PANEL SET TO OVERSEE SENTENCE GUIDELINES

It Will Suggest What's Too Harsh Or Too Lenient

Wisconsin is about to have a panel monitor implementation of the
truth-in-sentencing law - four years after criminal justice leaders
recommended one - and members will have their hands full in evaluating what
is happening in courts.

In creating sentencing guidelines, the commission is to tackle what has
long been a touchy subject in Wisconsin's judicial system: how to suggest
to judges what sentence is too harsh or too lenient.

The 21-member panel has been on the drawing board since 1999, when the
Criminal Penalties Study Committee, under Reserve Judge Thomas Barland of
Eau Claire, drafted advisory sentencing guidelines for 11 felonies that
together account for about 70% of state corrections spending.

The new panel's job is to study sentencing patterns statewide and establish
guidelines to help judges determine how long prison terms should be under
truth-in-sentencing, something judges don't yet know, according to Barland.

"I think the state has been very much at a disadvantage these past few
years not having a sentencing commission," he said. "The determinate
sentencing scheme we're now under is much more rigid than what we had.

"You don't have the safety valve of a parole board to adjust prison
sentences. That's why it is so important to monitor what is going on and
let the judges know what type of sentences are proving effective for what
crimes.

"Frankly, nobody knows whether two years in prison is better than one or
five. Sentencing commissions get information about what is effective and
what is not effective, and judges do not have that kind of information now."

Smaller staff

But with a yet-to-be hired staff, which is to be one-third the size of what
was originally envisioned, commissioners face challenges, and it will be
awhile before they can start to do what Barland said is so important.

The commission has not set its first meeting date, it still must hire a
director and an assistant, and two seats still need to be filled.

Barland's blue-ribbon committee suggested that the commission have a
six-person staff to gather and analyze data. But the recently enacted state
budget gives the commission just two staff members.

"That is a problem," Barland said. "You need an executive director and some
researchers. I don't think the commission can do an effective job with just
two people."

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Elsa Lamelas, one of two state Supreme Court
appointees to the commission, said commissioners need to learn what makes
sentences effective.

"It is difficult to believe that a staff of two can gather the kind of
information that is needed to do that," Lamelas said.

Under the temporary sentencing guidelines from Barland's committee, which
went into effect Feb. 1, judges have been completing worksheets at
sentencing time for the commission to study.

Because the commission is being formed only now, the forms completed the
past six months are in a Madison post office box rented by the director of
state courts.

Susan Steingass, commission chair and a lawyer at Habush, Habush & Rottier
in Madison, said it was difficult to discuss anything about the commission
with any certainty, as it has yet to meet. But she said she wasn't worried
about the staffing.

"I believe we will have the people we need to do the job we have to do,"
she said.

Steingass said she hoped the first meeting would be next month at the latest.

'Cost-effective' at issue

In announcing his seven appointees to the commission last month, Gov. Jim
Doyle said, "I am confident that these talented individuals will make a
significant contribution to the development of sentencing practices that
are consistent and fair, and which protect public safety in the most
cost-effective way."

This year, when Doyle said the commission was to consider
cost-effectiveness, Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson
complained that cost-effective sentencing was difficult to define.

Lamelas agreed.

"What is meant by 'cost-effective'?" she said. "To release persons who are
not rehabilitated may be cost-effective from the point of view of the
Department of Corrections budget. But it might not be cost-effective for
the community at large in terms of future crime."

A Doyle appointee to the commission, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Louis
Butler Jr., said: "I don't think, on an individual basis in sentencing, a
judge ought to factor in cost. But the commission has to look at all sorts
of factors and fiscal realities, including jail population issues and
future prison building.

"I wouldn't want to put limits on anything we should look at."

Barland said he suspects the eventual guidelines will lead to shorter
sentences.

"We've tended to sentence on the long side in Wisconsin," he said. "I think
the commission is going to come to the conclusion that we don't need to
sentence as long as we have."