THE HYSTERIA SURROUNDING SEXUAL OFFENDING
by
Chas. Anderson
PO Box
Mauston, Wi 53948
No one is advocating that sexual offending is anything but a bad outcome for the victim,offender,community,or state budget quandary. What to do? How to respond to this scourge of sexual misconduct-evident since the dawn of human existence?
Different societies have responded in different ways. Some have accommodated the "rights" of men to dominate and control all sexual relationships. Some have "looked the other way." Up until the ascendancy of "Female Lib" in the U.S., the latter policy reigned. Of course,rapists were arrested upon complaint and the assailant given seven years in prison to "cool his heels." Not too much thought was given how he would act upon release.
Child sexual abuse is a more complicated problem. Many diverse scenarios can occur—from pedophile behavior--to incestual conduct-to consensual teen sex below the age of consent. Until recently, girls in Texas and So. Carolina could marry with permission as young as age 13-14. Mexican society gives approval to a girl at age 15 when she announces her availability at a Quincanilla celebration.
OK, when does hysteria enter the picture and what can a society's realistic response be? Of course, there are societies within society such as the Mormon fundamentalists in UT and AZ and the Irish "Travellers" in SC and elsewhere. Those two groups seem to condone underage sexuality--with older men. Teen boys are viewed with suspect,hormones notwithstanding.
The overall view of this society seemed to change sometime in the last quarter of the 20th century when various feminists proclaimed: "We aren't going to take this anymore." Note: the proponents of this blog and this writer are not proposing tolerance of sexual offending. We are looking for solutions to the problem.
Currently: arrest, incarceration, and continued close scrutiny seem to be the path chosen. Let's examine these tactics. When an accused person is arrested, the criminal justice system is invoked to determine guilt or innocence. In some sexual assaults, it becomes the word of the accuser against the denials of the accused. If there is forensic evidence, the case can become a "slam dunk." But wait a minute: if DNA evidence links the accused offender to the reporting victim, the argument can be made that it was consensual. What if the sex gets too rough and one party wants to back off?
The situation becomes even more sensitive when a child is involved. Children can be coerced into sexual activity but they can also be coerced into false allegations. Probably no DNA evidence exists when an alleged "touching" occurs. It is even possible to make accusations via vindictiveness, blackmail, or jealousy. Any clergyman, teacher, or coach can be ruined by an allegation, proven or otherwise. Some of those in prison are innocent.
From the mid-1980's onward, hysteria was particularly acute in the daycare industry. Virginia McMartin and her son were subjected to the most expensive court process in California history (before O.J.) before being acquitted. Others were not as fortunate. Violet Amirault and her son Gerald were convicted in MA and served significant prison time. Her conviction was eventually overturned. Gerald served for 20 years, never having admitted guilt which would have allowed for parole. Kelly Michaels served 7 1/2 years in a Maplewood, NJ day care conviction, fuelled by wild allegations of young children--subjected to coerced, repetitive interrogations. Janet Reno in Miami had a 14 yr.old Dutch citizen, BobbyF,detained for two years before abandoning the accusations.
In Jordan, MN, a hapless child molester was uncovered and convicted but in the process fifty other people were arrested. In Edenton, NC, the entire staff of a day care center was sent to prison and later released on appeal, one by one.
Who is complicit in these legal debacles? Judges allow "hearsay" evidence, prosecutors are over-zealous police "rush to judge," and (unprofessional) therapists are assigned to interrogate children under the guise of "treatment." In Wenatchee, WA, a police detective with a 14 year old foster child, cajoled her into making wild accusations which resulted in the arrest of a church pastor and half of the people attending the church. Tales of "Satanic" ritual abuse took on a life of their own and hysteria reigned. People were then convicted based on the skill levels of their attorneys and many had to wait for years in prison before successful appeals ordered by the state Supreme Court. Only then were they released from prison.
Granted, these are worst case scenarios at one end of the legal spectrum regarding child sexual abuse. At the other end we have recent cases in St. Louis and California where a (repeat) offender snatched a youngster off a road and held them captive for years. The most recent one (CA) involved a released sex offender who could easily have been retained in prison after being sentenced to fifty years in a previous case. He was released after only eleven years and continued his destructive behavior with help from an enabling wife. When called to report to his parole agent, he brazenly brought along the two girls he had fathered with his captive. After police had been to his house several times over the years, he seemed to think he was untouchable.
Many factors contributed to this egregious behavior by a demented individual. How was he raised with such utter disregard for human rights and the sanctity of children? Why was he released by the state parole board? What was his P.O. thinking when it was reported that he owned a car similar to the one described in the original kidnapping? Anger at this point in time surely fuels the hysteria which accompanies such cases.
A Wisconsin offender, David Spanbauer, was also known to be driving a car identified as cruising the area near Waupaca where a 12 year old girl was accosted and murdered. He was not a child molester but an indiscriminate rapist. Our next notorious sex offender was Jeff Dahmer who preyed on young men in the Milwaukee area. He was on probation (never to prison) when he killed his last victim, a 14 yr. old who had fled his apartment naked but returned by the police. He was assassinated in prison when guards looked the other way. When Gerald Turner was released on statutory parole after 19 years of a 38 year sentence for 2nd degree homicide in the death of a young girl in Fond du Lac. He went to live quietly on the east side of Milwaukee. Even though he was employed and no complaints were registered about his behavior, an alarm was raised when it became known that his residence was within one city block of a Lutheran elementary school. Judge Ralph Adam Fine alleged that his parole time had been improperly calculated. When that ploy failed, State Sen. Alberta Darling proposed to follow a new Washington state initiative called "civil detention" as an antidote to Turner's "underserved" freedom. Alas, his indictment under §980 failed at trial in Dane Co. Turner has since been kept "under wraps" at a secure halfway house in Madison. The Dept. of Corrections has attempted to revoke him several times.
Civil detention for (soon to be released) sex offenders sound like a good idea? Maybe--if you feel that the cost: $358 per day for 365 days (no furloughs like the axe murderers at Mendota get) equals $130,670 per year is a good use of state budget funds. Maximum security prison is much cheaper--at perhaps $28,000 per prisoner so let's sentence ALL sex offenders to...let's say...100 years- as an Appleton man got for several counts of sexual assault after touching a 14 year old boy's chest area.
Will this make our children safer? The facts are that most child victims already know their offender. Only about 10% of assaults are by strangers. The rape category may be somewhat higher. This may not keep our children safe from brutal,physical attack by a step-parent or live-in boyfriend who have no biological ties to a cranky youngster. The resultant damage (from being splattered on a wall or violently shaken) may be a lifetime of disability. How to protect a child from Fetal Alcohol syndrome or a crack-addicted mother?
Furthermore, your (older)child may be at risk from the local neighborhood drug dealer,recently released from prison or not. These people are not on any "registry" or watch list. They may indeed be intent on reestablishing their "turf." Violence and mayhem may then result. In the rural areas, meth labs,operated by the very parents of children we're trying to protect, present an extreme danger of explosion, neglect, and addiction.
Don't forget your ubiquitous drunk drivers as we see are time and again responsible for tragedies on our roads: two high school friends killed by a drunk driver who ran a red light in Green Bay; a school principle, her fetus, and her 11 year old daughter killed by a prominent citizen in Waukesha Co. He had several previous convictions but had never gone to prison.
I'm betting that the recidivism rates for drug offenders are much higher than for sex offenders--despite what the media or legislature tries to portray. All three categories contain "serial" practitioners who offend time and again.
If spending time in jail after a conviction, many are required to attend treatment programs: AODA, AA, and SOTP. I only have statistics for our target group, the highly scrutinized sex offenders. After being released from prison, sex offenders reoffend (sexually) at a rate which diminishes with age. Brian Abbott, Ph.D. of Sunnyvale, CA provides a report which complies various studies of this topic in the past ten years. He concludes (pg- 9 of his 2006 document): "A body of literature shows that sexual offenders over the age of 50 recidivate at a significantly lower rate." He cites Hanson (2002) recording that extra-family child molesters reoffend at a 18% rate between age 40-50 but dropped to 11% after 50. In 2005 Hanson did another study from his office as Sol. Gen, (in Canada) and found the rate (after age 50) to be 4.75%. Barbaree and Langdon--with a sample size of over 7000 offenders--found the rate to be 3.3 to 3.82%.
Now: another shocker in view of the hysterical statistics often presented: that reoffense rates (Hanson/ again)drop from 11% at age 50 and to 5% at age 60 and to 2% by age 70. These decreases seemed to be "across the board" for all sex offenders, rapists and molesters alike. Wollert (2006) reviewed Hanson's work and also found a consistent decline of reoffense with age.
CONCLUSION
Maybe a certain amount of hysteria about this topic is a good thing. It keeps us vigilant about a serious problem in today's society. But remember: the entomology of the word comes from "history" and so "hysteria" is then a perversion of such. Have we not learned anything from the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, the Whiskey Rebellion, Japanese Internment during WWII, race riots in Tulsa, OK and Springfield, IL, the KKK, the Trail of Tears? Such hysteria is well documented. I experienced the terror of urban riots in Chicago after the assassination of Dr. MLK, Jr. in 1968. Mass hysteria in the form of irrational anger and despair resulted in destruction and death.
Upon further review, conclusion could be reached that hysteria, which is a common human element,is not in any way constructive.
RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS
It wouldn't do any good to muse about this topic if I couldn't propose realistic solutions. One is easier than the other so I'll start with the easy one: release each and every prisoner in the U.S. at age 65. Why? First of all, the death penalty has too many flaws. When an imperfect system is used to execute people, it becomes an abomination.Life without parole is equally disastrous.
Keeping old men in prison until they die is nothing more than a subsidised health care program for elderly offenders. Save the funds for health care for people who have not committed felonies. Or, we could adopt the European model of justice which does not depend on high intensity lawyers or juries who can practice statutory "nullification." They use a three judge panel and lawyers for the state and defense engage in "truth seeking," not a win-loss outcome. Resultant sentences are reasonable and do not place an undue burden on a fiscal budget. In Wisconsin, we spend more on incarceration than on the UW budget. There are more college age Black males in prison than in school.
So if you want to be tough on sex offenders (and not drug offenders) sentence a 21 year old rapist to 44 years in prison and release him at age 65. Prison inmates are notoriously in bad health: many are overweight, obese, and sedentary. The image of the buff, muscular workout artist pumping "iron" in prison is a myth. Perhaps 5-10% of guys fit this stereotype. Smoking and coffee are mainstays unless prohibited.
