Notes from April parole commission staff meeting.

 Main take-aways for organizers (read full notes for details):

• increasing housing resources, and making old law prisoners / the commission aware of them for re-entry planning will help get people out. 
• there is a way that some old law people can access the expanded earned release program
• future parole commission staff meetings will include limited opportunities for public to ask questions. 
  

All the parole commissioners and records staff were present at the meeting. There were also two people from the DOC office of victim services in attendance, as well as 7 people from the public and/or advocacy organizations.

It was a very breif meeting, about 20 minutes after attendence was taken. Topics discussed include: person-first language, narrative section of hearing reports, changes to earned release, the national parole conference in June, release planning, in-person hearings, and transparency.

 

Person-first language: Tate started off with a reminder to use person-first language, to refer to people as “people in our care or custody,” not as inmates or offenders. It sounds like someone used inmate before the public was added to the zoom.

 

Narrative section of hearing reports: he asked commissioners to include more detail in the narrative section of their reccomendations, including a specific rationale for making a determination. He wants more exposition as to why a specific program is critical to move people forward. He doesn’t like seeing broad language like, “considering these factors, the risk is unreasonable,” and wants commissioners to be more specific.

 

Changes to earned release: there has been a change to DOC policy regarding earned release, which Doug had a lot of questions about. It is probably the policy DOC Secretary Kevin Carr talked about at a town hall back in September. Doug reported back that the new policy makes the substance use disorder (SUD) program into an earned release program (ERP). Doug said that DAI wants people who are eligible for earned release to take all other programs before SUD, so they can be ready for early release once SUD is complete.

I don’t know the system, or the new policy perfectly, but I worry that this might be a way that the internal DOC bureaucracy is undermining the intended expansion of earned release. Turning SUD into earned release should help get people out of prison sooner, but if the programming officials are going to require everyone to complete every other program before they have access to SUD, that delays access. Programming is very limited in the DOC, and people running programs often use them to humiliate, stigmatize, and demean people attending the programs, which can deter them from moving forward.

Overall, Doug seemed releived to learn that this change only applies to people who are already statutorily eligible for ERP, which few old law people are, so the door to early release remains closed for the people his job depends on holding captive.

Tate agreed that there is very little overlap between “our population” and those who might be eligible for ERP, “although there are some”. This seems to get into intentionally complex technicalities, so I’m going to put in full quotes, and hope it outlines a pathway for some people. Tate said: “if we want to indicate support for someone completing ERP, we would defer to MR and that would kind of set them to enroll in the ERP and then go in that particular route.” Doug replied that “each case has to be looked at individually, but when we do have that overlap, it’s usually because somebody has a very short sentence structure. There’s an alternative method for establishing an ED date and, yes, if we set the case we’re there to see to the MR, then they can participate in ERP and, if graduated, earn that early release.”

 

The Conference: Jennifer Kramer asked whether the pandemic response would allow commissioners to attend the APAI conference in June. Tate replied, it is looking better, so plan to attend. Wisconsin is doing well for vaccinations, but the conference is in Texas. He will follow the reccomendations of Department of Administration on how safe travel to Texas is. The conference was already paid for and they have Vouchers are leftover from last year, when it got cancelled. Doug said that the conference organizers have given assurances that they’ll be doing safe practices.

This is the conference website. It looks like a typical law-enforcement conference, full of bootlicking, bad criminology research, and new ways for parole commissioners to justify ruining people’s lives.

Release planning: Tate spoke about how the change to doing 3 month defers, rather than 6 month defers when release planning is insufficient has been working well. DCC is getting back faster on making release plans. Sometimes plans fall through and he has held back releases after grants. He said “it is turning out to be the real challenge to have places for people to go” and that “the commission will not release people to homelessness.” He directly addressed advocates on the call to focus on establishing housing options, because that will remove a real roadblock to release.

Doug asked about “PRI coming back early” which I think is jargon for if someone gets their release plan together before the 3 month defer is up. He asked if the commissioners should review those cases, or if Tate would rather. Tate said he wanted to empower commissioners to do the reviews, but to communicate, so that they wouldn’t overlap work or send inconsistent information to the parolee.

Incarcerated people should know that if they get a release plan together before their next hearing comes up, it might be good to write to Tate about it, but that could expedite review and release.

Advocates should know that finding a way to provide housing, or contributing to organizations that provide housing might really help get old law people out.

Hearings: Jennifer asked when tey would resume in-person hearings at prisons. She said it is currently set for June, but maybe earlier? Tate replied that it depends on how widely prisoners get vaccinated. Even if the commissioners are vaccinated, they can still spread covid between incarcerated people who are not. He said he would follow DAI lead.

Transparency: when prompted, Oliver said that he’s keeping up well with correspondence and support. He spoke with legal council about the office of victim services and programs (OVSP) giving victims copies of parole hearings. Legal services said they can’t give out copies, but can set up scheduled time when victims can listen to the recording.

Tate closed the meeting with saying that he wants to have more public access to the commission. He will not allow public comment at the meetings, but will allow people to ask specific questions via email or letter, which will be answered at the next meeting. So, people can send questions to parole commission email, and put something like “staff meeting question” in the subject line. He will make space for discussion on the next call.