Table of contents
WISCONSIN JUSTICE & REENTRY
DEFINITIONS REFERENCE
People mix up criminal justice words all the time. Prison and jail. Probation and extended supervision. Charge and conviction. Revocation and reconfinement. Sometimes the words are close enough for casual conversation. Sometimes using the wrong one completely changes what happened.
If I am going to spend an entire series talking about Wisconsin’s justice system, I need to keep the language straight. This is the reference page for that.
Direct Answer
In Wisconsin, jail is county confinement and prison is the state correctional system, which DOC runs through the Division of Adult Institutions.[1][2] Most felony prison sentences for offenses committed on or after December 31, 1999 fall under Truth in Sentencing, so the judge sets both parts of a bifurcated sentence at sentencing, with initial confinement served in prison and extended supervision served in the community after prison.[5][13] Extended supervision can look a lot like probation after prison, but ES is part of the prison sentence the judge already imposed, while probation is community supervision the court orders as a different disposition.[4][13] A charge is an accusation, and a conviction only comes after guilt is established by a guilty or no-contest plea or a finding of guilt at trial.[6] A hold means DOC has someone on supervision in custody while an alleged violation is investigated, and it doesn’t mean the allegation has been proved.[18] If revocation is contested, the agent can recommend it, but an administrative law judge with the Division of Hearings and Appeals decides the case.[8][14]
How to use this page
This is not a legal handbook. It is a way to keep the rest of the Wisconsin Justice & Reentry series readable without stopping every article to define the same terms again.
Some of these words have technical meanings set by statute, court order, or DOC policy. When the exact rule controls a case, go to the statute, the judgment of conviction, or the agency material. The definitions here are meant to get the reader oriented without pretending every case works exactly the same way.
Charge
A criminal charge is an accusation. It means the state is alleging that a person committed a crime. It does not mean the person was convicted of it.[6]
That difference gets blurred constantly, especially when someone is already on supervision. A new allegation can trigger a DOC hold, an investigation, or revocation proceedings before the criminal case is finished. Someone can be dealing with supervision consequences from a new charge while still legally presumed innocent in the new criminal case.
Conviction
A conviction is what comes after guilt is established, either through a guilty or no-contest plea or through a finding of guilt at trial. At trial, the state has to prove the criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt.[6]
Charged and convicted are not interchangeable words.
Jail
Jail is county confinement. County jails hold people who are waiting for their criminal cases to be resolved, people serving local jail sentences, people serving jail time as a condition of probation, and sometimes people being held for DOC or serving state time under a contract arrangement.[2][3]
That last part is why the building alone does not always tell you what kind of sentence someone is serving. A person can physically be in a county jail while still being in state custody.
Prison
Prison is the state correctional system. In Wisconsin, adult prisons are operated through the Department of Corrections’ Division of Adult Institutions, or DAI.[1]
If someone is sentenced to state prison, DOC controls the institutional placement. That is different from a county jail sentence, even though both involve incarceration.
Contract bed / county contract
DOC can house people in beds outside the regular DAI prison system through contract arrangements, including county jails. Wisconsin law allows state payments for certain people held in county jails, and DOC tracks contract beds separately in its population data.[2][3]
So “state prisoner” does not always mean “person currently sleeping in a state prison.”
Division of Adult Institutions (DAI)
DAI is the part of DOC that runs Wisconsin’s adult prisons.[1]
DOC is the larger agency. The Division of Community Corrections handles supervision in the community. DAI handles the institutions. If we are talking about prison placement, custody level, movement between institutions, or prison programming, DAI is usually the more precise part of DOC to name.
Parole
Parole belongs mostly to Wisconsin’s older sentencing system. Under that system, a person could become eligible for release from prison before the end of the sentence, with the Wisconsin Parole Commission making release decisions in eligible cases. Mandatory release rules also applied to many of those older sentences.[4][5]
Wisconsin later moved most newer felony cases to Truth in Sentencing. That system works differently.
Truth in Sentencing (TIS) / bifurcated sentence
Wisconsin’s Truth in Sentencing system applies to most felony prison sentences for offenses committed on or after December 31, 1999. Instead of giving someone an indeterminate prison sentence and later using parole to decide when the person gets out, the judge sets both parts of the sentence at sentencing.[5][13]
A Truth in Sentencing prison sentence is bifurcated, meaning it has two parts:
- Initial confinement: the part served in prison.
- Extended supervision: the part served in the community after prison.
If a judge gives someone a ten-year bifurcated sentence, that does not automatically mean ten years in prison. The judgment might say six years of initial confinement and four years of extended supervision. Both were imposed at sentencing. They are two parts of the same sentence.[13]
There are specific statutory programs and release mechanisms that can affect when someone leaves prison, but ordinary Truth in Sentencing cases do not use discretionary parole the way Wisconsin’s older sentencing structure did.[5]
Extended supervision (ES)
Extended supervision is the community portion of a Truth in Sentencing prison sentence. The person serves the initial-confinement portion first, leaves prison, and then serves the ES portion in the community under DOC supervision.[4][5][13]
The quickest way to explain ES to someone who has never dealt with the system is that it can look a lot like probation after prison. You have an agent. You have rules. You report. Violations can lead to sanctions or revocation.