I don't feel this "get tough" mentality should be applied to women, especially mothers of children under twelve. Put them on house arrest as long as there is another adult in the household.
Many sex offenders have established work histories and can qualify for Social Security benefits. Let the federal government provide them support after 65. They get none of these benefits while incarcerated.
And now for the tougher solution: It seems to me that there is a constant supply of sex offenders in our society. You send one to prison and two or three enter the arena of sexual misconduct. In Wisconsin, a ten year old boy was convicted of inappropriate sexual contact with a young girl and placed on the sex offender registry. The case was overturned when it was determined that he was prepubescent, unable to have sexual conduct.
The schizophrenic attitude that America has toward sex surely feeds the constant supply of illegal sexual activity. Teenagers who overtly or covertly express sexual feelings are made to feel "criminal," subject to arrest and humiliation when they respond to the overwhelming message the media and pop culture portray: sex is cool; sex is fun. Witness the risqué photos being transmitted unabashedly by cell phone to their peers. When a young person takes on this self image as criminal in one segment of their behavior, why bother to maintain any integrity? Or man--as they reach adulthood at 18 and realize much is at stake, they
learn to be very secretive in their relationships, particularly if their partner is under 18. Once that barrier is crossed, a sex offender, in the eyes of many, including the criminal justice system, is created. That becomes the point of "no return."
This doesn't necessarily explain the attraction toward children by older people, often intergenerational, other than our society's preoccupation with youth, beauty, athletics, and the dream of "never growing up." How many alluring child stars have been discarded when the veneer of youth was gone?
Shall we return to the Victorian era when any display of public affection was strongly proscribed? Trouble is: there was probably as much sexual misconduct then as today. So many rules to break.
Nor can we morph as a society into "anything goes." America does not prepare its youngsters to enter adulthood unless they have specific star qualities such as Freddie Adeu/ soccer pro at 14. How much money did MacCauley Culkin earn by that age?
Teens have more sexual education than at any point in history and yet are intent on reaching "third base" as soon as possible. A boy who has "scored" in junior high is held in high esteem. Not so for girls. Some teen girls will seek to get pregnant to "snare" a commitment from the boy or escape a dysfunctional family setting.
I say: offer a college scholarship to any girl who can prove her virginity at age 17. If boys want to qualify, require a successful polygraph examination. Let them go to second or third base without reprobation. I realize the "moral police" will not support any such plan and will insist on abstinence but that is unrealistic.
Furthermore, outlaw the employment of youngsters under 16 in the movie industry, on TV, or for that matter--on farms. Newspaper delivery, nope. Cookie salesgirls no way. End all exploitation of children. If children have special status in our society, let's enforce that un-equivocally.
We have two more sexual problems to deal with; pedophilia and rape. Pedophilia--termed an "unnatural" attraction to kids--not only prepubescent--has been sanctioned in many societies over history. The people in our society who violate this norm are facing severe sanctions. Mary Kay LeTourneau, a Seattle area teacher, and married mother of four, was discovered having sexual relations with her (former) student who had just turned 13. She was sentenced to7 ½ years probation but went to prison when she became pregnant a second time with the boy. When released, the boy had "come of age" and they married and started raising their two girls together. The boy's mother had assisted until then, a typical family arrangement in America. My point is that such inter-generational contact does not have to be considered a doomsday scenario.
While pedophilia, male or female, is quite rare, the person so afflicted will not easily abandon the orientation. The only solution is to eliminate all sexual attraction for the offender via... castration, a brutal but effective alternative. Rape is about (violent) power and control but pedophilia is about sexual attraction. There are humane ways to achieve castration: cut the nerve to the organ or chemical injections to lower testosterone levels dramatically. However, a 65 year old man is normally lowered to 225 ppm (an 18 year old is normally at 1400) and so my premise to release all prisoners at 65 carries forensic weight.
In order to reduce the incidence of rape, our society will require a painful change--now hindered by centuries of male dominance-with religious support from Christians, Muslims, Jewish, and Hindu tenets" by affording females equal human rights in all respects. Yes, we have made strides in that area and will never eliminate the need to incarcerate some individuals but releasing them on their 65th birthday should no longer be viewed as 'soft on crime." Most are no longer a menace to society.
As far as policies to deal with repeat offenders: drug dealers, drunk drivers, armed robbers, burglars, arsonists, and domestic abuse perpetrators, lock them up also until age 65--at least on the second offense. No hysteria there, huh?
Remember: policy and laws should not be determined by worst case scenarios. Seek middle ground and justice shall be achieved.
PEACE,
Chas. A.
P.S. What about white collar criminals over 65 like Madoff? OK, drop him off in the middle of Gates of the Arctic Nat. Pk in Alaska with a case of dog food. He can use the parachute for a tent.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Death by Legislation
Death of homeless sex offender in Grand Rapids poses questions - Yahoo! MailWednesday, February 4, 2009
From: "Criminal Justice Forum" news@criminaljusticeforum.com
01/29/2009
By Tom Rademacher - The Grand Rapids Press
So is this what it finally takes for us to hear the muffled cries of the homeless - an ex-con dead in the snow because it's against the law for a sex offender to huddle up at either of two Grand Rapids missions?
Thomas Pauli didn't choose to die alone in the cold.
He apparently froze to death because of a crime he committed nearly 20 years ago, and a niggling law that's dogged him ever since his release from prison.
In the days prior to the discovery of his body Monday morning at a recycling operation in the 600 block of South Division Avenue, he reportedly attempted to score a bed at either or both the Guiding Light Mission and Mel Trotter Ministries, just blocks away.
But officials at both facilities reluctantly acknowledge they would have turned him away because registered sex offenders can't reside for even one night within 1,000 feet of a school, in this case, Catholic Central High.
Never mind that school isn't in session during the hours a guy like Pauli would have been snoozing away on a warm cot.
Or that ex-cons - or anyone else -- are more likely a threat to a neighborhood when they have nowhere to go. When they are desperate.
The missions aren't to blame. They risk fines or even being shut down if they don't comply with the law.
But it's a law that needs changing. And we need to re-examine our collective level of commitment to a part of society that, to most of us, matters least.
Asks Bill Shaffer, an officer with Guiding Light, "How do we treat the unlovable?" - So why is he unlovable?
"I couldn't sleep last night thinking about Thomas Pauli freezing to death outside," said a tearful Marge Palmerlee,
executive director at Degage Ministries, which cares for folks like Pauli who live and frequent the Heartside area on downtown's fringe.
"Who can sleep at night, thinking of these people outside. It's just unbelievable." No, it's not.
I'll bet that even before readers got to my fourth paragraph, some were thinking that Thomas Pierrie Pauli, who was born on Christmas Eve 52 years ago, got what he deserved. OK, so he spent time in the joint. Big whup. A sex offender should pay forever.
Maybe so. I know too many people - people close to me - who have been victims of sexual assaults. !n Pauli's case, he was convicted in Grand Traverse County in 1991 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct against a person younger than 13.
Of the 5 to 15 years to which he was sentenced, he served more than 11. Not exactly a slap on the wrist. His wife divorced him two years into his stint.
After his release in 2003, he eventually ended up at an address on Leonard Street NE. But he wandered from there and ended up roaming Heartside's gritty domain. He checked in and out of Project Rehab.
On Dec. 30, he was booked for failing to register his address with authorities. He got 16 days for that misdemeanor and was freed Jan. 14.
Sometime during the past two weeks, he tried to bed down at either or both missions, according to Palmerlee, who knows of two people saying they saw Pauli standing in lines.
"A patron told me they'd seen him in Mel Trotter's line not long ago," added Lori King, life enrichment center supervisor at Degage.
Officials at both missions cannot confirm Pauli tried to get in, but they also can't rule it out, because they don't track applicants who are refused admission, only those who make it across the threshold.
Either way, they said it breaks their hearts to know they have to abide by a law that puts men in life-or-death situations.
"Ethically, it feels like we're responsible," said Bill Merchut, in charge of programs at Mel Trotter. "But we have to follow the law."
Added Shaffer, of Guiding Light, "These men and women are clearly The Scarlet Letter' folks of our day. "I've had (sex offenders) say, 'Where can I go?' and I stand there with my mouth open and I have no answer."
There aren't many options for men seeking overnight shelter outside of the two missions. In a perfect world, there would be a homeless shelter located where it could accept sex offenders. Maybe a place like the former Greyhound bus station, Merchut said. Or perhaps the former site of a corrections center on Wealthy Street SW near the Grand River. But any solution will require a monstrous coalition. And money.
Don Lamse was the gentleman who found Pauli about 10 a.m. Monday in a parking area adjacent to the auto recycling operation he manages on South Division. The victim was beside a '93 or '94 GMC conversion van.
Lamse, 70, walked over and tried to rouse him. "Hey, hey," Lamse remembers saying. "Something like that."
Pauli was bent into a crouching position, knees and hands on the ground. He wore no gloves. "I tried to nudge him a bit while I was talking to him, and he felt pretty stiff."
Lamse said he found it odd that Pauli didn't crawl into any one of several unlocked vehicles, the van included. "He could have gone inside and had some shelter if he'd just opened a door.
He added, "That's not a nice way for anybody to die."
From: "Criminal Justice Forum" news@criminaljusticeforum.com
Death of homeless sex offender in Grand Rapids poses questions
Death by legislation!
Death by legislation!
01/29/2009
By Tom Rademacher - The Grand Rapids Press
So is this what it finally takes for us to hear the muffled cries of the homeless - an ex-con dead in the snow because it's against the law for a sex offender to huddle up at either of two Grand Rapids missions?
Thomas Pauli didn't choose to die alone in the cold.
He apparently froze to death because of a crime he committed nearly 20 years ago, and a niggling law that's dogged him ever since his release from prison.
In the days prior to the discovery of his body Monday morning at a recycling operation in the 600 block of South Division Avenue, he reportedly attempted to score a bed at either or both the Guiding Light Mission and Mel Trotter Ministries, just blocks away.
But officials at both facilities reluctantly acknowledge they would have turned him away because registered sex offenders can't reside for even one night within 1,000 feet of a school, in this case, Catholic Central High.
Never mind that school isn't in session during the hours a guy like Pauli would have been snoozing away on a warm cot.
