A state legislator said Friday he plans to call for an audit of the state’s early inmate release program to ensure the safety of Wisconsinites.
To cut Wisconsin’s budget deficit, Gov. Jim Doyle proposed a set of corrections reforms in the 2009-2011 budget that would expand the number of inmates eligible to petition for early release.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections estimated the reforms would save $30 million over two years. Doyle said 3,000 inmates could be eligible for the program, out of more than 22,000 inmates currently incarcerated in Wisconsin.
State Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said he wants to audit the program because he doubts the new law is saving money. He added the DOC has been reluctant to release records to his office, calling the department “very tight-lipped and very secretive.”
To get the information on felons being released or money being saved, Suder said his office had to perform separate open records requests each month, which Suder says makes him wonder what the DOC might be hiding.
Although the budget was passed in October, the first batch of inmates that petitioned for early release under the reforms were released by January. So far, 138 offenders have been released from Wisconsin prisons, according to the DOC.
“It’s applied in a very careful, comprehensive way, and there’s a lot of review that’s going on,” said Linda Eggert, spokesperson for the DOC.
However, Suder argues there is not enough community communication, with no sector of law enforcement being informed of individuals who are under review or who have been released.
“I do think individuals they are releasing are dangerous, many have rap sheets a mile long and I would argue a lot of them are career criminals,” Suder said, citing two five-time drunk drivers who were released.
Two of the first inmates who were released as part of the program have already been arrested and are back in jail, Suder said.
Still, the sentencing changes that have been broadly dubbed as early release are actually very complicated, representing a slew of different reforms, provisions and mechanisms, Eggert said.
Most inmates can cut time off their sentence for good behavior if they are within 12 months of release, although sex offenders and murderers are not eligible.
Prior to the new law, a limited earned release system was already in place for substance abusers who could complete drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs in exchange for an earlier release from prison if their crimes were substantially related to their substance abuse.
The new law expands the number of inmates eligible for the program, allowing individuals to participate whose crimes may not have been directly related to substance abuse.
Elderly and terminally ill inmates were already eligible to petition for early release, but the new law expands this provision to inmates suffering from “extraordinary health conditions,” which include advanced age, infirmity, disability or a need for medical treatment not available at prison.
