Wisconsin’s community supervision system can be reformed by looking at the length and conditions of supervision, and by developing a system for non-criminal violations.
Key points:
- Length of time on parole adds costs to our criminal justice system with no benefit to safety.
- Conditions of release include standard rules that often are not related to the underlying offense.
- Revocation of extended supervision results in a total sentence longer than ordered by the court.
- Probation holds are disruptive and are not independently reviewed by anyone outside of the Department of Corrections.
- An absence of a clear policy related to crimeless violations of conditions can create uneven results.