Audit Finds Wisconsin Officials Often Failed to Keep Up with Requirements for Monitoring People on Probation or Parole

Tuesday, April 11th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

(By Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) A newly-released audit finds Wisconsin officials often failed to keep up with requirements for monitoring people who are on probation or parole.

According to Sarah Lehr with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin's Department of Corrections, however, is disputing many of the audit's findings, saying they were based on flawed metrics. The report from Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau looked at how DOC oversees its community corrections program.

During the 13-month time period under review, more than 128,000 Wisconsinites were subject to supervision under that program because they were sentenced to probation instead of time behind bars, or because they had been released from prison but were still subject to either parole or extended supervision.

People who committed felonies before Wisconsin's Truth in Sentencing law took effect in 2000 are part of a preexisting parole system, while people whose crimes came after that law's cut-off are subject to something similar to parole that's technically known as extended supervision.

Per DOC policy, agents are supposed to do periodic reviews to determine how high someone's risk of re-offending is while they're under parole, probation or community supervision.

Those evaluations can be a springboard for connecting people to services like transitional housing or cognitive behavioral therapy. They also help determine how strict the terms of someone's supervision are, with people considered higher risk required to check in with an agent more often.

But the report found that more than a third of the time, agents failed to complete initial risk assessments in a timely manner, which auditors generally defined as within 30 days of someone starting community supervision.

DOC policies also require agents to reassess someone's supervision level every six months to a year, but auditors said DOC agents failed to meet such deadlines for reviews close to 67 percent of the time.

In a letter responding to the audit, DOC Secretary Kevin Carr pushed back against those findings, which examined a time period spanning December 2019 through January 2021.

Carr contended auditors didn't fully account for people under supervision who had fled or otherwise didn't cooperate with assessments. Additionally, Carr argued the DOC doesn't consider risk assessments overdue until after 60 days rather than 30.

According to the DOC's own review, about 17 percent of initial reviews weren't completed within that 60-day time frame, Carr wrote. Agents told auditors that risk assessments are sometimes delayed because agents are stuck waiting for courts to provide paperwork.

They also cited lags because of under-staffing and high caseloads, according to the audit. About 10 percent of funded agent positions were vacant in July 2022, according to the report.

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