SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Once an accomplished organ player in Salt Lake City, Wanda Barzee became a disturbing figure for members of her own family after she helped in the 2002 kidnapping of then-teenager Elizabeth Smart.
Days before the 72-year-old woman is released from prison, looming fears about whether she remains a threat and calls to keep her off the streets bring up deep-rooted questions about mental-health treatment in the nation's prisons, an expert said.
And details of the crime still horrify Barzee's niece, Tina Mace.
FILE - This April 8, 2016, file photo, provided by Utah State Prison shows Wanda Barzee. Barzee, the woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap Elizabeth Smart as a teenager from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 and held her captive, will be released from prison next week. The surprise move announced Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, comes after authorities determined they had miscalculated the time Barzee previously served in federal custody.(Utah State Prison via AP, File)
"It just makes you ill. How could anyone do that?" she said.
Her aunt played the organ at her wedding decades ago, before Barzee joined Mitchell as he acted on his so-called revelations from God.
Like Smart, Mace is alarmed by the surprise announcement this week by Utah authorities, who said they had miscalculated her aunt's sentence and would release her from prison on Sept. 19
"From what I know, no family can take her in or would take her in," Mace said.
Federal agents have found a place for Barzee to live when she starts her five-year supervised release, said Eric Anderson, the deputy chief U.S. Probation Officer for Utah.
He declined comment on whether she will be in a private home or a facility, but she "will not be homeless," he said.
Barzee has served the 15-year sentence she got in a plea deal the year she testified against street preacher Brian David Mitchell, her then-husband who kidnapped the girl from her bedroom at knifepoint.
During her months in captivity, Smart said the older woman sat nearby and encouraged her husband as he raped the teenager.
Smart is now a 30-year-old speaker and activist who said Thursday she's deeply concerned that Barzee remains a threat, citing her refusal to cooperate with mental-health treatment in prison and reports that she may still harbor Mitchell's beliefs.
Smart called for authorities to consider carefully whether inmates have been successfully treated before they are released.
But large-scale changes requiring rehabilitation could pose troubling questions, said Rebecca Weiss, an assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
"We could be incarcerating someone indefinitely who has served their sentence," she said.
Treating the disproportionate number of people with mental illness in U.S. prisons - many of whom are not violent - is among the system's biggest challenges. While there is a need to protect the public, inmates also have the right to refuse treatment.
"The degree to which our prisons succeed in rehabilitation is questionable," Weiss said. "We're putting a lot on a system that is overloaded with fairly unclear goals."
Repeat violent sex offenders can be civilly committed in the federal system, but that requires a series of evaluations and a judge's decision that they pose an imminent risk, Anderson said.
Barzee's lawyer has maintained she's not a threat. Attorney Scott Williams did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Prison officials declined to discuss her behavior behind bars or relay an interview request.
She was treated at the Utah State Hospital for about five years following her arrest, and testified in 2010 against Mitchell.
Barzee described a "hellish" first year of marriage that eased after she "learned to be submissive and obedient," and his later pronouncement that it was "God's will" they sell their possessions and travel the country wearing long robes.
Eventually, Mitchell kidnapped then-14-year-old Smart, forced her into a polygamous "marriage" and raped her almost daily.
She was found nine months later, while walking with Barzee and Mitchell on a street in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy.
Barzee's testimony against him seemed like a turning point, but her mental state appears to have changed in her subsequent years in federal and state prisons, Mace said.
Mitchell, is serving a life sentence.
Looking back on the captivity, Smart said Thursday that she believes the older woman who treated her as a "handmaiden" and a "slave" was manipulated by her husband at times. "But she, in her own right, abused me as much as he did."
Elizabeth Smart arrives for a news conference Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Smart says it appears there is no viable, legal recourse she can take to stop the release of one of her kidnappers. Smart said at a news conference Thursday in Salt Lake City that she only found out about 72-year-old Wanda Barzee's release shortly before the public did. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Elizabeth Smart walks to her press conference at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018. Wanda Barzee will be released from Utah State Prison after serving her 15-year sentence for aggravated kidnapping and holding hostage Smart in 2002. (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret News via AP)
Elizabeth Smart speaks during a news conference while her father Ed Smart looks on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Smart says it appears there is no viable, legal recourse she can take to stop the release of one of her kidnappers. Smart said at a news conference Thursday in Salt Lake City that she only found out about 72-year-old Wanda Barzee's release shortly before the public did. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Elizabeth Smart receives a hug before speaking at a news conference Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Smart says it appears there is no viable, legal recourse she can take to stop the release of one of her kidnappers. Smart said that she only found out about 72-year-old Wanda Barzee's release shortly before the public did. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
FILE - In this April 24, 2015, file photo, kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart looks on during a news conference in Sandy, Utah. Wanda Barzee, a woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap Smart in 2002 will be freed from prison more than five years earlier than expected, a surprise decision that Smart called "incomprehensible" on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - This 2017 photo provided by the Utah Department of Corrections shows Wanda Barzee. Barzee, a woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap Elizabeth Smart as a teenager from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 and held her captive will be released from prison next week. The surprise move announced Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, comes after authorities determined they had miscalculated the time 72-year-old Barzee previously served in federal custody. (Utah Department of Corrections via AP)
FILE - In this Dec. 10 2010, file photo, Brian David Mitchell is escorted by a U.S. Marshall as he arrives at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. Wanda Barzee, a woman convicted of helping the former street preacher kidnap Elizabeth Smart in 2002 will be freed from prison more than five years earlier than expected, a surprise decision that Smart called "incomprehensible" on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018. Mitchell is serving a life sentence after being convicted of kidnapping and raping Smart. He and Barzee were married at one point. (AP Photo/Colin E Braley, File )
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Main photo article SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Once an accomplished organ player in Salt Lake City, Wanda Barzee became a disturbing figure for members of her own family after she helped in the 2002 kidnapping of then-teenager Elizabeth Smart.
Days before the 72-year-old woman is released from prison, looming...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/09/15/22/wire-4311878-1537047294-952_634x421.jpg
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