Common Council Pres. to DOC: "STOP placing sex offenders in City of Milwaukee"
Common Council President: “STOP placing sex offenders in the city of Milwaukee”
Common Council President: "STOP placing sex offenders in the city of Milwaukee"
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Milwaukee Common Council President Michael Murphy has requested that the Department of Corrections no longer place sex offenders within the city of Milwaukee -- after learning that 89% of Milwaukee County's sex offenders were living in the city of Milwaukee as of February 2014. Murphy has asked the DOC to discontinue placement of sex offenders in Milwaukee "until a fair and equitable resolution for the placement of sex offenders statewide can be found."
"It's very unfair based on what's occurring right now. Why should the city be the only location for Milwaukee County sexual offenders?" Murphy said.
Murphy filed an open records request with the Department of Corrections in February to find out if his suspicions were true -- that Milwaukee has become what he calls the "proverbial dumping ground for sexual offenders."
He got a response in April, and considers what he uncovered a confirmation.
"89, nearly 90 percent of the offenders in Milwaukee County area, are being placed in the city of Milwaukee, mainly in response to the ordinances that are being passed throughout the area, which restricts the placement of offenders," Murphy said.
Wisconsin law states that offenders must be placed in the county where he or she last lived.
In a letter to the DOC secretary, Murphy says only five Milwaukee County municipalities have not passed restrictions on where sex offenders can live: Hales Corners, Milwaukee, River Hills, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay.
"The policies that are being passed, ordinances in these communities are forcing the concentration on the city," Murphy said.
Murphy says he wants the state to stop the placement of sex offenders in Milwaukee until a more equitable resolution can be found.
He says he supports statewide residency restrictions that he believes would level the playing field.
Similar bills have failed in 2005 and 2007.
Murphy on Tuesday, May 27th issued a statement on what he calls the "over-saturation of sex offenders in Milwaukee" that reads as follows:
"According to information provided by the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections under a recent open records request, of the 2,399 state registered sex offenders living in Milwaukee County as of February 20, 2014, 2,138 (or 89%) were residing in the City of Milwaukee.
This information is so troubling that I sent a letter to the head of the DOC, asking that the department discontinue placement of sex offenders within the City of Milwaukee until a fair and equitable resolution for the placement of sex offenders statewide can be found.
The response I received from Grace Roberts, director of Sex Offender Programs in the DOC’s Division of Community Corrections, was woefully inadequate.
Ms. Roberts essentially told me, 'Yeah, we’re aware the current situation is causing over-saturation of Milwaukee County sex offender placements in your city, but we’re not going to help fix the problem – go take it up with your elected state officials.'
I very much appreciate Ms. Roberts’ 'Civics 101' recommendation to talk to my elected representatives, but my response to her is threefold:
I am calling on Governor Walker to immediately issue an executive order to cease the placement of additional offenders until such time a fair statewide system is created.
In my view, the Governor could show good faith and concern for Milwaukee residents if he champions this issue and includes it in his special session on Voter ID legislation.
It is clear to me that inaction by the State of Wisconsin and the DOC specifically, indicates that it does not fully appreciate the negative impacts on the health, safety and welfare of Milwaukee residents that could result from the continued concentration of sex offenders residing in the City of Milwaukee.
The consequences of the state turning a blind eye to the over-saturation of sexual offenders will be the passage of a city ordinance restricting placement.
That is why the Department of Corrections should provide leadership on this issue, and if not them, then I call upon the Governor to show some leadership with an executive order.
I will be waiting for a response from our Governor."