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 Elizabeth Smart calls decision to release her kidnapper 'incomprehensible' Wanda Barzee, the woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart and hold her hostage for nine months, will be released from prison next week. Smart spent the past two days processing the unexpected announcement that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole would be releasing Barzee next week, after previously saying that she would stay in prison until at least 2024. Smart didn’t mince words: "I think the community should realize that she is dangerous. “She did appalling things when I was in captivity," Smart said. "I know the depths of her depravity.” 
 
 Barzee’s family told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday they want nothing to do with her. The parole board responded to Smart’s request to re-evaluate by reiterating that Barzee has served her 15 years and they can no longer legally hold her after Sept. 19. Barzee and her husband Brian David Mitchell took Smart, then 14, from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint in 2002 to fulfill what Mitchell, a fanatical preacher, saw as his destiny. She said while Barzee was manipulated at times by Mitchell, Barzee abused Smart “just as much as he did.” She said Barzee referred to her as her “handmaiden” and treated Smart like a slave. “She is a woman who had six children and yet could co-conspire to kidnap a 14-year-old girl and not only sit next to her while being raped, but encourage her husband to continue raping me,” Smart said. But for one, he doesn't believe defendants should get it "both ways." Yes, but not just to me.” 
 
 FILE - This 2016 photo provided by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office shows Wanda Barzee. Barzee, a woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap then-Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 has been denied early parole, which was expected after she refused to attend a hearing last month before the state parole board that could have helped her get out of prison before her January 2024 scheduled release. On Sept. 19, Ms. Barzee will have spent 15 years in custody, which is the maximum amount of time allowed by her state conviction and sentence. Tolman said it's not right "if you’re asserting you’re incompetent, refusing to do those things that would allow you to face charges, and then (get) credit for the time that you’re not facing charges." When asked if Smart and her family should be surprised that Barzee is getting out after 15 years if she was given a 15-year sentence, former U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman, who brought Mitchell's case from the state court system to the federal system and who still represents Smart today, said yes. After completing her federal prison sentence, Barzee was returned to the Utah State Prison in April 2016. Barzee’s attorney, Scott C. Williams, pointed that out in filings for Barzee’s parole hearing in June. Barzee declined to attend, but it was noted at that time that Barzee had been refusing her anti-psychotic medication and was not attending treatment classes. Smart said she has also has heard that Barzee still carries around Mitchell's manuscript, 'The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah,' in which Mitchell claimed he had received revelations from God to kidnap Smart and six other young girls to all become his wives. Utah’s U.S. Attorney John Huber said federal probation officers — who have fewer cases to keep track of than local Adult Probation and Parole agents — will do just that. “You can be assured that Wanda Barzee will be closely monitored,” he said. It has been since our office got the convictions against her and the main perpetrator.” 
 
 Barzee, he said, has a “very short leash” on the conditions of her probation, and his office will “take a very serious approach” to any violations and she will brought before a judge for a hearing if that were to happen. “Over the course of the next five years, a judge will have a lot of options to keep victims safe and to help this perpetrator get back on track in life,” Huber said. And now, at this point, to be so shocked and surprised by the news," she said on the steps of the state Capitol. Yes. Smart said she’s spent the past 15 years trying to overcome the fear she experienced in those nine-months of captivity and refuses to go back to that. When asked at the end of the news conference if she had anything to say to Barzee, Smart declined. Smart said she’s forgiven Barzee — and that’s enough.
– "I know the depths of her depravity." That's what Elizabeth Smart had to say Thursday about her kidnapper, Wanda Barzee, who is set to be released from prison, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. During a press conference, Smart said Barzee is still a "danger and a threat to any vulnerable person in our community" and asked the 72-year-old's family to try to have her committed to a mental health facility, as "there does not seem like there is any viable legal recourse to this situation." Barzee will be released Sept. 19, according to KSL. "I was told she wouldn't be let out until 2024," Smart said, adding that learning of her former captor's impending release was a "very big shock." Barzee and her husband, Brian David Mitchell, kidnapped Smart from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint in 2002, when Smart was 14 years old. Smart later testified that Mitchell raped and threatened her continuously during her nine months of captivity. Of Barzee, Smart said Thursday that the woman "saw me as her slave. She called me her handmaiden. She, in her own right, abused me just as much as [Mitchell] did."