Petition for a Second Chance for WIsconsin's Old Law Prisoners

We , the undersigned, demand that real parole be reinstated whether by new parole rules or by the order of the Parole commissioner. We are talking about the over 2500 Old Law Prisoners who have long been eligible for parole but are being held in prison by the Parole Commission’s use of contradictory and ever changing recommendations and its seemingly firm belief that people do not change and punishment is all that matters. These prisoners were sentenced under pre-2000 statutes and they are clear: they were eligible for parole after serving 25 percent of their sentence (13 ½ years for life sentences) and if they show themselves rehabilitated, they are to be released. A petition for rule change was submitted which has good suggestions for sweeping rule changes but mainly what is needed is a change of attitude. Please stop wasting our money and these precious lives and send back our fathers and brother and mothers and daughters- they are needed in their communities. The DOC should then put the saved money into needed programs, mental health treatment units and community alternatives to incarceration.
We can save 60 to 100,000 dollars per inmate per year by returning to the pre- prison- boom policies, when the intent of the statutes was honored. As these old law prisoners age, the cost of their health care, which we pay, skyrockets. There is no Medicare or Medicaid for prisoners. Ironically, Truth in Sentencing Prisoners(TIS), sentenced after 2000, are being released into their communities with drug addiction and anger problems untreated because health care for the elderly Old Law prisoners takes so much of the DOC funding. The Doc ‘s revenge only policy makes us less safe and makes no sense . And now too the prisons are overcrowded and conditions for all inside are unsafe. There is no treatment for the mentally ill and programming is cut. Much of this can be alleviated with a wise parole policy. Let us join the rest of the world and much of the nation as the revenge only model is widely dropped. Please let rehabilitated old law prisoners go home. It is in your hands.