Or that ex-cons - or anyone else -- are more likely a threat to a neighborhood when they have nowhere to go. When they are desperate.
The missions aren't to blame. They risk fines or even being shut down if they don't comply with the law.
But it's a law that needs changing. And we need to re-examine our collective level of commitment to a part of society that, to most of us, matters least.
Asks Bill Shaffer, an officer with Guiding Light, "How do we treat the unlovable?" - So why is he unlovable?
"I couldn't sleep last night thinking about Thomas Pauli freezing to death outside," said a tearful Marge Palmerlee,
executive director at Degage Ministries, which cares for folks like Pauli who live and frequent the Heartside area on downtown's fringe.
"Who can sleep at night, thinking of these people outside. It's just unbelievable." No, it's not.
I'll bet that even before readers got to my fourth paragraph, some were thinking that Thomas Pierrie Pauli, who was born on Christmas Eve 52 years ago, got what he deserved. OK, so he spent time in the joint. Big whup. A sex offender should pay forever.
Maybe so. I know too many people - people close to me - who have been victims of sexual assaults. !n Pauli's case, he was convicted in Grand Traverse County in 1991 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct against a person younger than 13.
Of the 5 to 15 years to which he was sentenced, he served more than 11. Not exactly a slap on the wrist. His wife divorced him two years into his stint.
After his release in 2003, he eventually ended up at an address on Leonard Street NE. But he wandered from there and ended up roaming Heartside's gritty domain. He checked in and out of Project Rehab.
On Dec. 30, he was booked for failing to register his address with authorities. He got 16 days for that misdemeanor and was freed Jan. 14.
Sometime during the past two weeks, he tried to bed down at either or both missions, according to Palmerlee, who knows of two people saying they saw Pauli standing in lines.
"A patron told me they'd seen him in Mel Trotter's line not long ago," added Lori King, life enrichment center supervisor at Degage.
Officials at both missions cannot confirm Pauli tried to get in, but they also can't rule it out, because they don't track applicants who are refused admission, only those who make it across the threshold.
Either way, they said it breaks their hearts to know they have to abide by a law that puts men in life-or-death situations.
"Ethically, it feels like we're responsible," said Bill Merchut, in charge of programs at Mel Trotter. "But we have to follow the law."
Added Shaffer, of Guiding Light, "These men and women are clearly The Scarlet Letter' folks of our day. "I've had (sex offenders) say, 'Where can I go?' and I stand there with my mouth open and I have no answer."
There aren't many options for men seeking overnight shelter outside of the two missions. In a perfect world, there would be a homeless shelter located where it could accept sex offenders. Maybe a place like the former Greyhound bus station, Merchut said. Or perhaps the former site of a corrections center on Wealthy Street SW near the Grand River. But any solution will require a monstrous coalition. And money.
Don Lamse was the gentleman who found Pauli about 10 a.m. Monday in a parking area adjacent to the auto recycling operation he manages on South Division. The victim was beside a '93 or '94 GMC conversion van.
Lamse, 70, walked over and tried to rouse him. "Hey, hey," Lamse remembers saying. "Something like that."
Pauli was bent into a crouching position, knees and hands on the ground. He wore no gloves. "I tried to nudge him a bit while I was talking to him, and he felt pretty stiff."
Lamse said he found it odd that Pauli didn't crawl into any one of several unlocked vehicles, the van included. "He could have gone inside and had some shelter if he'd just opened a door.
He added, "That's not a nice way for anybody to die."
Thursday, October 22, 2009
WI: Land of Oppression
Daniel S Jorgenson
PO Box 129
Winnebago, Wi 54985
WI: Land of Oppression
In Wisconsin, the American belief of redemption has been forgotten. There are multiple laws that have circumvented the U.S. Constitution, in regards to laws passed acting retroactive, yet are not. The loophole the legislature found was to make new laws active for anyone released from prison on or after these laws were passed, rather that anyone sentenced on or after the date, these laws were passed. Creating laws in this fashion effects even those whose original sentences did not entail such restrictions later imposed through the above said loopholes. The reason these following laws are considered acceptable in the eyes of the authorities is because after 9/11, all sex-offenders were considered terrorists and that justified the mistreatment of the sex-offenders held to violate their civil liberties thereafter. These new laws still violate ex-post-facto, yet because they are imposed upon those being released, these laws can now be attached to anyone convicted well over 20 or more years ago before these laws were implemented.
For example; when a person finishes their entire prison sentence for a sex-offence of any kind, they are held for commitment hearings to possibly hold them past their prison sentence, indefinitely. This law is §980, Wisconsin's Sexually Violent Person law. Under this law, even people sent to Mental Health Centers under §971.17, NGI, (Not Guilty by Mental Defect), and juvenile offenders have been held. I have seen people locked up as young as 15 years of age when they originally held §980's at Mendota Mental Health Center, and as of 2007 someone died while under this law at the age of 103 years old.
I personally have been incarcerated eight-teen years on a five-year term due to the following circumstances, and this is still my first time I ever had any convictions in my life. I was twenty-one years old in 1992 when I was sentenced to twenty years of probation, it was stayed, and I got five years on a second count. In early 1993, I have one last and third count and received four years concurrent to the previous five. There were no other stipulations to my sentences for the three counts against me. There are people under §980 who suffer from various mental illnesses. Schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and autism. These people were originally deemed to be held in a mental health facility because prison was considered an inappropriate placement for them, mainly because they could not be held culpable for their actions due to their mental defects. The biggest problem with being held under §980 as a person with mental defects and illnesses is they are being held in prisons after their criminal sentence deemed prison was not the right placement for them.
What makes prison appropriate now §980 take them?
As far as the juveniles, they never committed crimes as adults, nor were they treated in court as adults, therefore, how can they be held under §980 as if they did their crimes as adults? I do know many courts have began to clean out most of the juvenile offenders from §980, yet there are many remaining.
When this law was first enacted in 1994, Wisconsin authorities were picking up people out of society who were already released, and not violating any laws, or rules, to be held and committed under §980. Some people from that time still reside in one of the two current prisons open to hold SVP's.
The institutions that house these people are prisons, and not mental health centers, yet this §980 law is supposed to be Civil Commitment. The policies imposed upon these people went from civil commitment Patient Rights in accordance to §51.61, HFS 94, 95, 96, and the U.S. Constitution, to strictly §303, Department of Corrections policy, and procedures. The liberty interests of these individuals have been forfeited.
Anyone held and/or committed under §980 in Wisconsin are labeled as an SVP, (sexually violent person), and from there it is legal in WI to discriminate against all SVP's. These same guys who were trusted with unsupervised jobs using diesel tractors in large gardens with fertilizer, acetylene torches, and other tools, and machines that could easily have been misused while in prison, now they are treated as if they suddenly became so dangerous they need to be supervised with a simple broom. Under this §980 law, their liberty interests have been deprived from them, both as conditions of confinement, and how were defended in court by their public defenders, or attorneys.
Public Defenders in Wisconsin simply go through the motions to appear in court as if they are defending their rights, yet they simply ignore many of their basic Constitutional rights. They justify it by saying they cannot defend them about their conditions of confinement, only about the §980 commitment trials. They do not fulfill their duties, and most of the people facing §980 have no clue what is going on. The public defenders take advantage of this fact, as it is WI paying them to act in the states interests. These attorneys cannot bite the hand that feeds them and fight the law the way the Constitution depicts it ought to be fought. They are puppets of WI, and these people facing §980 are mere pawns in this game.
They take advantage of the fact that most people facing the §980 are emotionally inept, and most definitely do not have the knowledge, or courage, to litigate these matters themselves in court. The public defenders also know that when these people facing the §980 are asked if they know their rights and answer yes, they are under the disillusion the Miranda Warning is their rights, and have very little idea of their Constitutional rights they are entitled to, & allow them to be sold out and unlawfully committed to §980.
When anyone is held under §980, they are kept so lethargic that after being warehoused for so long, these people forget what working 8 to 16 hours a day is like.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the state can only commit someone in this manner; "if the individual is more dangerous than the average criminal". Many of these people are in prison for the first time in their lives, giving little to no predisposition they will recidivate or re-offend. The word predisposition has never been challenged in the courts regarding sex offenses to this day.
The law pretends to be a civil commitment, which is to be an act of compassion, yet §980 has become an instrument of punitive measures. Under standard civil commitment orders, patients are not sent to prisons, they are sent to mental health centers. Many courts have ruled that patients are not meant to be in a prison, or in "prison like conditions". In more than two dozen cases in the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1960's numerous discussions by the justices concerning patient rights, and the 14"' Amendment.
The Wisconsin §980 law allows the state to hold all male SVP's at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, registered as a prison hospital, with electric fences around it's perimeter. At SRSTC the staff is trained to write the patients up, as punishment, for anything, even fabricated acts, which prove to be hearsay by other patients attempting to look good at the other patient's expense as a way to remain obsequious towards the staff. Even if the accused patient passes a polygraph test to prove their innocence, they still are punished regardless. The staff often writes each other up if they observe other staff not writing patients up for any given issue. The Wisconsin Resource Center, registered as a medium security prison with maximum override by Wisconsin. WRC is run by the Department of Corrections even though the Department of Health Services is suppose to promulgated HFS 94 Administrative Code, based on §51.61 patient rights, and the Constitution. At WRC the patients are mixed with inmates on a daily basis either by simply walking down the hallway, church services, or when they are served at the food lines.
Unlike actual mental health centers, and hospitals, WRC and SRSTC do not have individual nurse's stations on each unit with individual nurses for each unit. According to HFS 94, any mental health centers for civilly committed patients are supposed to provide a nurse and a station for them to practice effectively on each unit for the care and treatment of all the patients housed there. Because of this deficiency in adequate care from health services, I personally have experienced problems myself. In 2004 I got a hernia while at SRSTC, and it took over a year before I could actually see a doctor about a hernia I got. The nurse practitioner kept interfering with my requests to see the doctor, and then would see me herself. She was very unprofessional and had no respect, taking X-Rays and telling me I was only constipated. Zoloft was given to me later as I began to argue with the practitioner and she thought I was depressed. I was merely frustrated she refused to listen to me. Once she went on vacation, I finally got a request to Dr. Ness and he took good care of me from there on.
This is an example of how health service nurses often assume the patients are merely faking illnesses for attention, and often that leaves them vulnerable to further damage to their bodies when not looked at each situation as potentially serious.
