Ch. 51 Commitments

Listen to this article

WI Supreme Court

Case Name: Winnebago County v. Christopher S.

Case No.: 2014AP1048

Practice Area: Ch. 51 Commitments

Appellant argues that Ch. 51 violate substantive due process and is unconstitutional, to no avail.

“This distinction is important because “a valid criminal conviction and a prison sentence extinguish a defendant’s right to freedom from confinement.” Vitek, 445 U.S. at 493 (citing Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, 442 U.S. 1, 7 (1980) (“But the conviction, with all its procedural safeguards, has extinguished that liberty right: ‘[G]iven a valid conviction, the criminal defendant has been constitutionally deprived of his liberty.'” (quoting Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 224 (1976) (“But given a valid conviction, the criminal defendant has been constitutionally deprived of his liberty to the extent that the State may confine him and subject him to the rules of its prison system . . . .”)))); see also Johnson v. California, 543 U.S. 499, 510 (2005) (“This is because certain privileges and rights must necessarily be limited in the prison context.”); In re Commitment of West, 2011 WI 83, ¶85, 336 Wis. 2d 578, 800 N.W.2d 929 (holding that a liberty interest in freedom from confinement is not absolute). “Such a conviction and sentence sufficiently extinguish a defendant’s liberty ‘to empower the State to confine him in any of its prisons.'”21 Vitek, 445 U.S. at 493 (quoting Meachum, 427 U.S. at 224). To be clear, we are not suggesting that an inmate loses all, or even most, of his or her constitutional rights while he or she is serving his or her sentence. Rather, a prison inmate “retains those [constitutional] rights that are not inconsistent with his status as a prisoner or with the legitimate penological objectives of the corrections system.” Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 95 (1987) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 822 (1974)).”

Affirmed

ABRAHAMSON, A.W.BRADLEY, J.J., concur and dissent. (Opinion Filed)

R.G. BRADLEY, did not participate.

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.