DENVER -- Inmates at the Boulder County Jail might have to start using postcards instead of sealed envelopes to send letters after allegations that two sex offenders wrote letters to young girls.

Authorities are investigating whether 26-year-old Gino Alarico Rael wrote letters in what deputies say were attempts to "groom" the girls.

Rael is serving a four-year deferred sentence for enticing a child and will be in court Tuesday on allegations that he violated conditions of his sentence by contacting young children.

According to the Daily Camera, once Rael and other inmates -- including Damien Whitehead, a registered sex offender, and Michael Buzick, who's not a sex offender -- identified their targets, they would find their addresses and send them letters.

According to a motion filed this week to revoke Rael's deferred sentence, "the letters reach out to the minors attempting to start a dialogue by saying their names are cool, they were special enough to get a letter in the mail, and that he and his roommate, Damien, were bringing back 'old fashioned letter writing.'"

Rael encouraged the girls to write back to him describing themselves including their "likes and dislikes."

Prosecutors have said they believe more than 80 letters went out, and some children did write back.

One of Rael's letters went to Kiersten Stevenson’s 10-year-old daughter after she and her father participated in the Turkey Trot in Longmont over Thanksgiving.

"I have a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old, so I'm familiar with how people that age express themselves," she told the Camera. "I could tell this individual was trying to pass himself off as a teen but it was really someone much older."

Stevenson said her daughter, reading the letter over her mother’s shoulder, said "Oh, he sounds nice."

"That's my greatest fear, that these letters will reach kids whose parents aren't standing right there, and they'll fall for this pen pal trap," she said.

State Law Focuses On Internet, Not Postal System

The district attorney's office said a state law aimed at adults trying to lure children focuses on the Internet, not the postal system.

"The conduct isn't a crime in and of itself," Deputy District Attorney Tim Johnson told the Camera. "The Legislature really focused on electronic communication but doesn't address the low-tech version of the same thing."

The division chief in overseeing Boulder County Jail, Larry Hank, said he’s considering taking steps to make sure this same thing doesn’t happen again.

Hank said deputies typically don't read the inmates letters. He said he's considering allowing inmates to only use stamped postcards for their personal mail, though they would still be allowed to send sealed envelopes to their lawyers.