When any patient is brought to an outside hospital for surgery, or specialists the institution does not offer, the patients get strip searched with no documentation for them to sign, and handcuffed. At times the vans that transport these people have cages they are put in like a sociopathic offender like Buffalo Bill or Ed Gein. They also get dressed in prison garb for the trip, and this all proves to be extremely humiliating for them to be seen in public looking like a common criminal. Their dignity has been forfeited.
These patients under §980 civilly committed no longer have a right to file grievances for any of their rights violations. DHS wants to deny every right that a patient possesses. (HFS 94.01(2) (b) Sub chapter III does not apply to the grievance procedures of the state mental health institutes, the state centers for persons with developmental disabilities or units housing patients committed under §980, Stats., nor does it apply to individual private practitioners who deliver services through offices that are not part of a program.)
Instead of individualized treatment and consideration, DHS has created blanket policies to avoid favoritism. If a patient is treated with individualized treatment, and consideration, they will be discharged from civil commitment in the shortest amount of time possible by the institution itself. There is no ware housing at the cost of the counties, or state, and taxpayers.
The rights that have been stripped from these §980 patients ranging from: receiving and making unrestrained phone calls without any monitoring or without the people they want to call being screened per DOC policies. Receiving visits every day from anyone who displays state ID cards drivers' license without their visitors being screened or searched per DOC policies. Privacy rights in rooms, and while toileting, rights to wear personal clothing of choice, style, and taste, decorating their rooms the way we to choose for self-expression. To be free from any further punishment, denials, restrictions, or limitations from buying or selling anything of their own possession, or the due process that in entailed to any of the above being refused, and then some.
In both institutions the patients have been placed on a "Heart Healthy" diet, yet it mostly consists of pastas and many other high carbohydrates foods that can cause serious heart issues for anyone very lethargic, as most of these people are forced to be.
They are allotted more property than the average inmate is, yet at the same time it is made extremely difficult to get anything allowed in the institutions, even if the items are pre-approved, it still gets denied due to all the bureaucracy and red tape and the patients have to send it back at their expense. This is a tactic largely used to discourage them from ordering more property so staff can search their cells faster.
To mention all the rights would take up many pages, but they can be seen in the laws, and the WI and U.S. Constitutions. These are more of the most important ones.
Once a person is committed, it is considered to be indefinitely. This word in itself has yet to be clarified in court, and so far means to warehouse. Those under §980 can choose to partake in a "treatment" program for sex offenders which constitutes nothing more than self help educational programs ran by recreational therapists, social workers, PCT's, and many other staff, other than licensed psychologists or doctors. The word treatment is used as facade, yet very little is done in these programs to address any of the core issues that led to this kind of commitment in the first place. The focus is always on the old, repetitive, and stale issues that can actually hinder ones progress if they are already past the state of re-visiting past crimes in group settings. This reminiscing over past criminal behaviors can actually lead many offenders to a darker place, or teach them how to do a better crime if they are still in that criminal frame of mind.
Most of the initial treatment groups consisted of repetitious child like games from making towers out of straws, to paper airplanes. Then we moved on to groups like Time Bomb Tactics, which was great for those who were into manipulation and lying. Then these groups began to change, mainly the names only, yet continued to teach the same things in different ways. There was Enhanced Thinking Skills. There was Application Group. They all taught the same things. Only in the CORE Groups did any real sex offender treatment come out, and that is very difficult for any to get into now, as the previous groups are made like an internal revolving door. No one makes it past that stage by the facilitator's choice, unless they are favored.
There have been times when facilitators disliked specific patients so badly that they attacked their character right in group, from how they dressed, to their daily schedules of when they wake to sleep, none of which was relevant unless they were consistently late, or offering poor feedback in groups. Many of these attacks were opposite of all other charting from all other staff members. It is a mind game and very stressful.
As I mentioned previously, polygraphs are often used for "treatment" purposes. The true underlying reason they use the polygraph test is for mind control, to get these people to self incriminate one self. If they do not fully disclose all the crimes they were and were not convicted of, or of any rule violations they may have incurred, they fail the tests and are held back to the beginning of the programs they're in. The information often gets used in the yearly evaluations, and brought into court through these evaluations only to be used against these individuals as a means for the district attorneys to find reason they should never get released from §980. There have been many U.S. Supreme Court decisions made stating polygraphs cannot be used as mind control for SVP's in treatment programs.
The Germans used the very same tactics used in their programs in the cold war era. They use persistent accusations, or polygraphs as threats to punish if failed, until they get an admission out of the patient. Most of the time the patients under §980 taking either the polygraph, and or "treatment" fall under this tactic, and simply admit to whatever it is the facilitators want to hear just to shut them up, and move in the program in hopes for a release in the near future.
If you refuse to take, or continue to show deception in these polygraph tests, you are returned to the very beginning of the program again. This being held back to the beginning is punitive in nature, and gives these tests their punitive nature by such intimidating threats.
Also, SRSTC has been known to take a low score in the Hare Psychopathy test that shows if a person in psychopathic or not and raise it more than three points at a time just so they can place any given patient into their Corrective Thinking program which holds them under §980 longer. This score on this test is static, which means it cannot change at all. Any psychologist will tell you this as it is part of their code of ethics and in the DSMIV TR, which is the book they use to make such a diagnosis.
Nowhere in the treatment programs are there any teachings of how to survive in today's society, or of it's technologies that are necessary in today's world. Nothing is taught of any value to succeed in the real job market, or housing crisis. Everything is organized to keep the people uneducated, and in the dark, so no one can succeed if they are released.
Essentially there has been an internal revolving door made within this program itself in order to keep all the patients from making "significant progress", which is the only way a patient can receive supervised release under §980. If no one can make it through the program, no one is released. Naturally their plan to warehouse these patients never is told or written, as that would prove their intent, and every one would have to be released from §980.
506F.Supp. 915, Davis v. Hubbard, (N.D.Ohio 1980).doc /Addington v. Texas U.S.C. / Wisconsin v. Post WI S.C. These only scratch the surface of the case law decisions available on these subjects.
Before one can get supervised release, or discharged, they have to be evaluated by a psychologist. The people under §980 only are evaluated every 12 months, rather than every six months. According to the code of ethics of the APA, and the DSM IV TR used to diagnose people, patients must be evaluated every six months, or the diagnoses will be void, and no good in the court of law.
Evaluations are not based in reality, as the doctors do nothing to examine the true mental states of an individual. The evaluations are all about behavior, which in 2012, the DSM V will be printed and the word "behavior" will be removed from all of the paraphilia diagnoses. Keep in mind that the doctors who work for the state mostly work in the states interest of further incarceration.
Early this year the tool used to determine the dangerousness of people under §980, the STATIC 99, by the doctors who evaluate them has been found to be grossly exaggerated in its original results. The percentages of the scores were inflated, and since has been said to be corrected. The score is from a zero to a 12. Before this inflated percentage of the scores was found, this test would hold almost everyone under §980. Now there are many people being discharged from §980 with a score of six or less. I hear rumors it will soon again change. If this test cannot be guaranteed in the first place, who is to say it can be of any guarantee now, or after any further changes? These test scores have been Wisconsin's crystal ball to determine if anyone under §980 will re-offend or not, in the future, with in any given amount of time, if released.
The U.S. Department of Justice has done in-depth studies regarding recidivism rates of every crime, including sex-offenders, and found that of all the crimes committed, sex-offenders were the least likely to re-offend after they served prison time. Sex-offenders averaged at a 13% risk of recidivism. These results can be found on their web site.
Those who refuse to participate in the "treatment" programs available are treated with less "privileges". These "privileges" actually should be the rights and liberties for everyone to enjoy regardless of the fact they exercise their rights to refuse treatment or not without punitive measures held against them. If they refuse to participate, they are housed in more restrictive units within the institutions, and given less to work with all around. This includes fewer hours to work in any job, limitations on what jobs they can work, property limits, as well as recreational activities and so on.
They are not allowed to work outside of the institutions, and the jobs they can work to earn money are limited. They use "incentives" such as lowered wages from $1.90 on up to $3.50 per hour, cooking "privileges" on "better" units, and so forth. These "privileges" are actually the patients rights according to law. They are limited to a minimum of 2 to 3 hours per week, depending what level they are on within their institutions tier system. The further into the program they get, the more hours and wages they can receive.
Neither institution allows any patient to receive indigency if they have little to no money, and the policies made between the two institutions are lower than the national standards of indigency, and that of the standards of the Wisconsin Public Defenders standards. No one in either institution can receive free street clothing; they get charged and have to pay for it all. At WRC the patients are given green prison clothing such as the inmates wear and they cannot wear their personal clothing off the unit at all.
Unless the patients have an outside source of income from veterans benefits, or friends and family sending in money as gifts, these institutions low paying jobs are the only source of income they have to make money from. Social Security even refuses to send any benefits to the patients here because the institutions claim they "provide everything" for the patients. They do not. These people in these institutions do not get indecency(?)pay, stamps, paper, or envelopes unless they pay for it themselves.
Wages, hours, and unit level systems are used as a punitive measure to keep them compliant. If they do choose to participate in the institution's programs, they can then work more hours, and receive a slightly higher wage, depending on their progress. Of course if as I mentioned above, they have it out for any individual, they wind up losing all of these things by being moved back to the beginning of the program, only to start all over again.
There are very frequent transports of these patients from SRSTC and WRC back and forth without any due process what so ever. WRC is more restrictive in nature as is run by DOC, and there is a mix population of inmates serving time and patients as civil committed patients. Being transferred to a more secured setting in a civil commitment case, there needs to be due process as well as a logical reason why the transfer is occurring. This is part of keeping it impossible for anyone under §980 to become comfortable, and is punitive in nature as well.
In fact, in early 2007 I was called to an emergency staffing along with another peer also living at SRSTC at the time, to be told without any confidentiality at all that we both will be transferred to WRC the next day. There is nothing we can do about it. Under the Constitution and patient rights §51.61 people held under §980 are to be offered total confidentiality, and have the right to be a part of their treatment plan, which was denied to both of us that day.
The programs ran are all focused on negatives of the patients lives, and past, rather than looking to the future, and the positive strengths of the individuals. The psychiatric assessments are crisis driven rather than treatment driven. Essentially, there is no real Sex Offender Treatment program available at WRC, or at SRSTC that is accredited by the state of Wisconsin.
