Table of contents
WISCONSIN JUSTICE & REENTRY
PART 9
Street time is the time you spend in the community while you are on supervision. You report to your agent, follow the rules, work if you can find work, and the months add up.
Most people assume those months count toward the sentence. Why wouldn’t they? On extended supervision in Wisconsin, they only count as long as you are never revoked. Once extended supervision is revoked, the prison time you can be sent back for is figured as if the street time never happened.[2][7]
I think a lot of people on ES don’t find out how this works until they are already sitting in county jail on a hold.
The definitions page gave street time two sentences and said it needed its own explanation. This is that explanation. Part 1 laid out the whole system. This part stays with one thing, the bifurcated sentence, and what a revocation does to it.
Direct Answer
Wisconsin’s Truth in Sentencing law applies to felonies committed on or after December 31, 1999. The judge imposes a bifurcated sentence, meaning a term of initial confinement in prison followed by a term of extended supervision (ES) in the community. These sentences have no parole and no good time.[1][3][5]
If ES is revoked, the person can be returned to prison for any period up to the time remaining on the bifurcated sentence. The statute defines that as the total sentence, minus the confinement served before release, minus confinement served on earlier revocations. Time spent on ES in the community is not subtracted. That is what people mean when they say you lose your street time.[2][7]
Custody is still a separate question. Days spent in jail on a supervision hold connected to the violation are credited under Wis. Stat. § 973.155. Days spent at home on supervision are not custody, and they do not earn credit.[9][10][11]
What Truth in Sentencing changed
Wisconsin enacted Truth in Sentencing in 1997 Wisconsin Act 283. It was signed in June 1998 and applies to felonies committed on or after December 31, 1999.[3][4]
Before that, a Wisconsin prison sentence was indeterminate. A person generally became eligible for parole after serving 25% of the sentence, or six months if that was longer, and reached mandatory release at two-thirds. The Parole Commission decided whether someone got out in between.[3]
Truth in Sentencing took that decision away.
The judge now sets both parts of the sentence at sentencing. Initial confinement has to be at least one year, and extended supervision has to be at least 25% of the confinement term. Each felony class has its own cap on each part.[1]
The statute also says a person serving a bifurcated sentence does not earn good time, is not eligible for parole, and cannot be discharged by DOC until the entire sentence is served.[1][5]
So most people now leave prison onto extended supervision. In 2023-24, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau counted 5,786 releases to ES, which was 88.4% of releases once holds, alternatives to revocation, court-ordered releases, and deaths are set aside. In 1997-98, 75% of male releases and 81% of female releases were to discretionary parole.[17]
Parole still exists for older cases. As of July 1, 2024, the Fiscal Bureau reported 1,647 people with indeterminate sentences who were eligible for parole.[3]
Probation, extended supervision, and parole are three different things
People use these words like they mean the same thing. They don’t, and I think mixing them up is where most of the confusion about street time starts.
Probation is a court order to be supervised in the community. It can include jail time as a condition, but the person is not serving a prison term out on the street. If the judge withheld sentence and probation is revoked, you go back to court to be sentenced. If the judge imposed a prison sentence and stayed it, revocation means you serve that stayed sentence without going back to court.[6] Time on probation at home is not custody, so it does not earn credit against a prison term that later takes effect.[10] Probation is also the only kind of supervision DOC can discharge early, and one requirement is serving at least 50% of the term.[6]
Extended supervision is the community part of a Truth in Sentencing prison sentence. The judge set its length at sentencing. You are serving the same sentence you served in prison, just outside the fence.[1][6]
Parole belongs to the old system. It applies to felonies committed before December 31, 1999. Under parole, the Parole Commission decides whether a person is released somewhere between the parole eligibility date and mandatory release.[3][5][6]
Losing street time did not start with Truth in Sentencing.
