9NEWS (Denver): Colorado prison officials have transferred scores of killers and rapists to other states and refused to tell victims and their families where they are — despite a constitutional amendment and state law that were designed to guarantee those answers, a 9Wants to Know investigation found.

Instead, state Department of Corrections officials and Gov. John Hickenlooper have repeatedly refused to disclose the whereabouts of inmates to victims.

The result: more than 100 Colorado inmates — including some of the state’s most notorious killers — are being held in what is essentially now a secret prison system.

The findings of our 9Wants to Know investigation into the system frustrated a former legislator who helped write the Victim Rights Act, passed by Colorado voters in 1992 and codified into state law the next year.

“I do not understand how a bureaucratic decision can override a victim’s constitutional rights,” said Jeanne Faatz, a longtime Republican legislator who was the prime sponsor of the victim rights law.

Legal experts disagree on whether the law clearly entitles victims to know where an inmate is serving time.

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