A bill currently in the State Legislature would guarantee full restitution to crime victims in order to help cover more of the medical, property damage and counseling costs that victims often face following crimes committed against them.

State agencies, such as the Department of Corrections, collect restitution from offenders and give it to victims, Jill Karofsky, Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Office of Crime Victim Service executive director, said. Under current law, such state agencies can extract their own surcharges, known as supervision fees, from this restitution amount. Ultimately, not all the restitution money reaches the victim.

“You could be a victim of a crime and the judge would order the offender … to pay you back for the crime,” Karofsky said. “The offender would give a check every month to Department of Corrections, which would then take some of that money instead of giving you the full amount.”

According to the bill, which was proposed by Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, and Rep. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, victims will receive the full amount of restitution owed to them by offenders. Only when the victim has received this amount will state agencies be reimbursed for their supervision fees.

Karofsky said legislators worked closely with the Department of Justice and victim witness specialist organizations End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin and Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault to create the legislation. Tony Gibart, EDAW public policy director, said the bill addressed a problem many victims face.

“You can imagine [for] somebody who’s gone through a traumatic ordeal, like being violently attacked or abused, that it would affect so many different facets of their life, and there’s definitely a financial component to that as well,” Gibart said.

Karofsky said many victims around the state told the Department of Justice they received very little of their restitution. Victim restitution is a state constitutional right and judges are mandated to enforce it, she said.

Karofsky said restitution was also important for offenders. Studies have shown restitution helps offenders understand their crime and makes them pay back the person whom they have harmed, she said.

Sophie Nielsen, Promotive Awareness Victim Empowerment chair, said in an email to The Badger Herald, this bill would potentially be helpful to sexual assault victims at University of Wisconsin. She said ensuring restitution is paid could make the difficult legal process many student victims face easier.

Nielsen said student victims need more transparency from any office that processes allegations of sexual violence, especially UW’s. She said this is something legislators and UW still need to work on.

“I think that the bill is good and should have been amended a long time ago,” Nielsen said. “There is so much red tape that crime victims have to go through when they report to law enforcement.”

Attorney General Brad Schimel also expressed his support for the legislation in a statement. Schimel said in the statement he is confident this legislation will have a positive impact on crime victims’ lives.

Often, offenders do not have the financial means to pay restitution and pay small installments that get smaller when state agency supervision fees are deducted, Gibart said.

“When surcharges and other fees take precedence over victims’ rights to restitution, this right is really diminished,” Gibart said.

The Assembly unanimously passed the bill Feb. 9 and it is now headed to the Senate for further action.