Legally, it is not probation. ES is part of the prison sentence the judge already imposed. Probation is a different disposition with a different legal structure.
A person can also finish a prison sentence, including ES, and then start probation on another case if the judge ordered that probation consecutive to the prison sentence.[11][17]
Concurrent sentence / running concurrent
Concurrent means two sentences run at the same time.[12]
If someone receives two three-year sentences and the judge orders them concurrent, the person is not automatically serving six years. The sentences overlap.
With determinate prison sentences, Wisconsin law also addresses how the initial-confinement and extended-supervision portions line up when sentences run concurrently.[12]
Consecutive sentence / running consecutive
Consecutive means one sentence runs after another.[12]
If the judge orders one sentence consecutive to another, the time stacks instead of overlapping. With Truth in Sentencing prison sentences, the confinement portions and extended-supervision portions are sequenced under Wisconsin law.[12]
Probation has its own rule. A judge can order probation consecutive to a sentence on another charge, but one probation term cannot be ordered consecutive to another probation term.[11][17]
That is how someone can serve prison, then extended supervision, and then start probation. People will sometimes call that probation “consecutive to ES.” More precisely, the probation was ordered consecutive to the bifurcated prison sentence, and ES was the last part of that sentence.
Probation
Probation is community supervision ordered by the court. On the case where probation was ordered, the person is not serving a prison-confinement term. The judge can still order county jail time as a condition of probation, along with treatment, restitution, community service, or other conditions.[4]
A person can be put on probation without serving any incarceration at all. A judge can also order county jail time and then probation. What the judge is not doing on that probation case is sending the person to prison and calling the prison time probation.
There is one wrinkle that causes a lot of confusion: probation can be ordered consecutive to a separate prison sentence. In that situation, the person can serve initial confinement, serve extended supervision, finish that sentence, and then start probation on another case.[11][13][17]
Probation cannot run consecutive to probation.[17]
Sentence withheld
When sentence is withheld, the judge places the person on probation without first imposing the jail or prison sentence that would be served after a revocation.[4][11]
If probation is later revoked, the person goes back to court for sentencing. The judge still has to decide what sentence to impose.
Sentence imposed and stayed
When a sentence is imposed and stayed, the judge has already announced the jail or prison sentence but puts it on hold while the person serves probation.[4][11]
For example, a judge could impose five years in prison, stay that sentence, and place the person on probation for three years. The five-year sentence is not being served while the person is successfully on probation. If probation is revoked, that already-imposed sentence can be put into effect.
That is very different from a withheld sentence, where the person still has to return to court to be sentenced after revocation.
Probation / extended supervision hold
A hold is when DOC has someone on probation, parole, or extended supervision taken into custody while an alleged supervision violation is being investigated. The person may be sitting in a county jail, MSDF, or another detention setting even though there has not been a new conviction and supervision has not yet been revoked.[18]
At Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, DOC describes people on probation, parole, or extended supervision as being held pending investigation of alleged violations. The agent investigates what happened and decides what to recommend next.[18]
A hold can end a few different ways. The person may be released, receive a sanction, be offered an Alternative to Revocation, or move into the revocation process.[18] If revocation is pursued and the person remains detained, the revocation hearing is usually held where the person is being held.[8]
Being on a hold means DOC is responding to an allegation. It does not mean the allegation has been proved.
Alternative to Revocation (ATR)
ATR means Alternative to Revocation. DOC uses ATR when there has been a supervision violation but DOC agrees not to pursue revocation if the person completes specific requirements.[7]
Those requirements can include treatment, residential placement, a halfway house, temporary housing, outpatient programming, or another structured response. DOC describes ATR as an option an agent can use instead of starting the revocation process.[18]
An ATR is not the same thing as being found not to have violated supervision. It is an agreement to address the violation without revoking supervision, as long as the person completes what was required.[7]
Revocation
Revocation is the process that can end probation, parole, or extended supervision because of alleged rule violations or new criminal conduct.[7]
A supervision agent can recommend revocation. The agent is not the final decision-maker in a contested revocation case. If the person contests revocation, the case goes to the Wisconsin Division of Hearings and Appeals and an administrative law judge decides it.[8][14]
Agent recommendation
An agent recommendation is DOC’s recommendation about what should happen after an alleged supervision violation.
That can include a recommendation for revocation, but recommendation and decision are two different steps. If the person contests revocation, an administrative law judge makes the decision after the hearing.[8][14]
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ)
An Administrative Law Judge, or ALJ, is the hearing officer who decides a contested revocation case. The ALJ works through Wisconsin’s Division of Hearings and Appeals, not as the circuit-court judge from the person’s criminal case.[8]
DOC presents the alleged violations and its evidence. The person and their attorney can present evidence and question witnesses. The ALJ decides whether DOC proved the violation and whether revocation should follow.[14]
The supervision agent can recommend revocation. The ALJ decides the contested case.[8][14]
Revocation hearing
A revocation hearing is the administrative hearing where a person contests DOC’s attempt to revoke probation, parole, or extended supervision.[8][14]
DOC has to prove the alleged supervision violation by a preponderance of the evidence. The person can attend, deny the allegations, present evidence, question witnesses, have an attorney, and receive a written decision. The administrative law judge decides what happened, whether it violated supervision rules, and whether revocation should follow.[14]
For someone on extended supervision, if the person goes forward with the revocation hearing and the ALJ revokes ES, the ALJ also sets the reconfinement time in that same decision.[14][15]
There is no second reconfinement hearing after that.
