Among the Sex Offenders Louis Theroux's LA Stories

If that family looks on the Sex Offenders' Registry,

which is online, under Megan's Law,

they will see a photo of you and it would say,

-"offences committed"...

-I don't know whether that's true or not.

It will say, "offences committed on an under 14-year-old child."

-See, OK, well, erm...

-I...I looked at it myself.

When...? How recently did you look, because...?

Last week. In fact, I have an app on my phone.

-There's an app called Offender Locator.

-OK.

Yeah, that's me.

This programme contains strong language

and scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.

For several months, I'd been spending time in the twilight world

of Los Angeles' paroled sex offenders.

NEWS REPORTER: Take a good look at him. According to the most recent

update on the registered sex offender website,

he's 5' 11", with brown hair and blue eyes.

The serious nature of their crimes

has placed them outside normal society

and controlled by some of the most restrictive legislation in America.

NEWS REPORTER: Shock, outrage -

33-year-old Amy Beck spent months having sexual relations

with a 14-year-old boy.

So you have to wear that all the time?

I mean, you can cut it off, but you would go to jail.

State parole.

'I was curious about the lives

'and mentality of these modern-day pariahs...'

Do you ever worry that having done that once,

that you could do it again?

-That that might still be in you in some way?

-No.

-Why?

-Cos it's not in me.

'..the danger they present to the public

'and the fraught question of when, if ever,

'a sex offender deserves a second chance.'

-Hello there.

-Hi, good afternoon, how are you?

-You must be Craig?

-I am.

-Louis.

-Louis, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, too.

'I was with Craig Prentice.

'Craig is a manager at Pathways,

'a private housing company that provides

'accommodation for registered sex offenders, often called 290s.

'We were about to meet a new arrival.'

I'll meet you formally. My name is Craig, nice to meet you.

-William.

-William. So, I'm just going to take a quick seat right here.

-So, I'll get you logged in. What's your first name?

-William.

The most important thing I can tell you is to think

and to exist compliantly.

If there's any questions you... you want me to answer,

you can go ahead and fire away.

-What about clothes and stuff or...?

-You need clothes?

-Yes, sir.

You don't have any friends or family to help you right now?

Erm, I been out here... I'm out here by myself.

OK, no problem. I'll put together a roll of toilet paper,

a razor and stuff like that, so you can get cleaned up.

Our job is to make your landing as soft as possible.

We don't want you to feel like you're coming down on top of cement,

we want you to feel like you're coming down

and you've got a little cushion.

We've been here, we're in place to accept you guys, to support you guys

and to give you guys the best chance at getting your life back in society.

-So you were in jail last night?

-Yes, sir.

-You got out this morning?

-This morning.

How do you feel?

I feel good, I'm out again. I'm...I'm on the street again,

-I'm free again.

-And are you a 290?

-Yes, sir.

-For what?

They caught me pissing in public and they just wrote it up like that.

-Is that a charge that's called indecent exposure?

-Yes, sir...

-OK.

-..indecent exposure.

-OK.

We appreciate it, thanks a lot, William. Good luck.

When William said that he'd been put on the register

for urinating publicly, do you suppose that's true?

IF it's true, it's probably true because it happened separately

for what he's currently on parole from.

In my experience,

I'm quite certain that there's more to his story than just...

When you get the details on these guys,

-do they tell you what they, what their...

-Some do. Some.

-..offences are?

-If I'm concerned,

I just ask the Department of Parole, "What is this guy's issues?

"What was he convicted of? What are his hot and colds?

"What do we need to look out for? "What are his triggers?"

What are hot and colds?

Hot and colds are things that occur that affect the personality

of a person, to go up and down.

-Now, I know you have your own offence history...

-Yes, I do.

..and that's something you're happy to go into

or willing to go into, at some point with us.

Yes, we'll cover all of that, absolutely.

So...

..that's something that we can mark on our, in our,

appointment book, that would be a future sit down for us.

We will rev... We will reveal what we reveal.

Under California law, sex offenders on parole from prison

can't live near places where children gather

and so much of Pathways' housing is in clusters

away from schools and parks.

Craig's two hostels are in Torrance.

They are a way station for 290s whose crimes range

from indecent exposure to rape and child molestation.

Here, they lead monitored lives.

Under Megan's Law, they're listed on a public database.

They're also tracked by GPS, and subject to strict curfews.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-James?

-Yes.

-How you doing?

Can we look at the house rules, cos they're posted on the door?

That's, kind of, interesting.

"No women - there is zero tolerance on this subject.

"No wives. No exceptions."

When you came out of prison, how did you end up here?

