State v. Tyrone Price, 231 Wis.2d 229, 604 N.W.2d 898 (Ct. App. 1999)
For Price: James L. Fullin, Jr., SPD, Madison Appellate.
Issue: Whether confinement time spent on parole holds qualifies as “actual confinement serving a criminal sentence” thereby extending the five-year period for a prior, qualifying sentence-enhancement conviction under § 939.62(2).
Holding: Time spent under parole hold qualifies as time spent under a criminal sentence within the meaning of the repeater act:
¶13 Since the expansion of the five-year period is at issue in this case, it is appropriate to inquire why the legislature would have built this provision into the statute. We think the answer is clear. A sentenced offender who is actually confined, whether by imprisonment or subsequent parole hold, is off the streets and no longer able to wreak further criminal havoc against the community. Price’s narrow interpretation of the phrase “criminal sentence” would frustrate this legislative intent to expand the five-year term as to those offenders.
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¶15 Therefore, we agree with the State that the more generalized concept of a criminal sentence, which takes in both imprisonment and parole supervision, applies in a § 939.62(2), STATS., setting. Thus, the five-year period under the statute is properly expanded by any actual confinement time that is related to the sentence.