Under the old parole law, a revoked parolee could be sent back for the remainder of the sentence, which the statute defines as the entire sentence less time served in custody before parole. In 1997, the Court of Appeals held in State ex rel. Ludtke v. DOC that time on parole is not custody for sentence credit.[8] The ES revocation statute follows the same idea.[2]
How the revocation math works
The rule is in Wis. Stat. § 302.113. If ES is revoked, the reviewing authority orders the person back to prison for a specific period. That period cannot exceed the time remaining on the bifurcated sentence. The statute defines time remaining this way: the total length of the sentence, less the confinement served before release to ES, less confinement served for earlier revocations.[2]
Street time is missing from that formula. That means even the ES time you completed without a problem does not come off.
After the reconfinement period is served, the person goes back out on ES. The remaining ES is figured the same way, total sentence minus all confinement served so far.[2] DOC’s own rule for ES violators recalculates the maximum discharge date by adding the remainder of the sentence to the date the person was taken into custody after the violation, then subtracting credit.[7]
What does that look like with numbers? Here is a made-up example. It is not a real case, and it leaves out hold credit and prison rule extensions so the math is easy to follow.[2][7]
A judge imposes a 10-year bifurcated sentence of 5 years initial confinement and 5 years extended supervision. The person serves the 5 years and goes out on ES. Four years later, with one year of ES left, the agent seeks revocation.[2]
| Step | What happens | Time left on the sentence afterward |
|---|---|---|
| Sentence | 5 years confinement + 5 years ES = 10 years total | 10 years |
| Confinement served | 5 years in prison | 5 years (all ES) |
| On ES | 4 years in the community | Still 5 years for revocation purposes[2] |
| First revocation | Reconfinement ordered: 18 months | 3.5 years of ES after release |
| Back on ES | 3 years in the community | Still 3.5 years for revocation purposes |
| Second revocation | Reconfinement ordered: 18 months | 2 years of ES after release |
At the first revocation, the cap was 5 years, even though only 1 year of ES was left on the calendar. After the second, the person has been under this sentence for 15 years and still has 2 years to go, on a sentence the judge set at 10.[2]
So the seven years this person spent on ES never came off the count.
Courts apply the rule the same way to real people. In a 2022 unpublished decision, the Court of Appeals looked at a man sentenced to 3 years of initial confinement and 3 years of ES. He was on ES from January 2017 until he was taken back into custody in August 2019, and after revocation he asked for credit for that time. The court said no. It wrote that his time on ES “did not count in determining how much reconfinement time was available.” Unpublished summary dispositions like that one are not binding precedent, but it shows how the rule is applied.[16]
What does count
So what does count? Custody does.
Wisconsin gives sentence credit for days spent in custody in connection with the conduct the sentence is for, and that includes time held on a probation, ES, or parole hold for that conduct. On a revocation, the credit finding goes in the revocation order. DOC makes it if the hearing is waived, and the Division of Hearings and Appeals makes it if there is a hearing.[11]
You are in DOC’s legal custody the entire time you are on ES, and DOC can take you into physical custody to investigate a violation.[2] For sentence credit, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held in State v. Friedlander that “custody” means the kind of custody that could support an escape charge, and supervision in the community does not qualify.[10]
You can be in DOC’s legal custody for four years on ES and still have zero days of custody credit to show for it.[2][10]
The Division of Hearings and Appeals handbook for revocation cases lists street time among the statuses that do not earn custody credit.[9]
Tolling is a separate rule.
DOC or the Division of Hearings and Appeals can toll some or all of the time between a violation and the revocation order. If the violation is not proven, that time counts as service. A revoked sentence starts running again on the day the person is received at a prison, with credit for custody while the revocation was pending.[12] DOC tells people on supervision that if they stop reporting and cannot be located, the time until they are picked up does not count toward supervision.[6]
There is also a sanction that does not involve revocation. If a person on ES signs a statement admitting a violation, DOC can confine the person for up to 90 days in a regional detention facility or, with the sheriff’s approval, a county jail as a sanction for that violation.[2]
Who decides how much time
The agent investigates and recommends, but the agent does not decide. There are two ways to get from that recommendation to a reconfinement number.
