LaCost hangs on, prolonging harm. Notes from the March 4 parole commission meeting.

LaCost hangs on, prolonging harm. Notes from the March 4 parole commission meeting.

These notes are written by FFUP volunteer Ben Turk, based on his memories and interpretations of events and statements at the monthly Parole Commission meetings.

Half a dozen supporters attended the March parole commission (PC) meeting. On the PC’s side Commission Chair John Tate II was joined by Commissioners Doug Drankiewicz, Jennifer Kramer and Records Associates (ORA) Oliver Buchino and Katelyn Hendricks. ORA Sara Tome did not attend because she was at a training.

After the meeting, I contacted the parole commission via email with some more questions and got some clarifications.

On Correspondence

Sounds like they’re keeping up on mail from outside and are making progress on mail from incarcerated people. The ORAs are responding to mail, but Tate is reviewing the responses and giving guidance. Mail from incarcerated people often discusses issues beyond the scope of the commission. The ORAs spoke about getting aggressive mail from frustrated people. Tate said to empathize with their frustration and respond clearly as possible with the PC’s scope and his intentions.

Tate has also requested people stop contacting him about parole through unofficial channels. He wants to be fair and make sure everyone has the same chance, and the best way to make that happen is for everyone to follow the same process. Its my opinion that the official process has always been really unfair, but it’s also clear that bothering Tate at his Racine office or home phone or address will hurt more than help. Violating the boundaries of the guy who decides whether or not you should be released is maybe the worst thing you can do.

On New Hire

A few days before the meeting, I wrote up an update on the PC and discovered that Jennifer Kramer was listed as the new commissioner, not Jackie Height, as expected. At the meeting I was confused about how this happened, but in response to my email the PC clarified that Jennifer Kramer was also one of Tate's four top choices, all of whom he spoke highly of at the February meeting.

Kramer worked as a probation and parole agent for 21 years, in Milwaukee, Dodge and Fond Du Lac counties. Then, for 3 years she was a social worker at Redgranite CI. She’s in training, shadowing or being shadowed by other commissioners, working on her security clearance and setting up a home office to work out of. She will start doing hearings on her own at the end of March. 
 

Tate also talked about how he’s hoping the next hiring process for LaCost’s replacement will be faster. It took nearly 5 months to hire Kramer because he had to work with HR to re-write the job description and create a new hiring process from scratch. The DOC played a role in the initial filtering because it wouldn’t be proper for just Tate to do the entire hiring review himself. He didn’t want one of the other commissioners to do it, with how busy they are. The next hiring process should go faster, because the job description and much of the work is already done. 
 
The bad news is, that hiring process is not yet able to start, because, even though she wasn’t at the meeting, and is no longer doing hearings, Danielle LaCost has not resigned from the PC. She is just on medical leave. She is still on the payroll, which means Tate cannot hire a replacement for her, because state law limits the number of commissioners. She’s repeatedly stated an intention to resign, and everyone expects her to resign after using the medical leave. Tate also mentioned that Kramer could use LaCost’s home office equipment, if she ever returned it.

My fear is that LaCost might come back instead of resigning. If her intention is to maintain hopelessness for hundreds of people experiencing unjust imprisonment and sabotage the Parole Commission as long as possible, that's what she'll do. Sometimes I think Danielle LaCost has made keeping old law people in prison her main mission in life, so there is nothing she could do toward that end that would surprise me.

Tate is working with HR to see if he can’t do a “pool coding” which means that two people can hold one position. This way, someone could start before LaCost finally officially resigns. He’s also hoping to get funding through a budget amendment to expand the PC’s capacity. Until then, the PC will have to function at three quarters staff, and people will continue to have delayed and hastily conducted hearings. 

On Hearings

Drankiewicz said he is overwhelmed by the number of hearings he’s got, but feels confident that once they hire a replacement for LaCost, and continue to increase release rates, the work will become manageable. Tate is covering some of LaCost’s institution load, including Oak Hill. He left from the meeting to do four hearings at Oak Hill.

Tate told me the standards and expectations he outlined at the February 5 hearing are still “in process”. That draft memo has not been finalized or distributed. Tate is meeting with Ms Hansen at the Bureau of Classification and Management to do so. He told me he expects it to be disseminated in early May, and intends that it be sent to people serving time under the old law, so that they know what to expect from the DOC and PC at hearings.

During the meeting, Commissioner Kramer and Chairman Tate talked about the lack of furniture in the PC’s office. Apparently, after the two moves the DOC made them do, a lot of furniture was taken by the DOC. Commissioner Kramer does not have a rolling office chair, for example. She said she’s been using a “waiting room type chair”. Then Commissioner Drankiewicz mentioned that he saw Chairman Tate’s office chair (it apparently had a sticker marking it) in the new Division of Internal Affairs office. Tate smiled and said “well, now I know how to go get that back.” 
 
So, in addition to all the complex bureaucracy and poaching of office staff, described in my recent update, the DOC has maybe also been undermining the parole commission by taking away their office furniture. These people are petty.

