GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - One of five men serving life in prison for killing a co-worker at a Green Bay paper mill in 1992 has been granted parole because of his declining mental health.
Dale Basten, 76, was released from the Dodge Correctional Institution on Tuesday and transferred to an assisted living facility in the Fox Valley where he will be monitored electronically, WLUK-TV reported . The order said Basten has little awareness of who he is, where he is and why he’s in prison.
“In its analysis, the Chair is mindful that punishment includes a component of awareness, awareness that one is being punished - one is suffering a loss of liberty, a loss of freedom to act, and a loss of comfort - all as a result of bad act(s),” the parole commission release order said.
The decision says Basten required constant supervision when he wasn’t in his prison cell. The decision suggests that the prison system doesn’t have the proper resources to supervise Basten given his mental condition.
Basten, Keith Kutska, Rey Moore, Michael Hirn, Michael Johnson and Michael Piaskowski were convicted in 1995 of killing Tom Monfils. Monfils’ body was found in a pulp vat at James River Mill with a rope and weight around his neck, a broken jaw and a fractured skull. The parole order said Monfils was killed for reporting wire theft at the mill.
Piaskowski’s conviction was overturned in 2001. The other four remain in prison. All of their suspects maintain their innocence.
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Information from: WLUK-TV, https://www.fox11online.com
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