If the person contests revocation, an administrative law judge with the Division of Hearings and Appeals holds the hearing. If the judge revokes ES, the same decision sets the reconfinement period. The judge has to consider the nature and severity of the original offense, the person’s institutional conduct record, the person’s conduct on supervision, and how much reconfinement is needed to protect the public, keep the violation from being treated as less serious than it is, or provide treatment in confinement.[13]
If the person waives the revocation hearing, the division holds a separate reconfinement hearing at the institution. The notice has to say how much time is available for reconfinement. The judge reads DOC’s recommendation out loud, and the person can speak and present written evidence.[14] Contest revocation or waive it and argue reconfinement. You get one hearing or the other.[13][14]
When I was on extended supervision, I picked up a new felony charge, and my agent was going to push for revocation. I sat in county jail on an ES hold for nine months. Then I signed my revocation papers. Waiving the revocation hearing meant I could request a reconfinement hearing and argue in front of an administrative law judge for less time. As I wrote in the memoir, “In Wisconsin, you cannot attend a revocation hearing and a re-confinement hearing; it’s one or the other.”[18] My revocation time was set at 23 months. I went to the reconfinement hearing, and they dropped it to 21 months and 8 days.
The reconfinement decision has moved around over the years.
The second phase of Truth in Sentencing, 2001 Wisconsin Act 109, gave it to the sentencing court, effective February 1, 2003. 2009 Wisconsin Act 28 moved it back to the administrative process starting October 1, 2009, and that part of Act 28 was not repealed.[3] Older cases that describe a judge setting reconfinement are describing the earlier procedure.
Why the rule stays
In 2018, when DOC wrote its current rule for ES violators, a member of the public asked the department to credit street time and warned that not crediting it leads to endless supervision. DOC answered that credit is set by statute, not by the department, and pointed to the ES revocation provisions of § 302.113.[15]
That answer is accurate.
The formula is in the statute. That is why changing it is a job for the Legislature, not DOC. If we want years of compliance on ES to count for something after a revocation, lawmakers have to write that into § 302.113.[2][15]
On an average day in 2023-24, Wisconsin supervised 22,193 people on parole and extended supervision, alongside 40,788 people on probation.[17] Every person in that first group is working under a rule where years of compliance can be erased from the count by one revocation.[2][8]
What this is not
This is not legal advice.
Sentence credit and reconfinement depend on your judgment of conviction, your dates, and the revocation order in your case. If you are facing revocation, talk with your attorney or the public defender’s office about your numbers.
I am not arguing that no one should ever be revoked. I am explaining what revocation costs on a Truth in Sentencing sentence, because a lot of people on ES, and a lot of the people who love them, do not find out until the notice comes.
The administrative law judge can consider how you did on supervision when setting the reconfinement period.[13] As far as I can tell, that is the only place four good years on the street show up. The statute does not subtract them.[2]
So if you are on ES, the years you put in count toward finishing the sentence right up until a revocation, and then the count goes back to where it stood the day you left prison, less any jail credit.
Programs and reentry teams working with people on supervision can review the Reentry & Justice track, or send a short message about facilitator-led identity curriculum beside what they already run. For a briefing or workshop on these systems, see speaking. Readers who want the rest of the argument can stay with the Wisconsin Justice & Reentry series, and my own time on supervision is in A Vision of Hope.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is street time in Wisconsin?
Street time is the time a person spends in the community on probation, parole, or extended supervision. On extended supervision, it counts toward finishing the sentence only if ES is never revoked. If ES is revoked, the time remaining on the sentence is figured without subtracting it.[2][6]
Do you get credit for street time if extended supervision is revoked?
No. Under Wis. Stat. § 302.113, the time remaining is the total bifurcated sentence minus confinement served before release and minus confinement on earlier revocations. Time on ES in the community is not part of that subtraction. Time held in custody on the violation, such as an ES hold, is credited under § 973.155.[2][11]
Is there parole in Wisconsin under Truth in Sentencing?
No. A person serving a bifurcated sentence for a felony committed on or after December 31, 1999, is not eligible for parole and does not earn good time. Parole still applies to older indeterminate sentences.[1][3][5]
How long can you be reconfined after ES revocation?
