Rule Submittal Date
On September 19, 2000, the Examining Board of Professional Geologists, Hydrologists and Soil Scientists submitted a proposed rule to the Legislative Council Rules Clearinghouse.
Analysis
Statutory authority: ss. 15.08 (5) (b), 15.405 (2m) and
227.11 (2), Stats.
The proposed rule-making order affects s. GHSS 1.07, relating to authorizing the Board to form a rules committee.
Agency Procedure for Promulgation
A public hearing is required and will be held on Tuesday, October 31, 2000 at 9:45 a.m. in Room 180 at 1400 East Washington Ave., Madison, Wisconsin.
Contact Information
If you have questions, please contact:
Pamela Haack
Administrative Rules Coordinator
Telephone: (608) 266-0495
Mailing Address:
Office of Administrative Rules
Dept. of Regulation and Licensing
1400 East Washington Ave., Room 171
P.O. Box 8935
Madison, WI 53708
N o t i c e S e c t i o n
Notice of Hearings
Corrections
Notice is hereby given that pursuant to ss. 227.11 (2) (a), 302.07, 302.08, 302.11 (2) and 302.04, Stats., the Department of Corrections proposes a revision to ch. DOC 306, relating to security.
Hearing Information
The public hearings will be held as follows:
Date & Time Location
November 6, 2000 Conference Room 129
Monday State Office Building
10:00 a.m. 141 N. W. Barstow St.
WAUKESHA, WI
November 7, 2000 Room 041, GEF #3
Tuesday State Office Building
12:00 p.m. (noon) 125 South Webster St.
MADISON, WI
November 8, 2000 Room 136
Wednesday State Office Building
11:00 a.m. 1681 2nd Avenue South
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI
The public hearing sites are accessible to people with disabilities.
Analysis Prepared by the Dept. of Corrections
Some provisions of the Department of Corrections administrative rule relating to security have not been updated since the rule was created in 1980. With over 20 years of experience working with the rule, the Department proposes to update the rule.
BACKGROUND
Chapter DOC 306 governs security standards and practices at state correctional institutions. As technology, science, population and government evolve over time, security standards and practices must adapt to those changes. We ultimately grow wiser and more efficient based on new knowledge and procedures. What was thought routine, necessary or even effective correctional practice in 1980 may not be accurate today.
For example, the Wisconsin prison population has grown from 1,930 in 1976 to more than 18,000 in 2000, and has a projected population of more than 27,000 in the year 2001. This enormous increase in prisoners, along with their increased level of sophistication, has placed a greater burden on correctional staff and has created the possibility for a more hazardous environment. In many ways, wardens and staff no longer enjoy the luxury of time that once afforded them the ability to maneuver bureaucratic requirements. Correctional staff must now make urgent decisions regarding the best way to ensure staff, inmate and visitor safety and security. These situations and decisions are infinitely different from those of 20 years ago when the current rule was promulgated. The changes in this rule make it possible for inmate rights and needs to be protected without compromising institution security.
DEFINITIONS
• Removes the definitions for “Director of the bureau of correctional health services," “Administrator of the division of program services," “Division of program services," “CN chloroacetophenone and CS-o-chlorobenzyl malononitrile."
• Adds definition of “Authority," and “Issuance of firearms," adds “X-ray" to definition of “body cavity search," and adds “hair, fingernails, saliva, or semen" to definition of “body contents search".
• Changes the terms “Voluntary Confinement" to “Protective Confinement," “chemical agent" to “incapacitating agent," and changes the definition of “Superintendent" to “Warden".
REPORTS/RECORDS/PLANS
Throughout this rule change, requirements regarding keeping reports, records, and plans are maintained, while the enumerated contents are eliminated. The Department's Internal Management Procedures will dictate what information is necessary and these documents will continue to be kept in a consistent manner. The following is a list of the changes in this rule:
• Maintains requirement for an incident report, but removes language dictating the contents of the report.
• Maintains requirement for a report regarding escape, but removes language detailing information required to be included in the report.