I cannot live with my mom,

I cannot live with my grandma at their residence at that time,

because of the... Too, too close to the schools, basically.

Are you a 290?

Yeah, 290, right here, yeah.

You can see, you got the leg charger here, plug it in.

You have to charge an hour and then it turns... The light turns green.

Lead on.

'Most 290s don't talk about their crimes,

'but there are exceptions. One was Randy Wickham.'

-You have an offence history?

-Yes.

-Which is what?

-Erm, indecent exposure.

I would expose myself to women and,

erm, you know, I'd just... I've been...

I've been doing that since I was nine years old.

How many stretches did you do inside?

Erm, 15 new charges and eight parole violations, about, approximately.

-15 separate new charges?

-Indecent exposure.

It's an uncontrollable urge to do this?

Well, pretty much. It's...

I get up in the morning and I say to myself, "OK, I'm going to go

"from point A to point B and I'm not going to have any incidents

"or urges. I'm not going to do this today, I've set my mind to it."

But what happens is, erm, I see a pretty woman that attracts me,

for some reason or other, her face usually,

and I, erm, I detour, you know?

And at that point, it's like tunnel vision -

I don't see to the left or the right, I just see that pretty face,

you know, and I want the attention.

You know, I want to be noticed. It's like I exist, you know?

I'm... You know?

Do you feel as though those restrictions that are placed

on you help you to, kind of,

keep to the straight and narrow?

The only way I can respond to that is if I'm being forced to do something,

OK, rather than doing it because I know it's best for me

and best for public safety and welfare, that's one thing.

But if someone else is placing restrictions on me,

so many of these restrictions, that it becomes almost unbearable.

I feel inhuman. I feel like an animal.

In your whole adult life,

what's the longest you've been outside of either prison

or jail or a mental hospital?

I think three and a half years, when I was 22 years old.

I don't want to be a dirty old man any more doing this kind of stuff,

you know? It's just...I don't want to go back to prison any more.

I don't want to waste my life, it's already been wasted enough.

DRUMMING

A short walk from the Pathways hostels, in Harbour Gateway,

it was a day of celebration, the area's first park was opening,

built with the primary purpose of driving out sex offenders.

Under Jessica's Law, all 290s, even those not on parole,

are supposed to live more than half a mile from any park.

In theory, the hostels would now be illegal.

Today is finally here and we get to give the Gateway

what they deserve and what our children deserve -

their first pocket park in this area.

APPLAUSE

And let me tell you, this may be the smallest park

in the city of Los Angeles,

but it's the most powerful park in the city of Los Angeles.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'One of the proponents of the idea

'was LA city councilman Joe Buscaino.'

I heard you describe the park as the smallest,

and yet the most powerful park in the city, explain that to me.

Powerful, because it goes hand in hand with the high concentration

of registered sex offenders...without a doubt.

And we have proven today, we can accomplish a great deal

and we're just getting warmed up, Louis.

We're just getting warmed up.

All right, folks, let's head on over for the ribbon...

'But there was a wrinkle in the plan -

'a county judge had ruled Jessica's Law was, in fact, unconstitutional.

'For now, the park would have no legal effect.

'Residents had vowed to fight on.

'Those sex offenders who can afford it,

'can find homes outside of the hostels,

'in housing away from schools and approved by parole.'

NEWS REPORTER: Shock, outrage.

Burbank PD confirms 33-year-old Amy Beck,

a social science teacher at David Starr Jordan Middle School,

spent months having sexual relations with a 14-year-old boy last year.

A grown woman, young child, doesn't make much sense.

-What do you think?

-Oh, that's not good.

'Amy Beck served a year in prison for unlawful sexual intercourse

'with an underage boy.

'She was now on parole, listed on the Megan's Law database,

'and subject to strict rules about where she could and couldn't go.'

-Hi, Amy.

-Hi.

-Louis.

-Nice to meet you.

Well, I baked the crumb cake because I figured it was early

-and you guys would be hungry.

-That was very nice of you.

You haven't had breakfast.

How long have you been on parole?

Two years and a month, so I have 11 months left.

-Have you got used to it?

-A little bit, yeah.

-In what way?

I think, at first,

I was very paranoid about doing something wrong,

and now I, kind of, know what's OK and what's not.

I feel more comfortable.

What is the hardest part of what you're going through now?

Erm, being without my children.

(Yeah.)

OK.

I can't have any photographs of the kids.

-Why can't you have them?

-It's one of the conditions,

you're not allowed to have anything that relates to children.

So, I have one picture.

I'm allowed to have one picture of them - that's it.

How old are they now?

Erm, the oldest is 14 and then the middle boy is 9 and the baby is 7.