Legislature Issues

There are three issues between the PC and the legislature. First, Tate’s confirmation. Second, the PC’s scope statement. Third, the new “Council of Eligibility” law that just passed and was signed in by Governor Evers.

On confirmation: PC Chair Tate was not confirmed during the recent legislative “floorperiod”. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald prevented the vote from being scheduled, despite repeated efforts rallying the public to request it. There will be another legislative session at the end of March. If a confirmation vote doesn’t happen then, we will have to wait until the fall for another chance at it. Confirmation is usually a formality that gets handled in the first months of a new administration, and until this year, the senate had not struck down a confirmation for over 30 years. Majority Leader Fitzgerald is going to extraordinarily partisan lengths to delay Tate’s confirmation.

On the scope statement: the legislature needs to update the PC’s scope statement, which will include the criteria they use. The PC will schedule a public hearing on this at some point- probably when they get more caught up. There we can express support for more humane criteria and increased releases. 

On the “Council on Offender Employment”. This comes from Assembly Bill 30 which was introduced by Senator Darling and others, passed unanimously, and signed into law by Governor Evers on March 3. It creates a Council formed by Attorney General Josh Kaul, PC Chair John Tate, and the state public defender. Each of them can either join the council themselves or send a designee. Tate said this new responsibility might support his request to expand the PC beyond 4 members.
 
I do not like the idea of a Council on Offender Employment. In addition to containing a dehumanizing slur in its very name, I think such a council can do more harm than good. This council issues certificates to some people coming out of prison. These certificates are supposed to protect against “collateral sanctions” which “means a penalty, ineligibility, disability, or disadvantage that is related to employment or to occupational licensing or certification and that is a result of the offender's criminal record.” 
 
By inventing this certificate, the legislature appears to be creating a benefit for people coming out of prison, which is most of why it passed unanimously. The trouble is, that by creating the certificate for some, it also automatically creates a punishment for others. Even Commissioner Drankiewicz seemed to understand this. When Tate described the certificate as granting “employment eligibility”, Doug scoffed and asked “was there something making people ineligible for employment?” Tate said “Not that I know of, but the government doesn’t always do things that make sense.”

Fundamentally, prison is a system of categorizing people as ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ of basic humanity. Someone coming out of prison carries stigma associated with this classification. This certificate does not combat that stigma, but instead adds a further gradation to it. Those who do not get the certificate will be seen as deserving of collateral sanctions. It creates a default employment ineligibility where one did not previously exist. The council's unintended effect will be to expand the system’s ability to doom those who it rejects as undeserving, ineligible, and not quite human.

The Class Action Lawsuit

Tate mentioned that he has granted release to one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU class action lawsuit on behalf of people who received life or very long sentences while under the age of 18. This lawsuit is on hold currently. After the US Supreme Court ruled against mandatory life sentences for juveniles in Miller V Alabama many lawsuits similar to Wisconsin ACLU's class action started across the country. One of the others made it to the supreme court docket. So the outcome of that case will determine precedent and effect the Wisconsin case, which is why Wisconsin's is on hold. 

Executive Order 31

After the meeting, I asked Tate about executive order 31, a directive from the governor’s office back in 2013 that allows the Chair of the PC to release people under “extraordinary circumstances”. According to the order, Wardens are supposed to determine whether someone is eligible for parole, then the PC Chair determines whether or not to release. This rule was never properly promulgated, and there is not an official process to apply. Many have tried and not gotten past the Warden stage, even though they are clearly eligible.

Chairman Tate said that he has received one application, which the Warden did allow through, but he is not going to take action on it because it’s a gray area and he’s going to defer to legal council. Unfortunately, this means executive order 31 is not a viable option for release at this time, but might be in the future.

Tips for people with upcoming parole hearings:

1. Well before your hearing have family send support letters and documents, especially relating to your housing, employment opportunities, etc upon release to the PC. DO NOT have them attempt to contact Chairman Tate through other channels. PC is keeping up with letters from outside better than inside, but won’t accept forwarded letters. So have family write the letter in their own words.
   
2. Keep your head down prior to a hearing. Some DOC staff like to target prospective parolees with frivolous conduct reports and harassment. If this happens, remain calm, write down what happened, appeal the conduct report, tell your outside support so they can tell the PC about it and get it into your file ASAP. Tate has said he will not allow these kinds of frivolous CRs impact his decisions. Whatever happens at the hearing, try to be patient and document it. The PC is still understaffed, backlogged and unstable.
   
3. If you want to make your story public, send it to me with clear instructions on whether I should publish it openly or anonymously. There is a risk of being targeted or getting worse outcomes if individuals publicly criticize the PC, but there's a collective benefit if we can expose the system's flaws. You need to balance those things, make a decision and let us know how to proceed.
   
4. Celebrate progress! If you get a release, let us know if (and how) you’d like to publish that. It boosts morale and might encourage progress.
   
5. Encourage supporters to attend upcoming PC meetings. They're the 1st Wed of every month, 10AM, at the DOC office 3099 E Washington, Madison. Attending bolsters support for reform and deters bad commissioners from making long defers. There might also be a chance to meet and speak to Tate directly, but everyone should expect he will not discuss specific cases in that or any other unofficial context.