March 13, 2009 - When could six become eight? Under Wisconsin’s “Truth In Sentencing” laws, an offender on probation who served two years of a six-year sentence will have none of that time on supervised release counted toward completion of the sentence if probation is revoked.
Consequently, a debt to society can end up taking eight years rather than six to satisfy, or more.
This kind of addition by subtraction giving no credit to probationers for their supervised “street time” has a profound impact on the state’s overcrowded prisons, taxed county jails, and strained budgets. The state’s prison population is booming with one in every 39 adults under some form of correctional control in 2007, according to a Pew Center on the States report.
Driving a large part of the increase are those returning to prison for violations of the terms of their supervised release but without new sentences, according to a recent study by the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Thirty-nine percent of Wisconsin’s prison population comprised these revoked inmates, up from 16 percent in 2000, the CSG study found. Revocations without a new sentence cost the state $286 million in 2007, the study reported.
Authors of the CSG study presented their findings March 11 to a legislative committee charged with studying new strategies to improve the state’s criminal justice system, reduce recidivism, and improve public safety. The Special Committee on Justice Reinvestment Oversight includes legislators, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system. The committee is chaired by Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee).
Behind the numbers
Prisoners are on supervised release longer, extending the period they are at risk of being sent back to serve the balance of their sentences. The CSG study noted that in 2000, the average time spent on supervised release was 23 months. In 2007, supervised time is 54 months.
Tony Fabelo, director of research for the CSG’s Reinvestment Initiative, noted that behavior leading to revocation may not even be criminal. He said poor probationers have trouble arranging transportation and may end up missing appointments with those supervising their release or treatment providers, violating terms of release. Moreover, Fabelo remarked that Wisconsin has assessed 95 percent of its released prisoners as “high-risk,” a greater rate than any other state. A “high risk” designation means more appointments with supervisors and extra scrutiny that will more likely turn up some violation, he said.
Fabelo said that Wisconsin needs better tools to assess the risk each released prisoner actually poses so that almost all of them are not deemed “high risk.” Better assessment tools would help design more effective supervision strategies, he said. Further research is expected to also examine the extent to which Wisconsin might better use intermediate sanctions such as referral to drug rehabilitation programs rather than simply prison.
The CSG study found that the length of supervised release now exceeds the length of confinement, reversing trends prior to the adoption of “Truth In Sentencing” laws. Committee member Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) suggested looking at whether a sentence that calls for more time on supervised release than in confinement is proper in the first place.
Drug use, mental illness, and unemployment are factors that lead to violations of supervised release and need to be better addressed, according to the CSG report. Although funding for halfway houses and drug treatment has increased since 2004, the study’s authors faulted the state for having no system and insufficient staff to track program quality and outcomes. The funding is not distributed according to a systematic assessment of the supervised population’s risk and needs, the report stated.
Further work
The committee is scheduled to meet again April 7, at which time it will consider additional reports from the CSG.
The CSG Justice Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group that has offered similar technical assistance to Kansas and Texas in revising their criminal justice systems. The CSG is expected to specifically advise Wisconsin on the following areas:
