10-21-16 Wisconsin:JUNEAU – Chapter 980 sex offenders Jonathan Miller and Robert Larson have filed separate motions arguing that a state statute governing their treatment and release is unconstitutional.
The Chapter 980 program was created in 1994 and allows the state to civilly commit offenders who are deemed to be sexually violent after they have served their prison sentences. The program was created as a way to continue to protect the public from violent sex offenders and provide treatment to offenders.
Miller and Larson have been waiting to be placed on supervised release from the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center since May 2015.
They were initially set to be placed in a home near Brownsville, but were required to return to Sand Ridge after Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt learned that the home where the offenders were going to be placed was adjacent to a home where two young children lived.
The placement did not violate state statutes at the time, but raised enough concerns that State Rep. Mark Born of Beaver Dam authored a bill changing the law and imposing a 1,500 foot residency restriction which went into effect March 1, 2016.
Since that time, two separate housing placements for Miller and Larson have been sought by the Department of Health Services, but both times the houses were removed from the market prior to purchase.
