Sentences For Sex Offenders Double
Judges send a message with truth in sentencing
By Lauria Lynch-German of the Journal Sentinel staff
Originally published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 2, 2002.
The typical prison sentence for sex offenders has doubled since 1998, a trend state officials say will make community upheavals over the mandatory release of pedophiles and other sex criminals less common.
According to state statistics, the average sentence for a single-count felony sex crime—rape and child molestation included—was more than nine years in 2000, the first year in which the state's "truth-in-sentencing law" went into effect. In 1998, it was about 4½ years.
"The judges are giving longer sentences in these cases," said Bill Clausius, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
Because sentences stick under truth in sentencing, judges have been emboldened to hand down even longer prison terms, Clausius said.
"The bar has been raised, and if a judge sees someone whose crimes are particularly heinous, they can send a message," he said.
In the past three months, Washington County prosecutors have gotten sentences totaling 55 years in prison for three child molesters, with no parole eligibility and no time off for good behavior.
"There's no more fuzzy math," Washington County Assistant District Attorney Holly Bunch said. "When the judge says 25 years, it's 25 years. You're going to prison for every day of that."
Before truth in sentencing, someone given a 20-year prison sentence would be eligible for parole after five years. Even if they misbehaved in prison and weren't given parole early on, they would still be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence.
That was the case recently with Danny Heller, 51, who was granted a supervised release in Hartford after serving 13 years of a 20-year sentence. His relocation to an apartment close to the city's library sparked community outrage last December.
But that probably won't hold true for Karl Meyer, Ellis Fields or Kelly Woodall.
Meyer, 41, will spend the next 25 years in prison after being convicted in December of sexual assaulting a young girl in Washington County. It was his second conviction. He will be 66 when he is released in 2027. That will be followed by 25 years of supervision.
Ellis Fields, 43, was sent to prison for 20 years in November after he got a 15-year-old West Bend girl drunk in an area hotel and had sex with her. After his release, he will spend 20 years on extended supervision.
Kelly Woodall, 34, will be 44 when he is released after serving his sentence for child molestation in Washington County, under a sentence handed down in February. He will be 69 by the time he is released from extended supervision. He also faces a trial in Waukesha County on charges he sexually assaulted another child.
When a sex offender is scheduled for release, law enforcement can start a public notification process—such as the kind that alerted Hartford residents to Heller's arrival—that can include door-to-door canvasses and notices to schools and day care centers.
"The community gets in an uproar, and people want to know if he's going to be a threat," Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens said. "The new sentences we are getting are designed and fashioned to maximize the ability to ensure the public from someone."
The state can also file a petition seeking to have an offender branded a sexual predator, which can keep an offender in prison for life. But those petitions are difficult to obtain, authorities say.
But both will become less common, authorities said.
"Our goal is to sentence serious offenders appropriately the first time so that the need to contemplate a future sexual predator petition is rendered effectively moot," Bunch said.
If a defendant makes one mistake while on extended supervision, it's back to prison for the rest of the sentence.
Truth in sentencing comes at a cost. The state probably will pay an extra $40.9 million over the next eight years to house a group of inmates sentenced under Wisconsin's truth-in-sentencing law because their sentences have gotten substantially longer, according to an Associated Press analysis of Department of Corrections statistics.
Public wants punishment
But the tougher sentences indicate a shift in what society demands of its judicial system. Fifteen years ago, first-time child molesters usually got time in the county jail.
"Every case is unique, but certainly in cases involving intercourse, taking advantage of a position of power or authority, being the caretaker of the child, if you're found guilty, you're going on a rocket ride," Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher said.
"If the molester is someone who is a day care provider, a family member and has any kind of prior record, you are looking at a 10-, 15-, 20-year term."
Ozaukee County District Attorney Sandy Williams agreed that voters have sent a message about sex crimes.
"We are seeing people get prison for touching," Williams said. "Abuse is abuse. There are degrees, of course. But the more people get educated on these types of cases, the more people are saying they won't tolerate this type of behavior."
And sending away a molester for a long time offers something tangible to the victim, Williams said.
"You're going to have more support for the victims because when victims see these sentences, they know, really know, that their abuser can be put away," Williams said, adding that it helps restore a sense of power to victims.