The program they have running now is merely nothing more than a giant experiment-taking place without consent or knowledge of the patients. That is why all these programs ran at both WRC and SRSTC is open ended, so the experiment never ends, and no one is released, or that is the plan.
Every twelve months, those under §980 are evaluated to determine if they have made significant progress in "treatment". I bring this to your attention for the fact that according to the A.P.A.'s code of ethics, and the DSM IV TR, anyone diagnosed with anything that can be found to hold one under §980 must be re-evaluated every three to six months, or any diagnosis's are no longer valid in the court of law. After three to six months have past, and there is no new evaluation to diagnose, the old diagnosis is invalid and the state loses his or her jurisdiction to further detain anyone.
After many years of these people trying to fight the §980, many have given up, only to capitulate to accept remaining incarcerated for life, against their will. This is sad to even contemplate this can happen in America! Again, the same cold war tactic was used in the courtrooms forum.
All of the staff at both WRC and SRSTC are trained by the Department of Corrections at their academy. They are taught to treat the patients the same as inmates. This includes the use of DOC §303, and all DOC policies to punish everyone the same. Everyone under §980 are labeled as an offender to justify this. The staff will, and has many times, use stun guns and mace to subdue any patient under §980. They then use DOC's policy of a 72-hour re-assignment where the patient is segregated from his original unit, and given no access to his property until returned. Then if there is further punishment implicated, the patients property have been taken away from them for a month at a time or more without any legal due process. This violates not only state laws of patient rights mentioned earlier, but also the U.S. Constitution as well.
Whether being picked up for court, or returned, the patients are subjected to strip searches again, with no written documentation for them to sign.
It costs the taxpayers over $100,000.00 per person, per year to hold each person under the §980 law. If anyone who was held and then discharged from the §980, they get bills for their involuntary stay which no one can afford after being incarcerated for two decades or more. In §980, it is written that the county in which the patients are from are responsible for the cost of care and treatment, which falls unto the taxpayers in the end.
When anyone has to attend any of their court hearings for §980, the sheriffs of the county they are from transport them to and from the local county jails. While these civil patients are held in jail they get treated no differently than any other inmates either being charged for a crime, or serving time for a conviction already sentenced. On many occasions, these patients have to sit over many nights, even the weekends because of the sheriffs transporting schedule is so rigid, and maladaptive to meet the needs of civil patients.
The patients are also forced to wear jail clothing, be it the common bright orange, or the black and white stripes, which prove to be extremely humiliating for the patients having to don these outfits. When they gointo the courtroom, the clothing they have to wear puts them in a position that leads others to see them as an average criminal. This can lead the court to a biased opinion against them even before the hearings start. This treatment in jail, and simply being held in jail, as a civil patient with no provisions made for the patients rights that are to be adhered to according to WI law prove to be another of the vast violations of these peoples civil rights, liberties, and dignity. Then the jails send the patients a bill for their stay there.
§302 / §51.61 / HFS94
For those under §980 who are given Supervised Release in court, they still are committed under §980, but are released under excessive supervision. They have to remain on house arrest, isolated within the home found for them to live in, for at least one year. This isolation goes against everything sex offender treatment programs teach! Isolation gives way to idol time, which in turn can lead to falling back to deviant ways of thinking. With no one around to associate with, there is no building of their social skills, and no one to talk to on the spot if they do need counseling. They also have two people in charge that do not always agree in what can be approved, and what cannot. There is a parole agent from the Department of Corrections, and a Department of Health Services supervisor, from Lutheran Social Services, all of which can revocate the person in question at any given moment. This is like double jeopardy in my eyes.
If anyone under §980 supervised release gets sent back to WRC, or SRSTC, they can not bring back all of their personal property they worked for years to get before their release back to the institutions. This forces them to start all over again, having to purchase a new TV, radio, and such. They may take some books and clothes back, but that is it. This supervised release is very punitive in nature and very few individuals actually succeeded through it.
For those who are discharged from §980, they are then released from anything to do with §980, and can either resume their DOC probation/parole time, or if that is completed, go where they want, and do what they want. The draw back to discharge is the fact there are new laws enacted that are imposed upon them because they were released after the dates these new laws came out, even though their original sentences never implied any of these new restrictions. Wisconsin has found a loophole in law to place a perpetual leash on all sex-offenders, even if they were convicted well before these laws were enacted.
Wisconsin requires any serious sex-offender who assaulted children released after WI's GPS law was enacted, to wear this GPS bracelet and fanny pack to power it for the rest of their lives as long as they continue to reside in WI. If someone was convicted in 1992, well before these laws were created, and sentenced to only prison, and parole, they should not have to endure any further restrictions when released, without due process. WI found a loophole, giving WI permission to add on to old sentences without taking these people back to court for a sentence modification hearing. Now if anyone discharged, and having no probation left decides to leave WI, they can have this removed by the authorities. They have to pay $3000.00 per year for this, even if it was not part of their original sentence.
There is also the WI sex-offender registration law. This requires released sex offenders to register for the rest of their lives after their released from detention, or discharged from §980 for the rest of their entire life. This too violates due process rights again, as there is never any sentence modification trial to legally add these added restrictions to anyone's original sentences. This registration also leads to vigilantism from the community these people may have to reside in. That violates these people privacy, which violates the U.S. Constitutional liberties that are to be guaranteed for all American Citizens. Also, while under §980, they still have to be on this sex-offender registration, which gives anyone with internet access, access to their names, and addresses. While under §980 the guys there are suppose to have the right to confidentiality, which means the institutions can not acknowledge if they are even in the institutions at any given time, unless that person signs a waver for one specific time, for a specific person to receive information about them. By having their names and information on this registration list violates this rights under §51.61 and allows anyone to contact these patients, or learn information otherwise confidential under state law.
I know this because about 2005 my old high school girlfriend wanted to find out where I was at, and could not get any information from anyone, until she remembered the WI sex offender registration. She logged on, and found me just like that. All confidentiality according to WI state law has been forfeited by this registration law alone.
If a person who is totally discharged from both DOC time and §980, decides to go on a vacation for over two weeks, they stand a high risk of being arrested upon returning home. You see, if the WI sex-offender registry sends a sex-offender a form to register at any time, they have only 10 days to respond. If they are gone for over two weeks and they cannot respond for they are on vacation, they will be considered delinquent, and an arrest warrant is issued upon them. This infringes upon their liberties to move aboutwhere they like in accordance to the U.S. Constitution. They cannot go on a vacation without this hanging over their heads, and it impedes upon their freedoms and liberties, even if they are discharged from the system. They have to do this for the rest of their lives, even if they leave WI. WI keeps an illegal leash on every sex-offender regardless of their original sentences. They then also have to register with the state in which they move to there after per federal laws. There is also a yearly fee for this held against these people.
There is also the Green Bay sex-offender ordinance, along with surrounding communities following suite. This not only makes life difficult for these guys getting out who have to go back to GB, but it also makes the parole boards job more difficult as well just to find a place for their clients to live. This too violates due process rights again, as there is never any sentence modification trial to legally add these restrictions to anyone's original sentences. If they find a sex-offender living with in the restricted red zones, they, and the landlords renting to them, can be fined $500.00 per day. The last time I checked, discrimination, and segregation was illegal and Unconstitutional in America!
If a person can get their §980 case dismissed, then allot of these newly added restrictions will not apply, as their DOC release dates pre-dates these new laws. That is the best anyone under §980 can hope for at this point for a fair chance to succeed in a new life in society.
There are other laws passed giving employers, and property owners the right to discriminate from hiring, or renting to any convicted sex-offender. For the most part society is willing to follow the American belief of redemption, and give these people a chance.
The problem arises with the authorities in the communities. They decide to alert everyone about anyone being released from §980. They often begin to campaign against these people by harassing and intimidating their employers, and the landlords in which these people live, or work at multiple times a day. They give these people stories, threats, and instill fear in them that if they allow these "sex-offenders" to remain, they will be shunned with them. Out of fear, they fire, and or evict these people simply trying to get back on their feet from a past that keeps haunting them. Why should these proprietors and employers be threatened from the police to hate these people when they are willing to give them the second chance they deserve? This form of intimidation is also a form of Cold War Tactics used to keep sex-offenders from succeeding in the community.
With all these laws, Wisconsin has clearly ostracized, banished, condemned, and shunned all sex-offenders from ever returning back to society, or even giving them the second chance to become successful in life after their prison time has expired.
Many people under §980 have no juvenile records, and were sentenced at a very young age as an adult. Many have served two decades or more, and in most cases, such as mine, they have never been incarcerated in their lives before. They simply have not seen any second chance at redeeming themselves since their first day in court. This is a travesty of justice in America in and of itself.
The §980 law was originally intended to hold repeat child killers. It was later, and quickly, amended to try to hold the likes of Gerald Turner, who later on in the years after §980 was passed, he did not meet the criteria to hold him under §980. Now §980 holds anyone, with even the most miniscule sex-offense, without any remorse, or compassion for their Constitutional rights, or of their families who have been severely separated from those held under the §980 law.
The authorities also use the media as a weapon to scare the public from sex-offenders as well. They do not tell the public that the real danger is the unknown sex-offender that may be lurking within their own family, or friends. Strangers hardly target anyone they do not already know for sexual assaults. When the media is used to spread this false propaganda, it can cause the public to panic, and become vigilantes themselves. Now due to the Medias misinformation & fear tactics, many people in society refuse to give any sex-offender any chance at redemption. The hatred and fear spreads like cancer. That is very dangerous, but intended by the authorities. These are facts known to many psychologists, and the Department of Justice, Department of Corrections, and Department of Health Services. This is an even older form of war tactics, propaganda to scare the citizens to death. What about their rights to be free from this fear? Do they not deserve to know the whole truth?
The §980 law was a prelude to all these other laws that later followed. You see, once WI found they could modify people's prison sentences through other means than actual sentence modification hearings, and divert attention from violating Ex-post-facto laws; other laws began creeping into the legislature. Because most of the people under §980 are in extreme poverty, and do not have the knowledge needed to properly litigate on their own behalf. There is also the fact there are no attorneys in WI willing to take up any §980 case in regards to conditions of confinement. These cases simply have been placed in file 13,thrown aside and forgotten, or neglected on a yearly basis. Many civil liberties allotted by the U.S. Constitution have been forfeited by these laws of oppression & fell upon deaf ears.
