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PUYALLUP, Wash. — Steven Powell will be released from prison next month.
The Washington Department of Corrections announced on Thursday that Powell will complete his prison sentence "on or about" Nov. 4.
Powell, 63, is currently serving a prison sentence at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Washington for his conviction on 14 counts of voyeurism in May of 2012. A Tacoma jury found him guilty of taking photographs of two neighbor girls, then ages 8 and 10, with a telephoto lens while they were nude or partially nude in their bathroom.
Powell will be a tenant in a "privately owned home in Tacoma" where a "community corrections officer who is part of a specialized sex-crime unit will supervise" him, according to Washington officials.
As part of the conditions of his release, Powell will be required to wear a GPS locator for the first 30 days once he is back in the community. He will also be required to attend a sex-offender treatment program.
In addition, if Powell wants to travel outside of Pierce County, he will have to receive permission from his community corrections officer. The community corrections officer will also make multiple visits to Powell each month, and Powell will be required to check in with the officer himself at least twice a month.
Corrections officials say Powell's victims and local law enforcement have been notified of his pending release.
Powell has been eligible for early release since May, but has been unable to submit an "offender release plan" that was approved by the Washington Department of Corrections. The department denied his original release plan because he proposed to return to live in his Puyallup home. Because of community concerns, that request was denied.
According to his release agreement that a judge signed when Powell was sentenced, he will not be allowed to have any contact with his victims once he is released and will be banned from possessing any camera or video recording equipment, sexually explicit materials, joining any social media Internet sites such as Facebook, and unsupervised Internet access including on mobile devices.
He will be required to obtain approved employment and living arrangements, enter a "state approved sexual deviancy treatment program," submit to polygraph and plethysmograph tests, register as a sex offender for 10 years in the county he is living in, and submit a DNA sample.
Powell is the father of Josh Powell, who is suspected of killing his wife, Susan Cox Powell, nearly four years ago when they lived in West Valley City. Her body has not been found. Josh Powell also murdered his two young sons and committed suicide by setting his Graham, Wash., house on fire in 2012.