Reconfinement hearing
Reconfinement is the amount of time a person on extended supervision is ordered to serve back in prison after ES is revoked. It cannot exceed the time remaining on the bifurcated sentence.[15]
A separate reconfinement hearing is the other route. The person waives the final revocation hearing, so revocation itself is no longer being contested at that hearing. The hearing is then about how much reconfinement time will be imposed.[16]
Put simply:
- Contest revocation, and the ALJ decides revocation and reconfinement in the revocation hearing.
- Waive the revocation hearing, and the person can proceed to the separate reconfinement-hearing process.[14][16]
You do not get both.
Older Wisconsin cases can be confusing on this because the procedure changed over time. For a period, circuit courts handled reconfinement after ES revocation. Wisconsin later moved that decision back into the administrative process. This reference is describing the current HA 2 procedure.[15][16]
Street time
Street time is the time a person spends in the community while on supervision.
The credit rules after revocation depend on the type of supervision, the sentence, and the law governing that case. I am keeping this definition short because street-time credit deserves its own explanation, and this series has a separate installment planned for it.
Programming waitlist
A programming waitlist is exactly what it sounds like. DOC identifies a program need, but the person does not immediately have a seat in that program at the institution where they are housed. Program availability varies by institution.[9]
A program existing somewhere in Wisconsin does not mean every person who needs it can get into it when they need it.
First-year cliff
“First-year cliff” is language I use in this series. It is not an official DOC term.
DOC tracks recidivism using different measures, including rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration, and it tracks when those events happen after release.[10]
When I use “first-year cliff,” I am talking about what happens during that first year after release. Any article using the term still needs to say which outcome it is measuring. Rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration are three different things.
Why this reference exists
The Wisconsin justice system already has enough moving parts. We do not need to make it harder by using prison when we mean jail, parole when we mean extended supervision, or conviction when we mean charge.
If we get the vocabulary wrong, we can spend an entire argument talking past each other.
Programs and reentry teams that run into these terms every week can review the Reentry & Justice track, or send a short message about facilitator-led identity curriculum beside what they already run. Readers who want the rest of the argument can stay with the Wisconsin Justice & Reentry series, and my own story through this system is in A Vision of Hope. For a briefing or workshop on these systems, see speaking.
References
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Division of Adult Institutions. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/AdultInstitutions.aspx
- Wisconsin Legislature. Wis. Stat. ch. 302, including §§ 302.30 and 302.33. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/302
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Persons in Our Care Data File. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/DataResearch/PIOCDF/PersonsInOurCareDataFile.aspx
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Community Corrections - General Information. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/CommunityCorrections/GeneralInformation.aspx
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Wisconsin Parole Commission - Truth in Sentencing. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/ParoleCommission.aspx
- Wisconsin Court System. Juror Glossary. https://www.wicourts.gov/services/juror/glossary.htm
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Community Corrections terminology / Revocation. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/COVID19%28Coronavirus%29/FAQS/COVID19FAQs.aspx
- Wisconsin Department of Administration, Division of Hearings and Appeals. Corrections Unit. https://doa.wi.gov/Pages/LicensesHearings/DHACorrections.aspx
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Office of Program Services / Primary Treatment Programs. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/AdultInstitutions/OfficeofProgramServices.aspx
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Recidivism. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/DataResearch/Recidivism.aspx
- Wisconsin Legislature. Wis. Stat. § 973.09: Probation (withheld sentence; imposed-and-stayed sentence). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/973/09
- Wisconsin Legislature. Wis. Stat. § 973.15: Sentence, terms, escapes (concurrent and consecutive sentences). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/973/15
- Wisconsin Legislature. Wis. Stat. § 973.01: Bifurcated sentence of imprisonment and extended supervision. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/973/01
- Wisconsin Administrative Code. § HA 2.05: Revocation hearing. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/ha/2/05
- Wisconsin Legislature. Wis. Stat. § 302.113(9): Revocation of extended supervision and reconfinement. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/302/113
- Wisconsin Administrative Code. § HA 2.06: Good time forfeiture, reconfinement and reincarceration hearings after waiver of final revocation hearing. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/ha/2/06
- Wisconsin Court of Appeals. State v. Glenn F. Schwebke, 2001 WI App 99, ¶¶ 27-30: probation may be consecutive to a sentence but not to another probation term. https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=16286
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility: supervision holds, investigations, sanctions, ATR, and revocation paths. https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/OffenderInformation/AdultInstitutions/MilwaukeeSecureDetentionFacility.aspx