MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee mother is urging state lawmakers to address her concerns about the juvenile justice system in Wisconsin.
“Our state needs to wake up,” Dorothy Hacket said. “We need to change something.”
Hacket’s son was killed by a 14-year-old fleeing Milwaukee police in a stolen car after committing an armed robbery.
Just nine months after the teen was sentenced in juvenile court, Hacket received a letter from the Department of Corrections saying the teen was scheduled to be released back into the community this week. TMJ4 is not naming the teen because he wasn’t charged as an adult.
Hacket wants lawmakers to make sure other victims or their families don’t have to feel her pain.
Lighthouse journalist Ben Jordan took Hacket’s concerns to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
A Democrat and a Republican lawmaker tell TMJ4 they think state law needs to be changed after learning about this situation. They believe the Department of Corrections shouldn’t have the only say as to when a juvenile convicted of serious crimes is released back into the community.
“At this point, it hurts, but somebody needs to bring it to the attention of the world that we need to change something,” Hacket said.
On the same day, Hacket received a letter from the D.O.C. notifying her the teen who killed her son was scheduled to be released, she contacted TMJ4 to expose the D.O.C.’s decision.
“If it would have been his first offense, I would have said, ‘OK, I can see giving him a break’, but this was his third offense,” she said. "He had been given a couple of breaks. And you can’t tell me that he was rehabilitated in 9 months.”
Hacket’s son Marquis was just blocks away from getting home from a date with his girlfriend in January 2023 when they were t-boned by an underage teen trying to get away from the cops.
Marquis was killed on impact.
The teen was eventually sentenced to what’s called the Serious Juvenile Offender Program. Legal experts tell TMJ4 it is the harshest consequence for a teen prosecuted in children’s court. It comes with up to five years of confinement, but as little as one year.
With time served ahead of sentencing, the teen in this case was scheduled to be released after less than two years in custody for five felonies including second-degree reckless homicide.
Court records show the deadly crash came just months after the teen was charged with armed robbery and fleeing police in a stolen car.
TMJ4 reached out to the D.O.C. A spokesperson said it cannot comment on juvenile cases.
TMJ4 wanted to find out what a lawmaker on the legislature’s Corrections Committee thought of this decision and Hacket’s plea for change.
Republican Rep. Jerry O’Connor was the first to respond.
“This is nonsense,” O’Connor said. “DOC on this one, I’m sorry, this isn’t excusable behavior for D.O.C."
“As someone in the state legislature, you can create change. Does this make you want to change state law?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“It does,” O’Connor replied. "This can't continue."
O’Connor said he’s starting the process of writing legislation because of Hacket’s story. Currently, the decision to release a teen placed in the Serious Juvenile Offender Program back into the community is fully up to the D.O.C.
O’Connor thinks the judge who presided over the case should help make that decision.
"Judges are elected and judges need to be given the discretion to go beyond what we're doing here today,” he said.
State Rep. LaKeshia Myers, a Milwaukee Democrat, agrees.
"The judge is in contact with the family of the victim,” she said. “The judge is in contact with the prosecutorial services for that individual. You're also working on behalf of the people.”
Myers said she didn’t know that decision was solely up to D.O.C. until we brought it to her attention.
"I think your reporting pulled back kind of the wool and allowed the public to understand where we are when it comes to juvenile corrections,” she said. “Juvenile corrections are built for rehabilitation, however, when individuals who are in the juvenile system are not on the rehabilitative path and they re-offend and in this case, take a life, I think we have to look at the sentencing mechanisms that exist within the juvenile system."
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