stamford volunteer firefighter Dan Rockwell is calling his car his home.

Rockwell said he can't find a job or a permanent place to live due to the felony charges following him. Currently in the second year of his 15-year probation sentence, Rockwell said he is trying to comply with his punishment, but he believes the conditions of his probation doom him to failure.

"A lot of people are very hostile when they hear about someone in a situation like this," Rockwell said.

Bill Anselmo, who oversees the sex offender unit for the state Office of Probation, said offenders often have difficulty finding jobs and places to live, but the complications are due to safeguards designed to protect the public from sex offenders.

"Community safety is our number one goal," he said.

According to Anselmo, most offenders wind up serving at least some of their suspended sentence, typically because they commit a violation of the conditions of their release. Very few offenders get reconvicted of sex crimes during their probation, according to Anselmo.

Rockwell is currently listed as a "non-compliant" offender by the Department of Public Safety because he failed to validate his address. He is facing the prospect of serving all or most of the 10-year suspended prison sentence he received when he was convicted of possession of child pornography in 2008.

The vast majority of the public does not sympathize with the predicament of sex offenders like Rockwell. Anselmo said the public generally views the release of a sex offender into their community as a threat to their quality of life.

"There is a lot of scrutiny about who they are, where they go, where they work and where they live," said Anselmo. "All eyes are on them."

Former Norwalk councilman Peter Wien, who speaks openly about the sex abuse he incurred as a child, believes that the way offenders are treated by society is a reflection of the disregard they had for the mental and physical well-being of their victims.

"A lot of them say they're sorry but at the same time, they don't have really good self control," Wien said.

In Rockwell's case, Stamford Police seized two laptop computers containing more than 100 images of child pornography from his home, according to police. Child pornography is considered by victim's advocates and law enforcement officials to be a form of revictimization but Rockwell simply calls it a "mistake" that he made out of "curiosity."

The process of assimilating sex offenders back into the community begins six to nine months before they are released from prison, Anselmo said.

Conditions of the offender's release are set by the court at the time of sentencing and additional conditions may be imposed by a probation officer after the offender is released, Anselmo said.

A representative from probation visits the offender in prison and evaluates the offender to find out the level of treatment that he requires. Assessing the offender's level of risk includes giving the offender a polygraph test, which Anselmo said determines whether the convict's history of sexual transgressions extends beyond the crimes of which he has been convicted.

"Each offender poses a different risk," he said.

The representative also assists the offender in trying to find housing and a job.

Outside of prison, it is difficult for even low-risk sex offenders to find employment because of the stigma surrounding convicted sex criminals, Anselmo said. Jobs are pivotal to an offender's rehabilitation because they provide structure, Anselmo said.

The job must be approved by a probation officer and the offender cannot have access to potential victims at his place of work, according to Anselmo.

"A lot of people say: 'Why can't they find a night job at a factory?' " he said. "The answer is those jobs don't exist anymore."

Depending on the crime and the level of risk that the offender poses to the community, probation officers can be flexible about place of employment but sex offenders are limited in their options for housing, Anselmo said.

Rockwell said his inability to gain employment means that he cannot come up with the funds required to pay for his sex offender treatment -- to which he currently owes about $700 -- and the money needed to pay rent. He depends on handouts from friends to buy food and gas for his car.

Many employers have online applications and because Rockwell cannot use a computer under the conditions of his release, the places to which he can apply are limited.

Finding housing for an offender is a difficult ordeal, Anselmo said. Offenders are often shunned by family members and former friends and they have nowhere to turn once the state no longer shelters them in a prison or a halfway house, according to Anselmo.

Laws in many states restrict the distance that a sex offender can live from a school but Connecticut does not have state-mandated residency restrictions for registered sex offenders. Connecticut allows judges, probation officers and municipalities to impose residency restrictions on sex offenders.

Possession of child pornography is considered a crime against children and Rockwell's conditions of release state that he cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school.

Rockwell said that his conviction prevents him from staying at a homeless shelter. He cannot even receive meals at the shelter because of the likelihood that he may be in the vicinity of a child.

According to Anselmo, some shelters limit the number of sex offenders who are allowed to sleep at the facilities but family shelters and shelters that have female residents do not allow sex offenders who committed crimes against children to use their services.

Since he was released from the halfway house in September 2009, Rockwell has been living at motels when he manages to scrape together enough cash, and living on friends' couches. He said many of his family members live out of the area and the majority of his friends have shunned him since his arrest.

Rockwell said the friends he has left do not allow him to stay at their homes for extended periods of time because they do not want their address to appear on the sex offender registry. Rockwell currently sleeps in his Jeep and is listed as homeless on the sex offender registry.

Although sex offenders like Rockwell face stringent conditions and multiple obstacles upon their release, Wien believes the criminal justice system should place additional restrictions on offenders like Rockwell.

"Like the old saying goes: 'Don't do the crime if you can't do the time,'" he said.

Wien said offenders should also have to pay restitution to their victims. He said he has paid tens of thousands of dollars for therapy because of the actions of the man who molested him.

"The offender has to register but the victim goes through life trying to be normal," he said. "It screws up a kid's identity. Victims often suffer in silence."

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