So, at the moment, you have no contact with them, is that correct?

-Right.

-Not even on the phone?

-No, not even on the phone.

Can you write to them?

No, I'm not allowed to write to them.

Can you talk a little bit about your offence and how it happened?

Erm, I got to know this family really well and they would help me

with the kids, and they were wonderful people,

they were almost like my own family, in a sense.

And then things got strange with this boy and myself,

and we ended up having this affair for six months.

-And you were a teacher?

-I was a teacher.

And you were his teacher, is that right?

I was his teacher.

I'm so glad it's done, because at the time I thought, "Oh, my gosh.

"What, you know, what am I going to do now?

"How am I supposed to end it with him?

"And what am I...? What about my husband and the kids?"

And it was, sort of, like, "What, you know?

"Why...why did I do this?"

Had you had an attraction to, erm,

kind of, inappropriately, young males in the past?

No, I never had any attraction to anyone else.

I think it was more that as we... As I got to know them,

and the family and him, in particular,

I think that's where I was wanting someone to love me.

My husband, who I'm not blaming him at all,

but, you know, he had a very demanding job, was never around.

And I think that there's so much to it,

it would be hard to put it into a nutshell for you, but...

At the time, how did you justify it to yourself?

I think I justified it by saying that I loved him and he loved me.

That's how.

Do you think the boy was damaged by what happened?

He... Well, I'm sure he was to an extent.

I put him into an adult world, in an adult situation.

You know, he was cheating on a woman that was married with children.

That's probably... That's hard even for a man to deal with.

-Society has an understandable fear of sex offenders...

-Right.

..so you tell me why you feel,

erm, sex offenders shouldn't be monitored for life

or put on a register,

or prevented from seeing their children and so on.

I just feel like it's been blanketed.

We're all sort of blanketed into this one heinous, hated group, you know?

And they just keep slapping on more and more of these conditions.

I mean, I've often said, "If they want to do this law or that law,

"they should just leave us in prison for the rest of our lives."

I mean, cos it isn't a life.

You can't release someone from prison and then set them up for failure.

'I'd been spending more time at Pathways with Craig,

'trying to get a sense of his role in managing the offenders

'who live there.'

Lucy, come.

Have a seat in here, please.

OK, so I just noticed a few minutes ago, two people walking out,

one of which I did not recognise,

but when I just see someone come and go, I get very suspicious.

So I'm going to go over and find out some answers, if I can.

-Jimmy, you here?

-Yes, sir.

I was over here just kind of talking and waiting for a few text messages,

and I saw someone walk out with you that I didn't recognise.

But he's not a Pathways resident.

At this point, what I do is I go and record the information.

What is your suspicion?

My suspicion is someone came over and dropped off methamphetamine.

Is Jimmy known to have a meth issue?

Oh, yes, that's one of the reasons that he just went into custody...

..earlier this month for a week.

-How you doing?

-All right.

-We haven't met properly on camera, I'm Louis.

-I'm Jimmy.

-Jimmy.

Now I noticed that Craig came and talked to you about

a possibly unauthorised visitor.

-OK.

-What was that about?

-I have no idea.

He's a friend. He's a friend of mine.

He came by to tell me about some work.

So, there was a perfectly innocent explanation for the visit,

-in other words?

-Oh, sure, absolutely.

If you don't believe me, ask Craig.

Was part of your offence history...

Was there a background of substance abuse

that was maybe sending you astray a little bit?

No, it had nothing to do with my crime, no.

Anger. Anger.

I would be intrigued to know what it was you did.

Yeah, well, I would really rather not go into that, you know?

-It's, erm...

-You have the right to say,

-you know, you don't disclose what your offence was.

-Right.

It's also in the nature of these crimes

-that they're on the public record.

-Sure.

I'd be curious to know how you would feel about me looking up.

You want to go and do that, you want to look up?

I mean, that's your right.

-How would you feel about that?

-About you doing it?

-Mm-hm.

It wouldn't make no difference to me, you got that right.

Would that make you more inclined just to say what you did?

-Out of interest?

-No, I tell you what,

between now and next time I see you, I'll give it some thought.

-Give it some thought.

-All right.

'Since first learning that Craig was himself a sex offender,

'I'd been wondering how it affected his relationship

'with the Pathways tenants.'

You feel it's an advantage,

having gone through what you've gone through...

..in terms of the work that you do?

Oh, most definitely. The easy way to say it is you can't con a con.

And everywhere that I go,

there's someone trying to run some type of game of some...

some type or, erm, hustle this, hustle that, hustle someone.

And I see all of these things coming from a distance,

from a long ways off.