If a sex-offender were released, would you prefer they have some help to find a place to live, and a job to get back on their feet? They may even become a successful member of society again, or would you rather they keep being shunned from town to town until they are forced to go under ground? They most likely will fail at everything in life, only to wind up back in the prison system again all because they are constantly ostrastrasized by society. All this costs allot of money, at the taxpayers expense. Many of these individuals have a college education and experience to become a valid and viable part of the community, if only the authorities stop spreading hatred against them. If these people are released, and know they are being watched, they will not re-offend.
When these people went to court years ago, the only rights that were legally taken from them was the right to vote until they are discharged, the right to bear firearms until discharged and asked for by the governor, and the right to hold public office which can never be restored. No other rights under the U.S. or the WI Constitution have been formally denied by any court thereafter.
Many people in history have fought for Americans civil liberties, and freedoms. People from Malcolm X. Jessie Jackson, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King have put their lives at risk to give Americans liberty interests. These people made laws that specify segregation, and discrimination is illegal in America.
In WW II the Japanese Americans were taken from their homes after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and housed in camps against their will very much the same as these citizens today are being held under §980. They have been ostracized out of fear that if released, they might be dangerous to society, and must be locked away. This is the very same thing the Nazis were doing to the Jewish, and America invaded to stop this inhumane activity from occurring any longer.
Many wars have taken many good soldiers for the same concept. It is an American belief to give anyone who has committed a crime a second chance to make their life right, and Wisconsin has decided that American belief no longer applies to his or her American citizens. What is the Wisconsin legislature thinking when they create loopholes in their laws to violate Americans' rights, liberties, property, and pursuit of happiness? These laws are a serious miscarriage of justice in this land of opportunity!
Daniel S Jorgenson
PO Box 129
Winnebago, Wi 54985
PO Box 129
Winnebago, Wi 54985
WI: Land of Oppression
In Wisconsin, the American belief of redemption has been forgotten. There are multiple laws that have circumvented the U.S. Constitution, in regards to laws passed acting retroactive, yet are not. The loophole the legislature found was to make new laws active for anyone released from prison on or after these laws were passed, rather that anyone sentenced on or after the date, these laws were passed. Creating laws in this fashion effects even those whose original sentences did not entail such restrictions later imposed through the above said loopholes. The reason these following laws are considered acceptable in the eyes of the authorities is because after 9/11, all sex-offenders were considered terrorists and that justified the mistreatment of the sex-offenders held to violate their civil liberties thereafter. These new laws still violate ex-post-facto, yet because they are imposed upon those being released, these laws can now be attached to anyone convicted well over 20 or more years ago before these laws were implemented.
For example; when a person finishes their entire prison sentence for a sex-offence of any kind, they are held for commitment hearings to possibly hold them past their prison sentence, indefinitely. This law is §980, Wisconsin's Sexually Violent Person law. Under this law, even people sent to Mental Health Centers under §971.17, NGI, (Not Guilty by Mental Defect), and juvenile offenders have been held. I have seen people locked up as young as 15 years of age when they originally held §980's at Mendota Mental Health Center, and as of 2007 someone died while under this law at the age of 103 years old.
I personally have been incarcerated eight-teen years on a five-year term due to the following circumstances, and this is still my first time I ever had any convictions in my life. I was twenty-one years old in 1992 when I was sentenced to twenty years of probation, it was stayed, and I got five years on a second count. In early 1993, I have one last and third count and received four years concurrent to the previous five. There were no other stipulations to my sentences for the three counts against me. There are people under §980 who suffer from various mental illnesses. Schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and autism. These people were originally deemed to be held in a mental health facility because prison was considered an inappropriate placement for them, mainly because they could not be held culpable for their actions due to their mental defects. The biggest problem with being held under §980 as a person with mental defects and illnesses is they are being held in prisons after their criminal sentence deemed prison was not the right placement for them.
What makes prison appropriate now §980 take them?
As far as the juveniles, they never committed crimes as adults, nor were they treated in court as adults, therefore, how can they be held under §980 as if they did their crimes as adults? I do know many courts have began to clean out most of the juvenile offenders from §980, yet there are many remaining.
When this law was first enacted in 1994, Wisconsin authorities were picking up people out of society who were already released, and not violating any laws, or rules, to be held and committed under §980. Some people from that time still reside in one of the two current prisons open to hold SVP's.
The institutions that house these people are prisons, and not mental health centers, yet this §980 law is supposed to be Civil Commitment. The policies imposed upon these people went from civil commitment Patient Rights in accordance to §51.61, HFS 94, 95, 96, and the U.S. Constitution, to strictly §303, Department of Corrections policy, and procedures. The liberty interests of these individuals have been forfeited.
Anyone held and/or committed under §980 in Wisconsin are labeled as an SVP, (sexually violent person), and from there it is legal in WI to discriminate against all SVP's. These same guys who were trusted with unsupervised jobs using diesel tractors in large gardens with fertilizer, acetylene torches, and other tools, and machines that could easily have been misused while in prison, now they are treated as if they suddenly became so dangerous they need to be supervised with a simple broom. Under this §980 law, their liberty interests have been deprived from them, both as conditions of confinement, and how were defended in court by their public defenders, or attorneys.
Public Defenders in Wisconsin simply go through the motions to appear in court as if they are defending their rights, yet they simply ignore many of their basic Constitutional rights. They justify it by saying they cannot defend them about their conditions of confinement, only about the §980 commitment trials. They do not fulfill their duties, and most of the people facing §980 have no clue what is going on. The public defenders take advantage of this fact, as it is WI paying them to act in the states interests. These attorneys cannot bite the hand that feeds them and fight the law the way the Constitution depicts it ought to be fought. They are puppets of WI, and these people facing §980 are mere pawns in this game.
They take advantage of the fact that most people facing the §980 are emotionally inept, and most definitely do not have the knowledge, or courage, to litigate these matters themselves in court. The public defenders also know that when these people facing the §980 are asked if they know their rights and answer yes, they are under the disillusion the Miranda Warning is their rights, and have very little idea of their Constitutional rights they are entitled to, & allow them to be sold out and unlawfully committed to §980.
When anyone is held under §980, they are kept so lethargic that after being warehoused for so long, these people forget what working 8 to 16 hours a day is like.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the state can only commit someone in this manner; "if the individual is more dangerous than the average criminal". Many of these people are in prison for the first time in their lives, giving little to no predisposition they will recidivate or re-offend. The word predisposition has never been challenged in the courts regarding sex offenses to this day.
The law pretends to be a civil commitment, which is to be an act of compassion, yet §980 has become an instrument of punitive measures. Under standard civil commitment orders, patients are not sent to prisons, they are sent to mental health centers. Many courts have ruled that patients are not meant to be in a prison, or in "prison like conditions". In more than two dozen cases in the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1960's numerous discussions by the justices concerning patient rights, and the 14"' Amendment.
The Wisconsin §980 law allows the state to hold all male SVP's at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, registered as a prison hospital, with electric fences around it's perimeter. At SRSTC the staff is trained to write the patients up, as punishment, for anything, even fabricated acts, which prove to be hearsay by other patients attempting to look good at the other patient's expense as a way to remain obsequious towards the staff. Even if the accused patient passes a polygraph test to prove their innocence, they still are punished regardless. The staff often writes each other up if they observe other staff not writing patients up for any given issue. The Wisconsin Resource Center, registered as a medium security prison with maximum override by Wisconsin. WRC is run by the Department of Corrections even though the Department of Health Services is suppose to promulgated HFS 94 Administrative Code, based on §51.61 patient rights, and the Constitution. At WRC the patients are mixed with inmates on a daily basis either by simply walking down the hallway, church services, or when they are served at the food lines.
Unlike actual mental health centers, and hospitals, WRC and SRSTC do not have individual nurse's stations on each unit with individual nurses for each unit. According to HFS 94, any mental health centers for civilly committed patients are supposed to provide a nurse and a station for them to practice effectively on each unit for the care and treatment of all the patients housed there. Because of this deficiency in adequate care from health services, I personally have experienced problems myself. In 2004 I got a hernia while at SRSTC, and it took over a year before I could actually see a doctor about a hernia I got. The nurse practitioner kept interfering with my requests to see the doctor, and then would see me herself. She was very unprofessional and had no respect, taking X-Rays and telling me I was only constipated. Zoloft was given to me later as I began to argue with the practitioner and she thought I was depressed. I was merely frustrated she refused to listen to me. Once she went on vacation, I finally got a request to Dr. Ness and he took good care of me from there on.
This is an example of how health service nurses often assume the patients are merely faking illnesses for attention, and often that leaves them vulnerable to further damage to their bodies when not looked at each situation as potentially serious.
When any patient is brought to an outside hospital for surgery, or specialists the institution does not offer, the patients get strip searched with no documentation for them to sign, and handcuffed. At times the vans that transport these people have cages they are put in like a sociopathic offender like Buffalo Bill or Ed Gein. They also get dressed in prison garb for the trip, and this all proves to be extremely humiliating for them to be seen in public looking like a common criminal. Their dignity has been forfeited.
These patients under §980 civilly committed no longer have a right to file grievances for any of their rights violations. DHS wants to deny every right that a patient possesses. (HFS 94.01(2) (b) Sub chapter III does not apply to the grievance procedures of the state mental health institutes, the state centers for persons with developmental disabilities or units housing patients committed under §980, Stats., nor does it apply to individual private practitioners who deliver services through offices that are not part of a program.)
Instead of individualized treatment and consideration, DHS has created blanket policies to avoid favoritism. If a patient is treated with individualized treatment, and consideration, they will be discharged from civil commitment in the shortest amount of time possible by the institution itself. There is no ware housing at the cost of the counties, or state, and taxpayers.
The rights that have been stripped from these §980 patients ranging from: receiving and making unrestrained phone calls without any monitoring or without the people they want to call being screened per DOC policies. Receiving visits every day from anyone who displays state ID cards drivers' license without their visitors being screened or searched per DOC policies. Privacy rights in rooms, and while toileting, rights to wear personal clothing of choice, style, and taste, decorating their rooms the way we to choose for self-expression. To be free from any further punishment, denials, restrictions, or limitations from buying or selling anything of their own possession, or the due process that in entailed to any of the above being refused, and then some.
In both institutions the patients have been placed on a "Heart Healthy" diet, yet it mostly consists of pastas and many other high carbohydrates foods that can cause serious heart issues for anyone very lethargic, as most of these people are forced to be.
