Update on the Old Law Freedom Campaign by Ben Turk

Update on the Old Law Freedom Campaign

written in 2020, soon to be updated

by Ben Turk

Since Governor Evers appointed John Tate II to replace Daniel Gabler as chair of the parole commission, many people sentenced under the old law and their families and loved ones have been cautiously excited. The election of Evers and appointment of Tate, a former social worker and Black alderperson from Racine held a promise of long awaited release.

Under Daniel Gabler—who is currently a Milwaukee county Judge seeking re-election on April 7—parole releases had diminished to almost nothing. Unfortunately, John Tate II has thus far been unable to restore the parole commission to its original purpose: releasing people from prison who were ready to return to society. By attending monthly parole commission meetings, corresponding with incarcerated people, and networking with other advocates, Forum for Understanding Prisons (FFUP) is working to help everyone understand why.

Clear the parole backlog! by George Cooper

George Cooper sent us a suggestion for clearing the Parole Commission's backlog of deferrals. We forwarded his suggestion to Chairman Tate with a brief introductory letter. George gave us permission to share the letter.

If you like George's ideas, drop him a line sometime!

George E. Cooper #148394
P.O. Box 938 (OCI)
Oregon, WI 53575




Dear Chairman Tate,

After sending notes from recent parole commission meetings to people incarcerated under the old law, I received the following suggestion from a man named George Cooper.

Previous parole chairs used to send out Pre-Parole Investigations and Parole Grants in the mail. You have a list of names of those who are actually ready now to go home today but due to back log and things done by commissioner LaCost, they are just sitting holding up space and adding to the back log.

Parole Commission Meeting Notes, March 2021

Parole Commissioner Doug Drankiewicz on the zoom call.

Parole Commission Chair John Tate II started this month's zoom meeting with great concern that members of the public may be able to unmute themselves and interrupt the meeting. Apparently something was different with the settings from previous meetings. 

After working that out, Tate asked that everyone on the call identify themselves, particularly members of the public who didn't have names up on the zoom because they were just calling in, or had chosen not to insert their names. I don't know why this was important. If I remember correctly back when the monthly meetings happened in person, Tate only did this roll call thing the one time we turned out so many people they had to move the meeting to a larger room.

Anyway, there were about ten people on the call who were not PC staff, which is more than last month, and I suspect this influenced the way things went at the meeting.

John Tate Defers Extraordinary Release Responsibilty to DOC

Write to Terry:

Terry Jackson
121898
Stanley Correctional Institution
100 Corrections Drive
Stanley, WI 54768-6500


April 17,2020 / Fri / 3:47 pm

JOHN TATE FAILED TO MAKE A DECISION IN EXECUTIVE 31 PETITION AND DUCKED HIS DESIGNATED RESPONSIBILITY AND PASSED THE DESIGNATED RESPONSIBILITY TO KAREN HAN WHO IS NO LONGER FUNCTIONING AS A PAROLE COMMISSIONER AT THE RISK OF LIFE AND DEATH WITH CORONA VIRUS SPREADING IN THE STATE OF WISCONDIN AND PRISONS IN WISCONSIN


Mr. Jackson filed a EXECUTIVE 31 PETITION July 23, 2019 and sent it to  Warden Reed Richarson office for determination whether Jackson was statutorily eligible and once Mr. Richardson determined that Jackson was statutorily eligible, Mr. Richardson secretary forwarded this petition to Mr. John Tate II (Chairperson) in October 2019 as confirmed by the Warden secretary to Mr. Jackson family that she told this to over the phone. From that confirmation the petition had been in Mr.Tate II possession at least seven months.

On April 16, 2020  Mr. Jackson finally received a response to his petition  from Karen Han that was dated April 8, 2020 and not the Chairperson. Mr. Tate II is the Chairperson and the only person that has been designated by rule to make decision in Executive  31 petitions.

The petition was stamped received July 30, 2019 which is inconceivable because the petition was not sent by the Warden Secretary to Mr. Tate II  until October 2019 (two months after Mr. Jackson sent the petition to the Warden.) Mr. Jacob Walters (parole commissioner)

Doug Drankiewicz Continues Unfair Deferrals

On February 14, nine days after the Parole Commission meeting where Chairman Tate laid out expectation that commissioners would be pursuing releases rather than making excuses for deferrals, Commissioner Doug Drankiewicz did Ronnie Schultz an injustice in keeping with his old ways.

We wrote a letter to Tate, requesting that we reverse Drankiewicz's decision and grant Ronnie a release. This is not the only example we've received of DOC officials and commissioners continuing to obstruct release of people sentenced under the old law.

The Program Review Committee (PRC) and the Bureau of Classification and Movement (BOCM) are the main parts of the DOC that are causing these snags, and we hope Chairman Tate will grant release for Ronnie and others like him, regardless of whether BOCM and PRC have cooperated with his expectations or not. 

Ronnie Schultz

Ronnie asked us to share his story, if you know someone serving time under the old law who would also like their story told, please send it to us. We can leave off their name or identifying details if they're worried about retaliation by DOC or Parole Commissioners.

If you'd like to write support letters to Ronnie Schultz, his address is: 

Ronnie Schultz
293187
Oshkosh Correctional Institution
PO Box 3310
Oshkosh, WI 54903-3310

Hello Chairperson Tate,

I recently received a letter from a prisoner named Ronnie Schultz. Ronnie was deferred without fair reason by Doug Drankiewicz on February 14. Drankiewicz had incorrect information about old conduct reports, where Mr. Schultz mother lives, and wouldn't accept programming Mr Schultz had completed. I've included Mr Schultz's letter below so you can see the details and a little more about him.

A Head-full of Historical Information: notes on the parole commission, by Harlan Richards

 

The following is a response from Harlan Richards. You can write him and help advocate for his release here: Harlan Richards
37975
Stanley Correctional Institution
100 Corrections Drive
Stanley, WI 54768-6500
This letter is in response to, and contains corrections for Ben's notes from January 8. We appreciate these insights and strive for accuracy, but expect we'll continue to make small mistakes, given the complexity and opacity of the system we're trying to take apart.

1. Regarding release of paroled prisoners: there is no legal requirement that the record office conduct any sort of review of a person granted a parole. That is a DOC-created process where they search the file looking for an excuse to not release someone. They can do it in a timely manner if they want. A couple of months ago a guy in my housing unit had his conviction vacated by the court and the record office managed to process his paperwork in just a few days.

2. There is no requirement that DCC staff provide rides for paroled prisoners. Most prisoners have historically been picked up by friends or family (or if released from a prison far from home, take a bus) and are merely given a time and date to be at their parole agent's office.