When you say, "You can't con a con,"

you mean, at one time, you would have been that con?

No, what that statement really means

is that dealing with my experiences, and dealing with my work,

I deal with people that... They aren't done being deceivers.

I mean, you having had, erm, an offence history

and a time when you were doing,

I'm assuming...bad things, maybe terrible things,

that there was a time when you were a deceiver, when you were, erm,

someone who did dreadful things that you didn't want brought to light.

Erm, I'm not sure how to respond - was there a question?

I mean, were you, at one time, a deceiver, that's what I'm asking?

Yes.

But back to the meaning,

and intended meaning, of "you can't con a con"

is that all of these people that come in here have a different agenda.

I can go to parole and say, "You need to keep a watch on this guy."

And when they ask me why and I tell them,

they say "Thank you, duly noted."

My job, my first priority, is to be an extension

of the eyes and the ears of parole.

'A little later, I was heading back to see Randy Wickham.'

-How are you doing?

-I'm doing well.

'I'd been struck by his apparent openness about his offence history.

'I had some more questions.'

So if we were in a park, let's say, what would be your victim profile?

About 40, 45 years old.

Erm...

Erm, kind of motherly-looking.

I would be laying down on the grass or over by the tennis courts.

When you do it, are you in a state of arousal?

Erm, yes, about, about 80% of the time.

-Your penis is erect?

-Erm, or beginning to be.

What's the commonest reaction?

Erm...

I think it's concern.

-Fear?

-No, concern, concern.

Like, the look in their eyes indicates me it's concern,

-it's definitely not fear.

-Concern for what?

-Concern for me.

I had one woman tell me, you know,

"Be careful, there are police in the area,

"I don't want to see you get arrested." You know, erm...

Can I just say, though, like, I'm not...I'm not a woman...

-Yeah.

-..and so, in a sense, I have less to be afraid of, physically,

but...even I would find it, I think, upsetting.

I would feel concern for myself, not for you.

I think the standard impression of exhibition

is someone that jumps out behind a bush or a tree with a trench coat,

and tries to surprise someone, "Ah-ha", and shock them.

When I do it, I want to retain their attention for as long as possible.

I don't want them to run away in fear.

I want to be noticed, maybe talked to

and, in some cases, they talk to me.

I think you're labouring under a little bit of a self-deception

-to do with...

-Yeah.

-..the impact that you have

on the people you expose yourself to.

It could be. It's... Maybe it's like a handful of times,

women have just approached me while... Just come right up to me

while I was doing this. There's no fear there.

-If you took your trousers and pants down right now...

-Mm.

..in front of us, the crew and the camera,

-would that not feel quite weird to you?

-Yeah, yeah.

It would be very shocking, wouldn't it?

-I would never do that.

-And began masturbating?

Yeah, but I wouldn't do that.

I mean, I see what you're saying, but you mean in front of men?

-Erm...

-But, in a way, there's really no difference.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can see what you're saying, it makes sense.

'I was with parole agent Byron Bleen.

'We were on Skid Row in Downtown LA,

'a gathering spot for the city's destitute.'

Coming through, guys, coming through.

-Camera crew.

-Coming through.

-Media, media.

I could care less...

'Agent Bleen was making the rounds

'of some of the homeless sex offenders under his supervision.'

Oh, my gosh. We got lucky.

-You see him?

-He's right there.

Willy?

Just stay right there.

-How you been?

-OK.

You haven't come in this week, how come?

Oh, because you told me to, erm...

No, I said... I said, when I saw you, to come in Monday.

You didn't come in at all this week yet,

cos I got to get you in the class. You're going to start

the Star Programme on November 18, I have a date.

-Agent Bleen?

-Yes.

-How long have you known Willy?

-A long time.

-How long?

We been... This is the second term that Willy's done on parole.

I had him a long time on the first term. He got...

He discharged that number and within eight months, a year,

he was back in prison again.

What was your offence?

-Really?

-Yeah.

'The rules on where sex offenders can live

'mean that many can't find housing and end up homeless.

'I was curious for Agent Bleen's view of the law.'

Do you feel that the residency restrictions

are a helpful provision, legal, legal provision?

The studies have shown that the residency restrictions

really have no effects.

Some of the quirkiness about the laws.

If your house is beside a school, or a park,

and it's not 2,000 feet, you have to move away.

You're a transient, you live in a van

and you move the van around the area.

Unless they have restriction of you being within 100 yards

of the school or park, you could park just up the street

and at that point who becomes possibly more dangerous?

For me, I've got to know some of these guys in the hostels,

and so forth, and, you know,

one or two of them, I have started to, erm,

I guess like a little bit, and, at the same time,

I'm also aware that they've done something terrible.