They are allotted more property than the average inmate is, yet at the same time it is made extremely difficult to get anything allowed in the institutions, even if the items are pre-approved, it still gets denied due to all the bureaucracy and red tape and the patients have to send it back at their expense. This is a tactic largely used to discourage them from ordering more property so staff can search their cells faster.
To mention all the rights would take up many pages, but they can be seen in the laws, and the WI and U.S. Constitutions. These are more of the most important ones.
Once a person is committed, it is considered to be indefinitely. This word in itself has yet to be clarified in court, and so far means to warehouse. Those under §980 can choose to partake in a "treatment" program for sex offenders which constitutes nothing more than self help educational programs ran by recreational therapists, social workers, PCT's, and many other staff, other than licensed psychologists or doctors. The word treatment is used as facade, yet very little is done in these programs to address any of the core issues that led to this kind of commitment in the first place. The focus is always on the old, repetitive, and stale issues that can actually hinder ones progress if they are already past the state of re-visiting past crimes in group settings. This reminiscing over past criminal behaviors can actually lead many offenders to a darker place, or teach them how to do a better crime if they are still in that criminal frame of mind.
Most of the initial treatment groups consisted of repetitious child like games from making towers out of straws, to paper airplanes. Then we moved on to groups like Time Bomb Tactics, which was great for those who were into manipulation and lying. Then these groups began to change, mainly the names only, yet continued to teach the same things in different ways. There was Enhanced Thinking Skills. There was Application Group. They all taught the same things. Only in the CORE Groups did any real sex offender treatment come out, and that is very difficult for any to get into now, as the previous groups are made like an internal revolving door. No one makes it past that stage by the facilitator's choice, unless they are favored.
There have been times when facilitators disliked specific patients so badly that they attacked their character right in group, from how they dressed, to their daily schedules of when they wake to sleep, none of which was relevant unless they were consistently late, or offering poor feedback in groups. Many of these attacks were opposite of all other charting from all other staff members. It is a mind game and very stressful.
As I mentioned previously, polygraphs are often used for "treatment" purposes. The true underlying reason they use the polygraph test is for mind control, to get these people to self incriminate one self. If they do not fully disclose all the crimes they were and were not convicted of, or of any rule violations they may have incurred, they fail the tests and are held back to the beginning of the programs they're in. The information often gets used in the yearly evaluations, and brought into court through these evaluations only to be used against these individuals as a means for the district attorneys to find reason they should never get released from §980. There have been many U.S. Supreme Court decisions made stating polygraphs cannot be used as mind control for SVP's in treatment programs.
The Germans used the very same tactics used in their programs in the cold war era. They use persistent accusations, or polygraphs as threats to punish if failed, until they get an admission out of the patient. Most of the time the patients under §980 taking either the polygraph, and or "treatment" fall under this tactic, and simply admit to whatever it is the facilitators want to hear just to shut them up, and move in the program in hopes for a release in the near future.
If you refuse to take, or continue to show deception in these polygraph tests, you are returned to the very beginning of the program again. This being held back to the beginning is punitive in nature, and gives these tests their punitive nature by such intimidating threats.
Also, SRSTC has been known to take a low score in the Hare Psychopathy test that shows if a person in psychopathic or not and raise it more than three points at a time just so they can place any given patient into their Corrective Thinking program which holds them under §980 longer. This score on this test is static, which means it cannot change at all. Any psychologist will tell you this as it is part of their code of ethics and in the DSMIV TR, which is the book they use to make such a diagnosis.
Nowhere in the treatment programs are there any teachings of how to survive in today's society, or of it's technologies that are necessary in today's world. Nothing is taught of any value to succeed in the real job market, or housing crisis. Everything is organized to keep the people uneducated, and in the dark, so no one can succeed if they are released.
Essentially there has been an internal revolving door made within this program itself in order to keep all the patients from making "significant progress", which is the only way a patient can receive supervised release under §980. If no one can make it through the program, no one is released. Naturally their plan to warehouse these patients never is told or written, as that would prove their intent, and every one would have to be released from §980.
506F.Supp. 915, Davis v. Hubbard, (N.D.Ohio 1980).doc /Addington v. Texas U.S.C. / Wisconsin v. Post WI S.C. These only scratch the surface of the case law decisions available on these subjects.
Before one can get supervised release, or discharged, they have to be evaluated by a psychologist. The people under §980 only are evaluated every 12 months, rather than every six months. According to the code of ethics of the APA, and the DSM IV TR used to diagnose people, patients must be evaluated every six months, or the diagnoses will be void, and no good in the court of law.
Evaluations are not based in reality, as the doctors do nothing to examine the true mental states of an individual. The evaluations are all about behavior, which in 2012, the DSM V will be printed and the word "behavior" will be removed from all of the paraphilia diagnoses. Keep in mind that the doctors who work for the state mostly work in the states interest of further incarceration.
Early this year the tool used to determine the dangerousness of people under §980, the STATIC 99, by the doctors who evaluate them has been found to be grossly exaggerated in its original results. The percentages of the scores were inflated, and since has been said to be corrected. The score is from a zero to a 12. Before this inflated percentage of the scores was found, this test would hold almost everyone under §980. Now there are many people being discharged from §980 with a score of six or less. I hear rumors it will soon again change. If this test cannot be guaranteed in the first place, who is to say it can be of any guarantee now, or after any further changes? These test scores have been Wisconsin's crystal ball to determine if anyone under §980 will re-offend or not, in the future, with in any given amount of time, if released.
The U.S. Department of Justice has done in-depth studies regarding recidivism rates of every crime, including sex-offenders, and found that of all the crimes committed, sex-offenders were the least likely to re-offend after they served prison time. Sex-offenders averaged at a 13% risk of recidivism. These results can be found on their web site.
Those who refuse to participate in the "treatment" programs available are treated with less "privileges". These "privileges" actually should be the rights and liberties for everyone to enjoy regardless of the fact they exercise their rights to refuse treatment or not without punitive measures held against them. If they refuse to participate, they are housed in more restrictive units within the institutions, and given less to work with all around. This includes fewer hours to work in any job, limitations on what jobs they can work, property limits, as well as recreational activities and so on.
They are not allowed to work outside of the institutions, and the jobs they can work to earn money are limited. They use "incentives" such as lowered wages from $1.90 on up to $3.50 per hour, cooking "privileges" on "better" units, and so forth. These "privileges" are actually the patients rights according to law. They are limited to a minimum of 2 to 3 hours per week, depending what level they are on within their institutions tier system. The further into the program they get, the more hours and wages they can receive.
Neither institution allows any patient to receive indigency if they have little to no money, and the policies made between the two institutions are lower than the national standards of indigency, and that of the standards of the Wisconsin Public Defenders standards. No one in either institution can receive free street clothing; they get charged and have to pay for it all. At WRC the patients are given green prison clothing such as the inmates wear and they cannot wear their personal clothing off the unit at all.
Unless the patients have an outside source of income from veterans benefits, or friends and family sending in money as gifts, these institutions low paying jobs are the only source of income they have to make money from. Social Security even refuses to send any benefits to the patients here because the institutions claim they "provide everything" for the patients. They do not. These people in these institutions do not get indecency(?)pay, stamps, paper, or envelopes unless they pay for it themselves.
Wages, hours, and unit level systems are used as a punitive measure to keep them compliant. If they do choose to participate in the institution's programs, they can then work more hours, and receive a slightly higher wage, depending on their progress. Of course if as I mentioned above, they have it out for any individual, they wind up losing all of these things by being moved back to the beginning of the program, only to start all over again.
There are very frequent transports of these patients from SRSTC and WRC back and forth without any due process what so ever. WRC is more restrictive in nature as is run by DOC, and there is a mix population of inmates serving time and patients as civil committed patients. Being transferred to a more secured setting in a civil commitment case, there needs to be due process as well as a logical reason why the transfer is occurring. This is part of keeping it impossible for anyone under §980 to become comfortable, and is punitive in nature as well.
In fact, in early 2007 I was called to an emergency staffing along with another peer also living at SRSTC at the time, to be told without any confidentiality at all that we both will be transferred to WRC the next day. There is nothing we can do about it. Under the Constitution and patient rights §51.61 people held under §980 are to be offered total confidentiality, and have the right to be a part of their treatment plan, which was denied to both of us that day.
The programs ran are all focused on negatives of the patients lives, and past, rather than looking to the future, and the positive strengths of the individuals. The psychiatric assessments are crisis driven rather than treatment driven. Essentially, there is no real Sex Offender Treatment program available at WRC, or at SRSTC that is accredited by the state of Wisconsin.
The program they have running now is merely nothing more than a giant experiment-taking place without consent or knowledge of the patients. That is why all these programs ran at both WRC and SRSTC is open ended, so the experiment never ends, and no one is released, or that is the plan.
Every twelve months, those under §980 are evaluated to determine if they have made significant progress in "treatment". I bring this to your attention for the fact that according to the A.P.A.'s code of ethics, and the DSM IV TR, anyone diagnosed with anything that can be found to hold one under §980 must be re-evaluated every three to six months, or any diagnosis's are no longer valid in the court of law. After three to six months have past, and there is no new evaluation to diagnose, the old diagnosis is invalid and the state loses his or her jurisdiction to further detain anyone.
After many years of these people trying to fight the §980, many have given up, only to capitulate to accept remaining incarcerated for life, against their will. This is sad to even contemplate this can happen in America! Again, the same cold war tactic was used in the courtrooms forum.
All of the staff at both WRC and SRSTC are trained by the Department of Corrections at their academy. They are taught to treat the patients the same as inmates. This includes the use of DOC §303, and all DOC policies to punish everyone the same. Everyone under §980 are labeled as an offender to justify this. The staff will, and has many times, use stun guns and mace to subdue any patient under §980. They then use DOC's policy of a 72-hour re-assignment where the patient is segregated from his original unit, and given no access to his property until returned. Then if there is further punishment implicated, the patients property have been taken away from them for a month at a time or more without any legal due process. This violates not only state laws of patient rights mentioned earlier, but also the U.S. Constitution as well.
Whether being picked up for court, or returned, the patients are subjected to strip searches again, with no written documentation for them to sign.
