A conservative website is suing the Wisconsin Parole Commission over access to names of 2022 parolees
Bruce VielmettiA conservative website has sued the Wisconsin Parole Commission for access to information about its most recent parolees.
Wisconsin Right Now, based in Hubertus, says the commission has not yet provided records requested in May about which inmates were paroled this year. The commission had previously disclosed records to the site about paroles granted in 2021, according to a news release from Wisconsin Institute of Law & Liberty, a conservative law firm representing WRN.
The outlet has been publishing stories about individual parolees, focused on their past crimes, under the heading, "Evers killers and rapists," implying that Gov. Tony Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is pictured in the logo, chose to release dangerous criminals.
The theme has been picked up and amplified in TV ads for Republican candidates running against Evers and Barnes, in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.
Evers appoints the chair of the Parole Commission, who makes the final determination about who gets paroled. Only inmates convicted prior to Wisconsin's truth in sentencing law, adopted in 1999, are eligible for parole.
Parole ignited as a campaign issue in the spring when the family of a woman slain by Douglas Balsewicz began a public campaign against his scheduled parole. He stabbed his estranged wife at her West Allis home more than 40 times in 1997 in the presence of the couple's two young children.
Republicans then vying for their party's nomination in the race to challenge Evers sought to blame the governor for Balsewicz's possible release, which was ultimately withdrawn.
The pressure led Evers to seek the resignation of commission chair John Tate II, whom Evers had appointed in 2019.
In the lawsuit, filed in Washington County Circuit Court, WILL asserts, "WPC has willfully and purposefully delayed fully responding to Wisconsin Right Now, LLC’s request for records.
"Therefore, WPC has violated the Open Records Law and Wis. Stat. § 19.35(4) by failing to fully fulfill or deny the record request 'as soon as practicable and without delay.'”
The suit seeks an order that WPC immediately supply the requested records, pay WILL's attorney fees and pay punitive damages if a judge agrees with WILL that the commission's delay was arbitrary and capricious.
Britt Cudaback, a spokeswoman for the governor, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The commission has also come under fire in recent days from Sen. Van Wanggaard, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s public safety committee, who accused the commission of ignoring requests for records related to parole, pardons and revocation.
Wanggaard joined committee members in filing a request under the state’s transparency law for records related to people who had been pardoned or released from prison before the conclusion of their sentence, a list of parolees dating back to 2014, all records related to Balsewicz, and a history of DOC policy changes on revocation.
Wanggaard sent a letter to Department of Corrections Secretary Kevin Carr last week accusing the commission of stonewalling requests from him and other committee members, as well as requests for similar data from nonpartisan legislative service agencies.
“I will be blunt. It appears that the Department and/or the Commission is stonewalling and undermining the Legislature’s duty to oversee the DOC and Commission,” Wanggaard wrote, citing a law that requires state agencies to provide committees with “ready access” to records.
On Monday, DOC officials said they would respond to the request by Friday, according to Wanggaard.
There are more than 20,000 people incarcerated in Wisconsin prisons. Fewer than 10% are serving pre-truth in sentencing terms, according to Wisconsin Department of Corrections data.
For the most part, those remaining parole-eligible inmates were convicted of serious-enough offenses to earn at least 20-year sentences. By law, all pre-1999 inmates can seek parole after serving 25% of their prison term, and most must be released after serving two-thirds of their sentences.
More:What to know about parole, truth in sentencing and when people can get out of prison in Wisconsin
Most come before the commission repeatedly before winning parole, which means serving the rest of their sentence under supervision in the community.
To earn parole, inmates generally must have shown good conduct, used prison programming, presented a reduced risk of reoffending, developed a plan for how they would live and work upon release, and have served an adequate amount of incarceration.
Different rules apply to those serving life sentences issued before 1999.
Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.