And I go back and forth between...

..thinking they deserve a second chance and then feeling as though

you could never really trust someone like that again.

That's the dilemma...

..cos you never truly know what they're thinking.

'Up in the Hollywood Hills, I had a lead on a former tenant of Pathways,

'now homeless, living in a van.'

'He'd been out of prison a year and a half,

'but repeatedly returned to jail for parole violations.

'He'd agreed to talk to me under an assumed name.'

-How you doing?

-Good afternoon.

-Louis.

-Billy.

This is your van? This is your home, as it were?

This is my Hollywood mansion.

You live in here at the moment.

You live in the van, is that right?

I sleep in here when I don't have anywhere else to go.

At what point did you wind up at the facility in Torrance,

the sex offenders' facility there?

That's going have to be, like, six violations down the line, Louis.

Let me tell you about the third or fourth, I think that had to do...

-There's ten violations?

-Yeah...

-So we don't need to do all of them.

-There was 11.

-11, so we don't need to do every one.

Well, Louis, this is something to consider,

because I've been returned to custody.

My liberty is at stake over this situation right here,

and when I go back to jail, it's 30 days at a time

and people like you might not care who's a sex offender.

But, look, I already did my time, bro.

All right, so the third and fourth time that I was returned to custody,

it was for non-criminal conduct - I went to the beach.

And you didn't realise that you weren't supposed to go to the beach?

I mean, what would you say?

Is the beach a place where children congregate?

I don't know. Is the forest?

Is, er, McDonald's? Is the supermarket?

You tell me, how am I supposed to know? I asked them to give me a list

of the places I can't go and he said,

"I can't do that, man, you just have to know."

What are these unwritten rules?

Come on, man, what do I have to go through?

And this is all because I'm a 290 registering on parole.

What did you get convicted of?

Let's go for a walk, I'll show you what I do when I'm up here.

-All right. Do you want to talk about your offence history?

-No.

-Do you come up here quite a bit?

-Mm-hmm.

-How many pull-ups can you do in a row?

-Maybe five.

I think I could do like 20.

Want to have a contest?

I mean, how much can you talk about what you did?

This is what I'm trying to tell you, Louis,

why hang out with a bunch of sex offenders in Torrance

that are up to no good when I could hang out up here by myself?

My hands are too sweaty.

-How many did you make there?

-14.

If she would have been 14, I wouldn't have gone to prison.

I would have got a misdemeanour.

So if she would have been six months older...

..I wouldn't have been on parole, I wouldn't be wearing a GPS monitor.

You met her at a party?

That's right, we were drinking.

We just got too drunk, man,

and I kissed, we kissed, I didn't even know her.

It's just one of those things where you sit down

on the couch together with an attractive girl.

It's not that I was perverted and attracted to pre-pubescent girls.

I wasn't out there looking for a minor to molest.

I just wanted a girl I could drink with.

She didn't look like she was 13.

At the trial, did the girl say she'd been taken advantage of in any way?

Whoa, you just kind of jumped ship on me there, huh?

We were talking about something else and you went right back into the trial.

What is it you're so curious about that you want to get on camera,

you want to talk about an issue of force, is that it?

I hadn't heard anything about an issue of force.

OK, so why do you keep reverting back to that line of questioning?

Er, well, it seemed to me that in the narrative

everything had been accounted for,

the sequence of events, except her attitude to the crime.

OK, that's what you want to talk about?

Nice doing business with you.

What about the future?

My life revolves around staying out of jail.

That's my main concern,

staying out of jail, staying clean,

staying away from all those sex offenders

that they tried to stick me with in Torrance.

I want to be around the people I want to be around,

I want to explore my potential, I want to be able to spread my wings

and see if I could fly where I want to fly.

Back in south LA and I was heading to Pathways.

Go get your shit.

Walk over here.

-I'm on film?

-Yeah, you're being filmed.

-All right.

-Get your shit right now.

-You don't have time to be interviewed.

Walk over and get your shit.

'I'd arrived to find Craig in the process of evicting Jimmy.'

Open the goddamn door. Shut your mouth, please.

Don't yell at me!

I'm not yelling. Do you want to hear yelling?!

-Yeah, let me hear yelling.

-Shut your mouth now!

Now I'm yelling at you.

You said open the door.

-Give me the key, give me the key, back off, give me this.

-You see that?

You're fucking drunk, you smell like you drank this morning.

Get 911, call 911.

Craig, can we have a quick...?

No, you cannot have a quick chat with me.

You were seen by parole drunk off your ass last night.

You wouldn't wake up, you're still not getting it!

Call 911, get the fucking police over here.

