Mark Pitsch
608-252-6145
mpitsch@madison.com

Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed prison changes would make an estimated 3,000 felons eligible for early release from prison — potentially including thieves, cocaine couriers and tax cheats — and could lift state supervision of an additional 7,000 people on probation.
The proposal, unveiled Tuesday as part of the state’s 2009-11 budget, could save millions of dollars while also providing rehabilitation incentives to prisoners, Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch said.

Release only would be granted if felons followed the rules and demonstrated good behavior, and if an Earned Release Review Commission — which would replace the Parole Commission — approved it, he said.

“These proposals came from us drawing on … experience, not from reading books about what we should be doing,” said Raemisch, a former police officer and sheriff. “These are highly thought out. They were not done in a vacuum.”

Rep.Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin and a member of the Assembly Corrections and the Courts Committee, said the reforms are “a complete gutting of truth in sentencing.”

That’s the 1999 law that abolished early release on parole. Instead, offenders sentenced to prison now must serve their full term of confinement, followed by a period of extended supervision once they’re released. Gundrum was a key advocate of the measure.
The law was later amended to allow all but the most violent criminals to petition for early release after serving either 75 percent or 85 percent of their prison terms.

Doyle told the State Journal on Wednesday that the proposed changes complement the tough-on-crime law by providing the corrections department with more flexibility in assessing prisoners’ ability to re-enter society.

Linda Ketcham, executive director of Madison Urban Ministry, said she supported the change but worried her organization and others will have a hard time serving the additional newly released prisoners.

“Here’s the reality: There aren’t the resources now,” Ketcham said of the more than 700 ex-prisoners her group helps. “Will it exacerbate the challenges for every other nonprofit in the community? Yes. Will it overburden the shelter system? Yes. Will it release more people in the job market in an economy that is tanking? Yes.”

Earlier release

Under the plan, felons convicted of certain lower-level crimes would be eligible for release after serving two-thirds of their sentences. The most dangerous felons, including murderers and rapists, wouldn’t qualify under the proposal.

In addition, some felons already eligible for release after serving 75 percent or 85 percent of their sentences, including kidnappers, child traffickers and people convicted of aggravated battery, would petition the review commission for release instead of a judge as they do now.
Critics said that could make it easier for some of those offenders to be released.

“With judges you have accountability,” Gundrum said. “Judges are elected and they’re re-elected by the people. The nameless faceless bureaucrats on this parole commission will be able to release whoever they want with no accountability.”

“We’re not talking about Boy Scouts here,” said Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau. “We’re talking about some dangerous people that are going to be released.”

But Raemisch said eligible prisoners — initially estimated at 3,000 — would be released early only after evaluations determine they are not a threat to public safety.

Raemisch said the state’s $5.9 billion budget shortfall forced the agency to reconsider its policies, and that the changes represent “good public policy.” Even though his agency’s spending will increase by $100 million under Doyle’s two-year budget, Raemisch said it would be a lot higher if the changes don’t take effect.

He was unable to provide an estimate of cost savings under the proposal. But he said each prisoner costs the state, on average, about $29,000 annually. More than 22,600 prisoners are housed in the state’s facilities, and a January study recommended $1.2 billion in renovations to the prisons, including 9,000 new beds.

Doyle’s proposed prison changes would also include:
• Allowing some prisoners to be released for medical reasons if they are within one year of release.

• Eliminating state supervision of about 7,000 people convicted of misdemeanors and currently on probation and deemed to be “low-risk offenders.”
• Allowing Corrections to remove “real-time” electronic monitoring of some sex offenders who have been tracked for at least a year. The proposal would require those offenders’ movements to be monitored, but not in “real time.”

— Reporter Jason Stein contributed to this report.