AB 900

Residences of persons placed on supervised release

Under current law, a person who has been found to be a sexually violent person

may be involuntarily committed to the Department of Health Services for control,

care, and treatment. If a person is committed and placed in institutional care, the

person may periodically petition the court for supervised release. If a court

determines that supervised release is appropriate, the court must order the person's

county of residence to prepare a report that identifies an appropriate residence for

the person. Under current law, the county may not identify a residence that is within

1,500 feet of a school, child care facility, place of worship, park, youth center, or,

depending on the offense the person committed, other specified places. This bill

allows the county to identify a residence that does not comply with the 1,500-foot

radius requirements if the county demonstrates that it made a reasonable effort to

identify a residential option that complied with the requirements and the residential

option in the report complies with all other requirements, is in the interest of public

safety, and works in the best interest of citizens with regard to community safety.

Under current law, the county submits the report to DHS, and DHS uses the

report to prepare a supervised release plan. Under this bill, if DHS includes in its

plan a residential option that is not the one identified by the county in the report, the

county may appeal to the Department of Justice to review the plan. Under the bill,

DOJ has 30 days to review the plan. If DOJ rejects the county's appeal, DHS is

responsible for identifying a residential option for the person.

Implementing

2017 Wisconsin Act 184

2017 Wisconsin Act 184

modified the procedure for determining the placement

of a sexually violent person on supervised release. One change eliminated the ability

of the court to choose a county other than the person's county of residence to prepare

a report identifying appropriate residential options for the person. Prior law had

allowed the court, with good cause, to choose another county. The effect of this

change was that the person could not be placed in a county that was not his or her

county of residence. The changes made in

2017 Wisconsin Act 184

applied to any

petition for supervised release pending as of March 30, 2018. This bill clarifies that

a petition for supervised release was pending if the person had not been physically

placed in a residence on supervised release.

This bill also requires DHS to identify any person who was placed on supervised

release in a residence outside his or her county of residence on or after March 30,

2018. If DHS identifies any such person, DHS must notify the court, and the court

must order the person's county of residence to prepare a new report.