-Craig, you OK?

-I am not going to have a conversation right now.

You don't have a chance of talking to me, stop.

Do you know what you're being thrown out for?

Um, well, I, I have an idea.

We're ready to talk? You want to go to the sidewalk?

Well, I don't want to escalate the situation.

-We'd like...

-You're still manipulating, Jimmy.

-Now get your stuff and take it... Where's his stuff going?

-Where do you want it?

This is an emergency. I need the Los Angeles PD Harbour Division.

-We're going to try this again. Can you zip it?

-Yeah.

You're just a renter that's gone today, OK?

You need to listen. I don't need to hear shit that you have to say.

You seemed quite angry.

Actually, what I was was putting my foot down.

Remember I know what a...

You seemed annoyed with me at one point?

Well, I wasn't annoyed at all, I was focused.

That was a side of you we hadn't seen before.

Actually it's a side of me that I keep in my,

er, Felix magic bag of tricks.

So what I was trying to do was not only put my foot down

and show authority, but to make him know that the deal is done, OK?

Where does he go now?

Well, he's, he's going to go, um...

..to wherever he makes contact with law enforcement

and they're going to put him into custody.

Jimmy has a conviction for rape.

-Yes, he does.

-In Vancouver in 1990.

-Older case.

-Yes, an older case. You knew that?

-Yes.

-Is there a little element of, er, fear or worry that,

that a convicted rapist is now homeless on the streets?

No more so than when he was housed.

He had no bars and anything to inhibit him from leaving.

Well, he had supervision. He had you, he had people like you

and Ralph and others keeping an eye on him

and making sure he was where he was supposed to be.

Right. Well, if he was going to commit a crime

it would have been committed long before he ran into these other problems.

He's no more of a threat being out of this house

than he is being in this house.

Where do you think he is now?

I think he's going to get more alcohol and methamphetamine.

He doesn't care right now.

This is someone that's already lost everything in their life

over and over again.

This is...replaceable.

On a street corner close by, I caught up with Jimmy.

So what's going to happen now?

OK, so what's going to happen now,

well, look at it, here's a black and white as we speak.

-You think they're out to get you?

-Oh, I'm, I'm absolutely certain.

You guys were there when he called the police, were you not?

They've repeatedly said that you were getting high on meth.

No, no, no, I have in the past, I've already told you guys that,

-I've already, I've already told.

-At the facility? At that facility?

No, not that, well, yeah,

that was one of the reasons I went to jail before.

Do you remember we spoke before and you said

you wouldn't tell me what your sex offence was

-but I was welcome to look it up?

-Yeah.

-And so I looked it up.

-And?

-And it said that you committed a rape.

-Yeah.

In Vancouver in 1990.

-Yes, sir.

-Is that true?

That's what happened there, it was my girlfriend.

I'm not what we call a tree jumper. I don't jump out of trees

and attack women physically and hold them down and all that, no, no, no.

This was a thing that happened with my girlfriend,

it got out of hand.

What were you doing, if you don't mind my asking,

what were you doing raping your girlfriend?

Well...

HE SIGHS

You guys asking some poignant questions. All right, I did promise.

What was I doing raping my girlfriend? Well, it was wrong.

I'm not going to substantiate any kind of, you know,

light punishment on myself in my own mind to you, Louis,

to the BBC, to anyone. What I did was wrong.

It was wrong morally, it was wrong against humanity,

it was wrong legally.

Have you had any other sex offences?

No. Well, yes.

Well, you read it! You're going to sit there and make me tell you

what you've already read?!

Come on, Louis, don't be like that, man.

I, I know you, how much did you read?

All of it, did you read it all?

How much do you know? Do you already know the answer

-to what I'm about to say?

-No.

You don't? You know what? I'm going to believe you.

Yeah, there is. There's one other and it was a...

This one was with the mother of my daughter.

Again, I attempted.

I couldn't, but I, you know what?

I did what's called oral copulation.

Since then? No.

No, I haven't, I haven't hurt nobody, haven't hurt nobody.

I understand you were beaten a lot growing up.

Yeah, can we not get into that?

-By your dad?

-Is it just curiosity on your part?

Yeah, I had trouble. I mean...

That, that, yeah, you could say that.

The polite word is dysfunctional.

That's the polite word. I had an extremely dysfunctional upbringing.

-How?

-I had a dad that was a piece of shit

and I had a mom that was an angel, OK?

You do the math.

And you know, cos like right between the two,

you get hit on this side of your face

and you're getting stroked on this side of your face.

Sooner or later you don't know which one's which...

Sooner or later you don't care which one's which.

I want to die so fucking bad.

