AB 500

Under current law, a person who is sentenced for a felony receives a bifurcated

sentence, which requires the person to serve a portion of his or her sentence in prison

(incarceration portion) and a portion in the community under extended supervision.

2009 Wisconsin Act 28

created an option for persons who are convicted of certain

felonies. Under the act, with certain exceptions listed below, the sentencing court

may order a person to serve a risk reduction sentence if the court determines that

a risk reduction sentence is appropriate, the person agrees to cooperate in an

assessment provided by the Department of Corrections (DOC), and the person agrees

to participate in programming or treatment that DOC determines is appropriate for

the person. Under the act, DOC may modify the person's treatment or program plan

for any reason.

A court may not order a risk reduction sentence for a person convicted of felony

murder, second-degree reckless homicide, a strangulation or suffocation offense,

human trafficking, kidnapping, certain stalking offenses, disarming a peace officer,

tampering with a global positioning system, certain offenses involving the physical

abuse or neglect of a child, certain offenses against an elderly or vulnerable person,

certain offenses related to ethical government, or certain offenses involving weapons

in a school.

If a person successfully completes the program and treatment plan DOC

determines is appropriate for the person and the person maintains a good conduct

record while in prison, he or she may be released from incarceration to extended

supervision in the community after he or she has served at least 75 percent of the

incarceration portion of his or her sentence.

Under this bill, DOC may not modify an inmate's program and must release an

inmate when the inmate has served 75 percent of the incarceration portion of his or

her sentence if the inmate successfully completes his or her program and treatment

plan. The bill also eliminates the list of offenses that render a person ineligible for

a risk reduction sentence.

Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime,

the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a

report concerning the proposed penalty and the costs or savings that are likely to

result if the bill is enacted.