The chilling tales of sex offenders released early from prison in New Hampshire continue despite widespread agreement that the law allowing their early release must be changed.

Last week, our reporter Paula Tracy relayed this unnerving tale. Phillip Patch Jr., 74, of Concord, was sentenced to two-to-four years in prison in August 2009. Before legislators passed, at the urging of Gov. John Lynch, Senate Bill 500 last year, Patch would have served his full term unless the Adult Parole Board voted to release him. And there is no way the board would have voted to release a sex offender who, like Patch, did not complete treatment.

But SB 500 is now the law. It mandates that all but a narrow category of the most violent offenders must be paroled 90 days before the end of their sentences. Patch was ordered released last week under that provision. He will be released on Aug. 6.

Patch had a parole hearing in March 2010. He was not released because he refused to take sex offender treatment. Apparently that changed his thinking somewhat. He later was entered into a pre-treatment program for sex offenders, according to the Adult Parole Board. But he didn’t have time to complete the treatment program before SB 500 ordered him released. So he just didn’t bother. In explaining to the Adult Parole Board why he should be paroled, he wrote, “SB 500.”

Patch is going to be let out early, even though his corrections counselor wrote, “Patch appears to have done as little as possible during his stay here, however disturbingly, he did trade sexual faovrs for candy bars with younger inmates. I believe that inmate Patch is an extremely dangerous predator who should be civilly committed.”

He won’t be. Instead, he will be released to troll the streets in search of others with candy bars to trade. He will be released by order of a state law Gov. John Lynch said would make us safer. The governor should be ashamed of getting this law passed. Republican legislators should be ashamed that they haven’t fixed it yet.