MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A board that reviews financial claims against Wisconsin on Tuesday ordered the state’s prison system to award a man $7,600 for the more than a year he spent in prison past his actual release date.
While ordering the Department of Corrections to pay Robin Gavinski for the 417 days he served beyond his actual sentence, the board also said the department should update its method of calculating sentences to avoid future lawsuits, but it did not specify how.
“I hope this is the impetus for DOC to make that change,” said Tim Kiefer, Gavinski’s Madison attorney. “It’s unfair to have people sitting in prison when they’re not supposed to be. And it undermines the trust in our legal system.”
Sentences from some of Gavinski’s three Dane County convictions were supposed to run alongside each other. But a DOC employee - and the employee’s supervisor who double-checked the work - ran the sentences back-to-back, which added time to the sentence.
The department first discovered the error when Gavinski petitioned for early release in August 2012.
Gavinski, who is a high school dropout, originally requested more than $67,000 in the claim. The board instead awarded Gavinski $5,000 per year spent in prison, plus attorney fees in the case.
“People can ask how I feel about it. Well, a little angry but, hell, it is what it is,” Gavinski said. “I got a pretty good life right now. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. Just enjoying life. That’s all I can do.”
Jonathan Nitti, an attorney for the Department of Corrections, argued the state was immune to Gavinski’s claim. Nitti also argued prisoners are responsible for knowing their release dates.
“I’m not blaming Mr. Gavinski in total. I’m just saying that there’s a portion of responsibility for an inmate whose liberty is at stake to at least vet” the sentence, Nitti said during the March 19 hearing.
Nitti referred all questions about the ruling to DOC spokeswoman Joy Staab, who said in a statement DOC rarely makes sentencing mistakes.
“The Department of Corrections discovered the error and as a result, in September 2012, implemented centralized proofing, which enhances quality assurance procedures of sentence computations,” Staab’s statement said.
Jeff Scott Olson, a Madison attorney who has taken legal cases similar to Gavinski’s, said the DOC action could prove helpful in ensuring inmates don’t serve longer sentences than they have to, though he said it’s too soon to tell.
“It looks like this is going to be a big step in the right direction,” Olson said.
None of the board’s five members responded to questions about the type of update it encouraged the DOC to make.
Gavinski originally filed a lawsuit against several DOC employees in March 2013. But attorneys hadn’t found the name of the employee who made the mistake within the state mandated time frame of 120 days, and the case was dropped.
Gavinski and Kiefer agreed not to file new suits against the state or its employees as a result of the settlement with the state. The board ruling says the payment will come out of DOC’s appropriation.
In the same ruling Tuesday, the board also awarded Joseph Frey $25,000 for the eight years he spent in prison for an alleged 1991 rape in Oshkosh that prosecutors later found he didn’t commit. State law allows wrongfully convicted prisoners to collect $5,000 per year spent in prison, up to $25,000 total.
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