Why? Because I'm tired, man, I'm tired of making decisions,

I'm tired of not knowing which one's a stroke and which one's a slap.

It was Halloween.

OK, it's going to be on the left, 1,665 in the rear.

Under California State Law, all paroled sex offenders

were required to remain in their homes all night with no decorations

and away from trick or treating children.

State Parole!

Across Los Angeles, parole agents were taking part

in what they were calling Operation Boo,

among them Agents Escobar and Rodriguez.

OK, where to now?

Next door, I mean the next block.

State Parole.

If you find that they're not in compliance,

they've got a pumpkin out or,

um, some Halloween decorations, what's the next move?

-Take them into custody.

-There and then?

-Custody, yeah.

-When you're in there, do you look for candy?

Yeah, we, we do a general search of the area.

If you found some candy inside the residence?

There's a difference. If we found a couple pieces of candy,

-it's not a big deal.

-Like a chocolate bar?

If we found, like a bowl by the door that obviously they're giving out

candy for trick or treaters, then it's a different story.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you. A little barbecue sauce on my hands.

We're just going to do a check on some of the clients here.

Anything that you need, sir.

Gomez.

Parole.

How many people we got here? Two?

All right, where's the other guy at?

How's it going, Randy?

-OK.

-You're not allowed out on the porch?

I don't think so. It's Halloween. I don't want to take a chance.

You think they'd take you away?

-Yes, that's what I'm saying.

-Until what time?

I think it's until sun up tomorrow when the sun comes up,

that's my best guess, I'm pretty sure.

There is this fear that gets passed around that sex offenders

might prey on kids around Halloween, but do you think that's factual?

Do you think the public is right to be afraid of that?

You know, in my personal opinion,

this kind of goes to one of those things,

if somebody's really that ill in their head and you put something

in front of them, they're going to take it.

It's like putting candy in front of a kid, you know?

And the ones who are predators,

we don't want to give them that temptation.

I was making another visit to Amy Beck.

Her parole agent was doing a monthly house check.

-Hi.

-Hi, Amy, how are you?

-I'm good.

-Anyone home?

-No.

-Can you show me around the house real fast?

-Sure.

-Closet.

-OK.

Can I quickly ask, um, what you're doing?

I'm going through the apartment to see

if there's anything that shouldn't be there,

any kind of things that might violate her conditions of parole.

She has a condition of no contact with children,

so any children's stuff or anyone else even being here.

So we have to go through it.

And that's it, yeah.

You said you have 22 parolees that you keep an eye on.

-Right.

-Is that right?

And how many of them are women?

One. Just Amy, yes.

Poor lady.

-Are you allowed to express a personal opinion?

-Yes.

So in your personal opinion, you've got to know Amy a little bit,

could you say that you like Amy?

-I do.

-You do?

Yes, she's very cooperative, she's very open, more so than,

you know, just telling me about how her parole is. You know,

she tells me about her family

and how anxious she is about reuniting with her children.

What strikes me about that is that it's also punishing the kids.

I agree, because not only did her crime victimise her victim,

but her children now too since they can't,

they don't have a mother for a few years.

Looking at Amy, it seems to me

she's sort of being lumped in with, uh...

..people, some of whom are dangerous

and some of whom are not as dangerous?

On a personal level, whenever I get a sex offender,

I mean, I'm not attacking you, Amy...

-It's OK.

-..but she does have one, you know, one conviction.

It doesn't mean she didn't do anything before that.

I'm just not one to take chances. I think this is a good system.

Yes, I think anyone that does an offence involving sex, yes,

they should all be categorised up there at the top,

along with murderers.

Can you look at her and see why she could still be dangerous?

Wow...

Um, I could.

Yeah...

Again, I don't think she is,

but anybody can be dangerous,

even someone that hasn't done what she's done.

I understand that, I do.

Would you trust Amy around children?

I would... Knowing her history,

I would not trust Amy around my 14-year-old son,

anyone's 14-year-old son, no.

Why give it a second chance?

In about six months' time, Amy will be off parole

and she will get a second chance, isn't that right?

-Yes.

-And at that point would it be appropriate for you to trust her

-around your 14-year-old son?

-No.

It doesn't mean she will not do it again.

I understand.

What are you thinking?

Just, I, um...

I don't know how to be in society.

Am I supposed to tell people if they have kids, you know,

that I did this thing so they're aware and they can

choose as a mom, you know,

"I don't want you to come to my house", or...?

I feel like I should keep myself away

from people with families.

It is heart-wrenching because I'm a mother as well

and, you know, to know that, to have that...

..that word "sex offender" lingering on your head

for the rest of your life is got to be extremely rough.

