SB 1133

Under current law, whenever a court sentences a person to imprisonment in the Wisconsin state prisons for a felony committed on or after December 31, 1999, or a misdemeanor committed on or after February 1, 2003, the court must impose a bifurcated sentence. A bifurcated sentence is a sentence that consists of a term of confinement in prison followed by a term of extended supervision.

Current law provides certain minimum and maximum terms of imprisonment and extended supervision, depending on the classification of the crime committed. Under current law, the term of extended supervision may not be less than 25 percent of the length of the term of confinement in prison portion of the bifurcated sentence, and the maximum term of extended supervision that may be imposed is as follows: for a Class B felony, the term of extended supervision may not exceed 20 years; for a Class C felony, 15 years; for a Class D felony, 10 years; for a Class E, F, or G felony, five years; for a Class H felony, three years; and for a Class I felony, two years.

This bill provides that the term of extended supervision may not be less than 25 percent of the length of the term of confinement in prison portion of the bifurcated sentence or five years, whichever is less, and further provides that the term of extended supervision portion of the sentence may not exceed five years for a Class B, C, D, E, F, or G felony.

Also under current law, with some exceptions, if a person is convicted of a crime, the court, by order, may withhold sentence or impose sentence and stay its execution, and in either case place the person on probation to the department for a period of time instead. The bill provides that no period of probation, or consecutive periods of probation, or term of extended supervision followed by a period of probation, may exceed a combined total of five years of supervision.

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.