Werner v. Wall

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-probation officials’ motion for summary judgment in section 1983 action alleging that defendants’ continued detention of plaintiff-convicted sex offender in county jail 54-weeks beyond his mandatory release date pursuant to Wisconsin Administrative Directive (AD) No. 02-10 until plaintiff could secure suitable housing violated plaintiff’s 8^th Amendment and due process rights. Under applicable supervision rules, all sex offenders were required to obtain approved housing and were not permitted to be homeless once released from prison, and AD 02-10 was promulgated based in part on Dept. of Corrections’ authority to detain sex offenders on supervised release to prevent possible violation of requirement that sex offenders live in approved housing. Moreover, defendants were entitled to qualified immunity, where it was not clearly established under either federal or Wisc. case law that AD 02-10 violated any constitutional rights of sex offenders, especially where plaintiff’s release on his mandatory release date at time when he had no approved housing would have generated probation violation that would have allowed for his continued detention. (Partial dissent filed.)