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