This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Dinkins and his Doodle: Failing to Provide Address Not a Crime for Homeless Sex Offenders

Wisconsin Supreme Court rules that homeless sex offender can't be charged with a crime for failing to register a nonexistent address of residence with the Department of Corrections.

In Wisconsin, convicted sex offenders have to register their address with the Department of Corrections after they leave prison for an online registry.  Failure to do so is a felony. But, what about somebody who doesn’t have anywhere to live right away, such as Willie Dinkins? 

As the Wisconsin Supreme Court pointed out in State v. Dinkins, this is a rare problem, because typically when a sex offender leaves jail, he’ll be on "extended supervision" (probation), and the DOC will be in charge of finding him a place to live and providing that information for the registry.

But this problem occurs occasionally, and the supreme court, in a 5-2 decision written by Justice Bradley, concluded that such a person cannot be convicted of a crime for failing to provide a nonexistent residence address 10 days before leaving prison. Because the legislature provided an alternative method for the DOC to require the offender to check in periodically (with help from the courts and the Department of Health Services), the court reasoned the legislature did not intend to criminalize the complete inability to provide an address.

Find out what's happening in Port Washington-Saukvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Justice Roggensack agreed with the majority’s overall conclusion, but believed that the DOC must (rather than just may) take those alternative steps with regard to a homeless offender.

Justice Ziegler, joined by Justice Gableman, dissented. She believed the majority had created a loophole, allowing some of the most dangerous sex offenders — those whose whereabouts are unknown — to avoid strict registration requirements. She believed the plain language of the criminal statute applied to Dinkins, and the alternative DOC procedure was immaterial to whether or not he committed that crime.  She would, however, permit homless offenders to avoid prosecution by providing the location of a park bench, street corner, etc.

Find out what's happening in Port Washington-Saukvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Port Washington-Saukville