Looking to improve transparency and efficiency at the state’s Parole Commission, State Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) has released the “Parole Transparency Act.”
The bill, according to Wanggaard, aims to ensure victims can be involved in and informed about the parole process. The Wisconsin Parole Commission has, on multiple occasions, failed to notify crime victims, their families, and communities about the release of violent criminals.
The proposal is also being circulated by State Senators Julian Bradley (R-Franklin) and Jesse James (R-Altoona). Leading on the bill in the Assembly are State Representatives. John Spiros (R-Marshfield), Cindi Duchow (R-Delafield), and Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh). The lawmakers are seeking co-sponsors until February 1.
Wanggaard said he’s been investigating the operations of the commission for the last year. Getting answers has been “exceedingly difficult,” the state senator said.
“The Commission has been operating in the shadows. Stonewalling of records requests, sidestepping and violating Open Meeting laws, and violating the constitutional rights of crime victims has to stop,” he said.
“The Parole Transparency Act sheds light on the parole-granting process while still maintaining the privacy rights of inmates.”
Wanggaard’s bill would eliminate the commission’s exemption to Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law. It would require the commission to post notice of its meetings on the Department of Corrections website and post guidance documents used by the panel when making parole determinations.
The commission would also be required to post monthly and annual totals of persons granted and denied parole and those who have had parole revoked. Annual totals must be presented by crime, sex, race, age of the individual, and locality in which the individuals were convicted.
The commission has been widely criticized for a number of controversial decisions.
Last year, John Tate II, Gov. Tony Evers’ Parole Commission chairman at the time, stepped down after mounting public pressure and at Evers’ request.
The governor’s appointee had set to release from prison Douglas Balsewicz, who murdered his wife in front of his young children in 1997. Balsewicz had served just 24 years of an 80-year prison sentence. After intense public objection, Evers finally asked Tate to reconsider his decision. The parole board chairman relented a few days before Balsewicz was scheduled to be released.
Last summer, a Washington County judge ordered the commission to turn over records in a lawsuit brought by conservative website Wisconsin Right Now. The lawsuit claimed the commission had failed to comply with the state’s open records law.
“[Y]ou have unjustifiably withheld and refused to release those remaining records … to the injury of the plaintiff,” the judge’s order stated.
The commission and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections have also failed to notify victims and the public about the release of violent criminals.
Gladys Redlich, a 76-year-old grandmother, was randomly murdered more than 40 years ago as she walked her dog in Wauwatosa. Her killer, Scott Jenkins, was in his early 20s. He hid in nearby woods with a sniper rifle and shot Redlich.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, Jenkins was released from prison on parole in March 2020, but Redlich’s grandson Mark Henke said he and his immediate family — his grandmother’s daughter and her children — did not receive a notification. Henke’s father, who had died in 2019, had been the Department of Correction’s contact in the family, and Henke did not have access to the email to which DOC sent the notification. Henke and his wife learned of Jenkins’ release after the fact from a family member.
The commission has faced criticism for similar failures.
Evers recently named long-time former State Senator Jon Erpenbach, a Madison-area Democrat, to serve as chairman of the Parole Commission.
Wanggaard, who worked with Erpenbach for several years in the Legislature, said the new appointee gives the state the chance to ensure the Parole Commission “doesn’t repeat the same mistakes and operates in a more open manner.”
He said the legislation is “an important first step to enhance public confidence in the parole process and improve the transparency of the Commission.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Van Wanggaard” by Van Wanggaard