I would only hope that she...

She's doing great and she's never violated,

she's been cooperative to an extreme that is rare.

I think she's... If she continues on that goal, you know,

keeps working, I think she'll, I think she'll be fine.

I just want my kids back.

I don't really care about anybody else's kids, so...yeah.

In six months' time, Amy would be off parole.

It would be up to the courts to decide

whether she could see her children.

I was back with Randy.

Since our last visit,

I'd heard that he'd been going through a slump.

So you've been having certain thoughts?

Yeah. Um...

I've had these thoughts actually for about 20 years

and one time I acted on them while I was in prison.

I, um...

I tied a cord,

a fibre cord, around my testicles and my penis.

And I figured that,

that it would have to be amputated.

It's one way of actually putting a stop to all this madness,

you know, and doing something right for myself and for others.

And so more and more I've been thinking of an ultimate solution

to all this which is a full, total castration.

Do you know of any clinical or scientific evidence

that a castration would decrease the urges?

Well, I know... No. Um, no, I don't.

But I don't know that, that it wouldn't.

-Right, but it's a radical step, isn't it?

-It is a radical...

It's a very big step to take.

What I do know is, if I don't have sex organs to expose,

um, and it always starts out with my getting aroused

and touching myself, if there's nothing there to touch,

my mind is going to say, what am I doing?

I don't have, I'm not a sexual being any more,

why am I going to...?

You know, it wouldn't make sense that I would reoffend.

What about chemical castration?

No, I've tried that. Depo-Provera, Lupron,

those are the two most popular drugs.

I found that after the first three months, four months,

the urges come back and even when I'm on a high dose of that,

I'm able to masturbate again and fantasise again.

Why has this come up now?

The last months it's become so intense,

masturbating constantly,

fantasising about women that I've seen during the day

and going home and masturbating.

And, um...

I just, I see myself going down that spiral again,

getting out of control.

I get so emotional when I start thinking about all this.

It's like, um, I want to do what I think is right,

but it's like so many avenues are closed to me

because I don't have the funds to do this, you know?

But I feel it may have to come to my doing it myself

if I can't get the help.

But one way or another I feel it has to be done.

Those sex offenders who successfully make it off parole

have their ankle monitors removed,

though under California law they remain listed on the web for life.

Every birthday and whenever they move address,

they have to register with local police.

This is Craig's position.

On our first day together,

he'd agreed to discuss his offence history.

That time had come.

Is it correct that some of your offences involved your children?

The only offences that I have involve my children.

There were and have been no other people involved.

What age were they when this was going on?

Uh, roughly ten years old.

So what was it, was there something in you?

Why do you think you did that?

I think I did that because of...my wife.

This may or may not play well,

but because my wife believed I was having an affair.

And in my bent reactionary way

from not getting to have my sexual satisfaction

because she was the one that was having the affair, I found out later,

I reacted by saying in my un-rational,

fogged, cocained mind that these are my kids...

..they came into this world through me and I'm going to...

..bring a wrath of, of crush upon you

by doing something you don't think I would ever do.

Very twisted, but those were the thought processes.

Did you think at the time it was going to hurt them?

I really don't know. I...

You didn't care?

I'm not sure.

Unfortunately, the level of trust that my sons gave me was...

..if I said stand on their head they'd do it cos they trusted me.

I abused that trust.

Very strange to, to talk about it with you

because I feel we've got to know you a little bit, and...

and enjoyed being with you and at the same time,

what we're talking about is what's viewed by most people

as the most unforgivable act imaginable.

Yeah.

Well, we're talking bottom of the barrel...

..scum of the earth type of acts.

Do you ever worry that having done that once,

that you could do it again,

that that might still be in you in some way?

No, I don't worry, not a minuscule.

-Why?

-Cos it's not in me.

-It was.

-It's gone.

When was the last time you saw your sons?

Guess it's nearly been 20 years.

-20 years?

-Nearly.

Well, the last 15 minutes flew by, I just looked at my watch

and it was 15 minutes ago.

So yeah, I hope that they are, er, vigorously enjoying life.

I really do.

OK, how about if we go inside?

I'll show you where your bedroom is.

This is your comforter. I still owe you a pillow and a set of sheets.

Here's your bedroom, your closet. This is a three bedroom house.

-OK, these are your new roommates. This is Mr Elias.

-Hello there.

'I was leaving the world of LA's 290s,

'feared and suspected for understandable reasons.

'Some were guilty of the most upsetting crimes imaginable,

'others apparently remorseful and looking for a new start.

'It was hard not to wish a better future for them,

'but for the worst, impossible to forget the pain they'd caused

'and could possibly cause again.'