Up to the time remaining on the bifurcated sentence. On a 5-and-5 sentence, that cap is 5 years even if the person had only 1 year of ES left, because the years on ES are not subtracted. The administrative law judge decides the actual period within that cap.[2][13]
Who decides reconfinement time in Wisconsin?
An administrative law judge with the Division of Hearings and Appeals. If the person contests revocation, the judge sets reconfinement in the revocation decision. If the person waives the revocation hearing, the judge holds a separate reconfinement hearing. The agent makes a recommendation but does not decide.[13][14]
What is the difference between probation and extended supervision?
Probation is community supervision ordered by the court instead of serving a prison term, with sentence either withheld or imposed and stayed. Extended supervision is the community part of a Truth in Sentencing prison sentence that follows initial confinement. Only probation can be discharged early.[1][6]
References
- Wis. Stat. § 973.01: Bifurcated sentence of imprisonment and extended supervision (applicability dates, minimum confinement, ES at least 25% of confinement, class caps, no good time, no parole, no discharge until the entire sentence is served). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/973/01
- Wis. Stat. § 302.113: Release to extended supervision for felony offenders not serving life sentences, including (8m) legal custody and 90-day sanction, and (9)(am) to (9)(c) revocation, time remaining, and remaining ES. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/302/113
- Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Felony Sentencing and Probation, Informational Paper 59, January 2025. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/informational_papers/january_2025/0059_felony_sentencing_and_probation_informational_paper_59.pdf
- 1997 Wisconsin Act 283 (1997 Assembly Bill 351), enacted June 1998. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/1997/related/acts/283
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. “Wisconsin Parole Commission” (Truth in Sentencing and parole eligibility). https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/ParoleCommission.aspx
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections. “General Information” (probation, sentence withheld, sentence imposed and stayed, parole, extended supervision, early discharge, failing to report). https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/CommunityCorrections/GeneralInformation.aspx
- Wis. Admin. Code § DOC 302.29: Extended supervision violators (reconfinement and recalculated maximum discharge date). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/doc/302/iii/29
- Wis. Stat. § 302.11(7) and annotations, including State ex rel. Ludtke v. DOC, 215 Wis. 2d 1, 572 N.W.2d 864 (Ct. App. 1997) (time on parole is not custody for sentence credit). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/302/11
- Wisconsin Division of Hearings and Appeals. Resource Handbook for Community Supervision Revocation Hearings, 2016 edition (sentence credit; street time not custody). https://doa.wi.gov/DHA/Handbook%20Final%20(9.1.2016).pdf
- State v. Friedlander, 2019 WI 22 (Wis. Mar. 12, 2019) (sentence credit requires custody; probation and extended supervision are not custody under the escape statute). https://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=237159
- Wis. Stat. § 973.155: Sentence credit (custody on a probation, extended supervision, or parole hold; credit finding in the revocation order). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/973/155
- Wis. Stat. § 304.072: Periods of probation, extended supervision, and parole; tolling and when a revoked sentence resumes. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/304/072
- Wis. Admin. Code § HA 2.05: Revocation hearings, including (7)(f) reconfinement criteria. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/ha/2/05
- Wis. Admin. Code § HA 2.06: Good time forfeiture, reconfinement, and reincarceration hearings after waiver. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/ha/2/06
- Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Final rule order CR 17-026, Wisconsin Administrative Register No. 750B (June 2018), response to public comments on street time credit. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/register/2018/750b/register/final/cr_17_026_rule_text/cr_17_026_rule_text.pdf
- State v. Kohler, No. 2021AP647-CR (Wis. Ct. App. Mar. 17, 2022) (unpublished summary disposition; not binding precedent). https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/smd/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=496030
- Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Adult Corrections Program, Informational Paper 60, January 2025 (Table 5 releases by type, 2023-24; supervision populations). https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/informational_papers/january_2025/0060_adult_corrections_program_informational_paper_60.pdf
- Andrew Drasen. A Vision of Hope: A Story of Redemption and Purpose (memoir). https://www.avisionofhopebook.com/books/memoir