Sunshine Ketchum was feeling like she had finally received the sort of mental health treatment she has needed for a long time.
“If I had that before, I probably wouldn’t have screwed up at all,” Ketchum said, reflecting on her past stints of incarceration.
The treatment took place not at a prison operated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections but at a secure treatment facility, called the Wisconsin Resource Center, operated by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
After her treatment, Ketchum returned to Taycheedah Correctional Institution, operated by the Department of Corrections.
Back at Taycheedah, Ketchum said she needs the new skills she learned in treatment more than ever.
Ketchum explained: her request for her custody level to be reclassified before the scheduled time (“early recall”), from medium to minimum security, was denied.
Each person incarcerated in Wisconsin gets assigned a security level – maximum, medium and minimum – which determines where individuals are housed, who they interact with, available programming and the level of freedom they have.
Kethcum also was hoping that being moved to a different facility could get her closer to her daughter, a daughter who currently does not have a permanent residence and is sleeping on the couches of family members, along with Kethcum’s mother, the child’s caretaker.
Department’s discretion
Minimum security facilities give a person access to different resources and opportunities that are supposed to help them when they get out, according to the Department of Corrections. Resources and opportunities include drug treatment and work-release opportunities, where a person can spend some of their time in the community working.
People can request reclassification through a hearing, where they can state why they think their custody level should change.
Ketchum made her request in the middle of October but was denied within a week.
Decisions for reclassification are up to the Department of Corrections, based on factors, including security risks, behavior of the person in custody, their health needs and available resources.
While reclassification decisions are at the department’s discretion, it must provide documentation to the individual of “information used to evaluate and support risk and need factors” as well as “factors upon which the classification is based unless the department determines that release of such information would threaten the security of the prison system,” according to the department’s administrative policy.
According to Ketchum, the department’s response stated her request was not approved because she failed to demonstrate a significant change affecting custody, program assignment or facility placement that required a reclassification.
Ketchum said that this does not give her the information or guidance she needs to understand why she was not granted reclassification or what she needed to do in order to be approved.
The Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether Ketchum’s denial met the departmental requirements.
Concerns about medical care
While Ketchum remains at Taycheedah, she would like, among other things, for her medical care to be more predictable.
State law does require the Department of Corrections to provide medical services to individuals, with some cost limitations. But there is no clear timing requirement the department must meet for providing or notifying people about their medical services.
From Ketchum’s point of view, though, this unpredictability – for herself and her family – makes planning a post-release future more difficult.
Ketchum’s mother, Charlene Lenz-Schuett, does not technically have custody of Ketchum’s daughter, so her ability to help the daughter navigate things like the school system is limited.
Lenz-Schuett is eagerly waiting for the reunion between Ketchum and her daughter.
“I’m hoping they get a place together and they’re wonderfully happy. And I think they will be,” said Lenz-Schuett.
Listen to Ketchum explain the highs and lows since the first installment of her “diary,” a series following Ketchum as she moves toward release from incarceration.
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