• Maintains requirement for staff to provide report on a visitor search, but deletes enumerated requirements of the report.
• Maintains requirement that the institution keep a record of the use of restraints, but removes language listing what information the record must contain.
• Maintains requirement that a record of search be kept, but deletes language specifying material that must be included in the report.
• Maintains requirement for institution plans regarding escape, but removes requirement that the plans are filed with the administrator and removes language specifying the contents of the plan.
• Maintains requirement for emergency preparedness and disturbance plans, but deletes language detailing the contents.
PROTECTIVE CONFINEMENT
By removing the requirements that an inmate remain in protective confinement for at least 72 hours unless security director approves prior release and that the inmate be released automatically after the 72 hours, this rule clarifies that determining the length of stay in protective confinement is the security director's role. In order to facilitate protection of inmates at risk, this rule removes the artificial figure of 72 hours and grants the security director the ability to regulate protective placement as long as the inmate remains at risk.
ISSUANCE AND USE OF FIREARMS
This rule allows an authority other than the Warden to issue firearms to staff and recognizes that circumstances arise within the institution where the warden may be unavailable at a time when firearms must be issued in order to maintain security. This rule change provides a process whereby designated staff may have authority to act in the warden's absence. DOC Security Internal Management Procedures and Emergency Preparedness Manual will specify the line of succession and circumstances under which firearms authorization may occur.
This rule requires that staff actions prior to discharging a firearm are consistent with mandated comprehensive and uniform training requirements.
INCAPACITATING AGENTS
Science changes so rapidly and now provides us with a wider variety of incapacitating agents that are often times safer and more effective in controlling inmates. Department Security Internal Management Procedures will provide a wider variety of situation-appropriate alternatives in a graduated force option continuum. DOC is no longer limited to the narrow selection of “chemicals" enumerated in the current rule and it is futile, given science's speedy advances, to attempt to continue enumerating incapacitating agents within the rule.
To ensure safety and proper application, this rule requires that only trained staff use incapacitating agents and grants general authority for their use under certain circumstances. The current rule reads so as to allow any staff member, even those not trained in the use of these agents, to use an incapacitating agent so long as it is done in the presence of a trained staff member. This rule ensures that the staff member actually administering or using the agent is properly trained, thereby ensuring greater safety to those involved in the situation.
This rule requires that the Division of Adult Institutions provide incapacitating agent training which includes safe handling, legal use, division policies and procedures, fundamentals of using and when incapacitating agents may and shall be used. In light of this requirement, the language dictating the procedure for using incapacitating agents is unnecessary and is removed.
The rule adds the following as situations for which staff may use incapacitating agents:
a. To apprehend an inmate who has escaped;
b. To change the location of an inmate;
c. To control a disruptive inmate;
d. To prevent unlawful damage to property; or
e. To enforce a departmental rule, policy or procedure or an order of a staff member.
MECHANICAL RESTRAINTS
This rule permits use of mechanical restraints to immobilize inmates for the protection of property. Occasionally, highly destructive inmates do considerable damage to state and personal property. For example, inmates already in segregation manage to destroy light fixtures, plumbing, electrical boxes, windows, etc. This type of destruction is not only costly, but obviously jeopardizes the welfare of staff and inmates. Such inmates also use this behavior to create weapons and escape confinement.
Recognizing a need in today's changing institutions, this rule permits Wardens the discretion in determining if security warrants use of mechanical restraints for movement within the institution. Situations in which the mechanical restraints are necessary for movement within the institution are too numerous and various to attempt listing in the rule. To do so would unnecessarily and unduly limit the ability of the Warden to ensure safety and security within the institution by responding to individual circumstances with the appropriate security measures. For example, mechanical restraints may be necessary during institution lock-downs, inclement weather such as severe fog, electrical blackouts, etc. There are a number of situations that may be unanticipated and due to circumstances beyond the Department's control. The Warden must have the ability to react in these situations.
ESCAPES
