The Department of Corrections will temporarily stop telling police who’s being released from prison after the Greeley Police chief's criticism of the parole system.

GREELEY, Colo. — The day after Greeley Police Chief Mark Jones criticized the state parole system in an interview with 9NEWS, the parole department announced that it would not be sharing a list of people being released on parole with any law enforcement agency in Weld County.

The announcement came in a regularly scheduled Weld County Chiefs of Police Association meeting last Wednesday in which heads of several law enforcement agencies, including the District Attorney’s Office, attend.

The meeting includes a round table discussion in which anyone at the table can bring up a topic for discussion.

District Attorney Michael Rourke said he was frustrated and angry by the comments made by the attending parole manager.

“We get to the parole representative, and her comment was, ‘Thanks to Greeley Police Chief Mark Jones and the most recent story that was done on the news about the release of a parolee back in the community, the parole department has made the determination that they would no longer provide to law enforcement a list of the parolees who were coming back in the community over the course of the next month,’” recalled Rourke.

Last week, Chief Jones brought up concerns over what he feels is a high number of violent offenders being released early.

In his interview with 9NEWS and in a video on his department’s Facebook page, Jones pointed to several cases that concerned him, including a man who was convicted of second-degree murder in 1997, stabbed another inmate while doing time, and is being released this year despite his mandatory release date being 2043.

Jones declined to identify this person as to not impact their reentry into the community.

“If we are not receiving parole information and who is being paroled back into our community I think that’s a detriment to not only the police department but the DAs office, to the citizens of Greeley,” said Jones.

He said the list that the Department of Corrections provides law enforcement every month helps police better understand who these parolees are, what crimes they’ve previously committed and who they associate with, including, potentially, gang members.

Rourke said his office needs this information too.

“We have a lot of frequent fliers. We have a lot of people who law enforcement are very familiar with," he said. "Groups that law enforcement are very familiar with. They have got to know when some of these violent offenders come back into the community. We have to know from a prosecutor’s office, when we are prosecuting cases, to know when someone is on parole.”

The Department of Corrections provided a statement Friday saying that this parolee list is a “courtesy list” and that the DOC “absolutely intend(s) to continue to distribute information regarding parolees released in the community to law enforcement.”

The statement goes on to say "we are simply pausing the distribution for a moment in order to review what information is included in that report to ensure that it is in line with our policies, that it protects the safety of both the community and the parolees, and that it is of use to agencies for law enforcement purposes.”

Jones said his concerns are not with the parole officers who he believes his department has a good, working relationship with. His frustration is with the direction the parole and prison system are moving.

He said hoped to start a conversation about just that and instead, the Department of Corrections took information about potentially violent offenders away from an entire county.

“It was never my intent to start a fight or have this kind of problem between myself and parole. I am more than willing to sit down and talk about it but I haven’t heard from anybody,” Jones said.

A DOC spokesperson said the Director of Parole plans to reach out to Chief Jones next week.

The full DOC statement reads:

We are aware of the public statements made by the Greeley Police Chief, and our Director of Parole will be reaching out to him next week so that our parole staff can meet with him and provide him with accurate information about the parole process and the monitoring of parolees. While the Department of Corrections does not determine who is released on parole (that authority rests with the Parole Board), our department does oversee parolees.

In regards to the list you asked about:

The Department of Corrections provides a courtesy list to law enforcement agencies including information about monthly parole releases.

We absolutely intend to continue to distribute information regarding parolees released in the community to law enforcement. We are simply pausing the distribution for a moment in order to review what information is included in that report to ensure that it is in line with our policies, that it protects the safety of both the community and the parolees, and that it is of use to agencies for law enforcement purposes.

DOC has always worked to have positive relationships with our partners in law enforcement around the state, and we are currently reviewing our overall practices on how our parole office engages with all local law enforcement to best support those relationships. The DOC wants to work with all departments both large and small to ensure we are collaborating well and assisting each other in this important work.