It costs the taxpayers over $100,000.00 per person, per year to hold each person under the §980 law. If anyone who was held and then discharged from the §980, they get bills for their involuntary stay which no one can afford after being incarcerated for two decades or more. In §980, it is written that the county in which the patients are from are responsible for the cost of care and treatment, which falls unto the taxpayers in the end.
When anyone has to attend any of their court hearings for §980, the sheriffs of the county they are from transport them to and from the local county jails. While these civil patients are held in jail they get treated no differently than any other inmates either being charged for a crime, or serving time for a conviction already sentenced. On many occasions, these patients have to sit over many nights, even the weekends because of the sheriffs transporting schedule is so rigid, and maladaptive to meet the needs of civil patients.
The patients are also forced to wear jail clothing, be it the common bright orange, or the black and white stripes, which prove to be extremely humiliating for the patients having to don these outfits. When they gointo the courtroom, the clothing they have to wear puts them in a position that leads others to see them as an average criminal. This can lead the court to a biased opinion against them even before the hearings start. This treatment in jail, and simply being held in jail, as a civil patient with no provisions made for the patients rights that are to be adhered to according to WI law prove to be another of the vast violations of these peoples civil rights, liberties, and dignity. Then the jails send the patients a bill for their stay there.
§302 / §51.61 / HFS94
For those under §980 who are given Supervised Release in court, they still are committed under §980, but are released under excessive supervision. They have to remain on house arrest, isolated within the home found for them to live in, for at least one year. This isolation goes against everything sex offender treatment programs teach! Isolation gives way to idol time, which in turn can lead to falling back to deviant ways of thinking. With no one around to associate with, there is no building of their social skills, and no one to talk to on the spot if they do need counseling. They also have two people in charge that do not always agree in what can be approved, and what cannot. There is a parole agent from the Department of Corrections, and a Department of Health Services supervisor, from Lutheran Social Services, all of which can revocate the person in question at any given moment. This is like double jeopardy in my eyes.
If anyone under §980 supervised release gets sent back to WRC, or SRSTC, they can not bring back all of their personal property they worked for years to get before their release back to the institutions. This forces them to start all over again, having to purchase a new TV, radio, and such. They may take some books and clothes back, but that is it. This supervised release is very punitive in nature and very few individuals actually succeeded through it.
For those who are discharged from §980, they are then released from anything to do with §980, and can either resume their DOC probation/parole time, or if that is completed, go where they want, and do what they want. The draw back to discharge is the fact there are new laws enacted that are imposed upon them because they were released after the dates these new laws came out, even though their original sentences never implied any of these new restrictions. Wisconsin has found a loophole in law to place a perpetual leash on all sex-offenders, even if they were convicted well before these laws were enacted.
Wisconsin requires any serious sex-offender who assaulted children released after WI's GPS law was enacted, to wear this GPS bracelet and fanny pack to power it for the rest of their lives as long as they continue to reside in WI. If someone was convicted in 1992, well before these laws were created, and sentenced to only prison, and parole, they should not have to endure any further restrictions when released, without due process. WI found a loophole, giving WI permission to add on to old sentences without taking these people back to court for a sentence modification hearing. Now if anyone discharged, and having no probation left decides to leave WI, they can have this removed by the authorities. They have to pay $3000.00 per year for this, even if it was not part of their original sentence.
There is also the WI sex-offender registration law. This requires released sex offenders to register for the rest of their lives after their released from detention, or discharged from §980 for the rest of their entire life. This too violates due process rights again, as there is never any sentence modification trial to legally add these added restrictions to anyone's original sentences. This registration also leads to vigilantism from the community these people may have to reside in. That violates these people privacy, which violates the U.S. Constitutional liberties that are to be guaranteed for all American Citizens. Also, while under §980, they still have to be on this sex-offender registration, which gives anyone with internet access, access to their names, and addresses. While under §980 the guys there are suppose to have the right to confidentiality, which means the institutions can not acknowledge if they are even in the institutions at any given time, unless that person signs a waver for one specific time, for a specific person to receive information about them. By having their names and information on this registration list violates this rights under §51.61 and allows anyone to contact these patients, or learn information otherwise confidential under state law.
I know this because about 2005 my old high school girlfriend wanted to find out where I was at, and could not get any information from anyone, until she remembered the WI sex offender registration. She logged on, and found me just like that. All confidentiality according to WI state law has been forfeited by this registration law alone.
If a person who is totally discharged from both DOC time and §980, decides to go on a vacation for over two weeks, they stand a high risk of being arrested upon returning home. You see, if the WI sex-offender registry sends a sex-offender a form to register at any time, they have only 10 days to respond. If they are gone for over two weeks and they cannot respond for they are on vacation, they will be considered delinquent, and an arrest warrant is issued upon them. This infringes upon their liberties to move aboutwhere they like in accordance to the U.S. Constitution. They cannot go on a vacation without this hanging over their heads, and it impedes upon their freedoms and liberties, even if they are discharged from the system. They have to do this for the rest of their lives, even if they leave WI. WI keeps an illegal leash on every sex-offender regardless of their original sentences. They then also have to register with the state in which they move to there after per federal laws. There is also a yearly fee for this held against these people.
There is also the Green Bay sex-offender ordinance, along with surrounding communities following suite. This not only makes life difficult for these guys getting out who have to go back to GB, but it also makes the parole boards job more difficult as well just to find a place for their clients to live. This too violates due process rights again, as there is never any sentence modification trial to legally add these restrictions to anyone's original sentences. If they find a sex-offender living with in the restricted red zones, they, and the landlords renting to them, can be fined $500.00 per day. The last time I checked, discrimination, and segregation was illegal and Unconstitutional in America!
If a person can get their §980 case dismissed, then allot of these newly added restrictions will not apply, as their DOC release dates pre-dates these new laws. That is the best anyone under §980 can hope for at this point for a fair chance to succeed in a new life in society.
There are other laws passed giving employers, and property owners the right to discriminate from hiring, or renting to any convicted sex-offender. For the most part society is willing to follow the American belief of redemption, and give these people a chance.
The problem arises with the authorities in the communities. They decide to alert everyone about anyone being released from §980. They often begin to campaign against these people by harassing and intimidating their employers, and the landlords in which these people live, or work at multiple times a day. They give these people stories, threats, and instill fear in them that if they allow these "sex-offenders" to remain, they will be shunned with them. Out of fear, they fire, and or evict these people simply trying to get back on their feet from a past that keeps haunting them. Why should these proprietors and employers be threatened from the police to hate these people when they are willing to give them the second chance they deserve? This form of intimidation is also a form of Cold War Tactics used to keep sex-offenders from succeeding in the community.
With all these laws, Wisconsin has clearly ostracized, banished, condemned, and shunned all sex-offenders from ever returning back to society, or even giving them the second chance to become successful in life after their prison time has expired.
Many people under §980 have no juvenile records, and were sentenced at a very young age as an adult. Many have served two decades or more, and in most cases, such as mine, they have never been incarcerated in their lives before. They simply have not seen any second chance at redeeming themselves since their first day in court. This is a travesty of justice in America in and of itself.
The §980 law was originally intended to hold repeat child killers. It was later, and quickly, amended to try to hold the likes of Gerald Turner, who later on in the years after §980 was passed, he did not meet the criteria to hold him under §980. Now §980 holds anyone, with even the most miniscule sex-offense, without any remorse, or compassion for their Constitutional rights, or of their families who have been severely separated from those held under the §980 law.
The authorities also use the media as a weapon to scare the public from sex-offenders as well. They do not tell the public that the real danger is the unknown sex-offender that may be lurking within their own family, or friends. Strangers hardly target anyone they do not already know for sexual assaults. When the media is used to spread this false propaganda, it can cause the public to panic, and become vigilantes themselves. Now due to the Medias misinformation & fear tactics, many people in society refuse to give any sex-offender any chance at redemption. The hatred and fear spreads like cancer. That is very dangerous, but intended by the authorities. These are facts known to many psychologists, and the Department of Justice, Department of Corrections, and Department of Health Services. This is an even older form of war tactics, propaganda to scare the citizens to death. What about their rights to be free from this fear? Do they not deserve to know the whole truth?
The §980 law was a prelude to all these other laws that later followed. You see, once WI found they could modify people's prison sentences through other means than actual sentence modification hearings, and divert attention from violating Ex-post-facto laws; other laws began creeping into the legislature. Because most of the people under §980 are in extreme poverty, and do not have the knowledge needed to properly litigate on their own behalf. There is also the fact there are no attorneys in WI willing to take up any §980 case in regards to conditions of confinement. These cases simply have been placed in file 13,thrown aside and forgotten, or neglected on a yearly basis. Many civil liberties allotted by the U.S. Constitution have been forfeited by these laws of oppression & fell upon deaf ears.
If a sex-offender were released, would you prefer they have some help to find a place to live, and a job to get back on their feet? They may even become a successful member of society again, or would you rather they keep being shunned from town to town until they are forced to go under ground? They most likely will fail at everything in life, only to wind up back in the prison system again all because they are constantly ostrastrasized by society. All this costs allot of money, at the taxpayers expense. Many of these individuals have a college education and experience to become a valid and viable part of the community, if only the authorities stop spreading hatred against them. If these people are released, and know they are being watched, they will not re-offend.
When these people went to court years ago, the only rights that were legally taken from them was the right to vote until they are discharged, the right to bear firearms until discharged and asked for by the governor, and the right to hold public office which can never be restored. No other rights under the U.S. or the WI Constitution have been formally denied by any court thereafter.
Many people in history have fought for Americans civil liberties, and freedoms. People from Malcolm X. Jessie Jackson, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King have put their lives at risk to give Americans liberty interests. These people made laws that specify segregation, and discrimination is illegal in America.
In WW II the Japanese Americans were taken from their homes after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and housed in camps against their will very much the same as these citizens today are being held under §980. They have been ostracized out of fear that if released, they might be dangerous to society, and must be locked away. This is the very same thing the Nazis were doing to the Jewish, and America invaded to stop this inhumane activity from occurring any longer.
Many wars have taken many good soldiers for the same concept. It is an American belief to give anyone who has committed a crime a second chance to make their life right, and Wisconsin has decided that American belief no longer applies to his or her American citizens. What is the Wisconsin legislature thinking when they create loopholes in their laws to violate Americans' rights, liberties, property, and pursuit of happiness? These laws are a serious miscarriage of justice in this land of opportunity!
Daniel S Jorgenson
PO Box 129
Winnebago, Wi 54985
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