STATE OF WISCONSIN

 

 

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
BRAD D. SCHIMEL 17 West Main Street
ATTORNEY GENERAL P.0. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857
Andrew C. Cook
Deputy Attorney General
October 11, 2016

Ludmila Hago, State Policy Advisor
Bureau of Justice Assistance

US Department of Justice

810 7th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20531

RE: Request for partial release of funding for grant 
Dear Ms. Hago:

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is requesting the partial release of funding pursuant to
Special Condition #38 regarding the certi?cation of our state?s inventory of un-submitted sexual
assault kits. In addition, we are requesting a phased approval of the inventory to allow the testing
of kits to begin during the upcoming quarter. The details and background for this request are
outlined in the attached document dated September 14, 2016, entitled ?Wisconsin Sexual Assault
Kit Initiative (SAKI) Inventory Overview and Request for Phased Inventory Approval.?

Based on 25 percent of our federal award, the current amount of funding available to the State of
Wisconsin under this award is $500,000. As of the 9/30/16 Financial Status Report, our total
expenses and obligations to date total $379,] 10.94. Based on our current rate of expenditures, it
is estimated that this initial 25 percent funding amount will be fully spent as of the end of the
12/31/16 quarterly reporting period.

In terms of the inventory work completed to date, in order to collect the inventories from law
enforcement agencies, emails were disseminated to all agency heads in March and then again in
June 2016 with the inventory form and detailed instructions on how to complete the inventory.
After the initial mass emails, individual follow-up was initiated both with agencies that had not
yet submitted their inventories, along with agencies where there were questions or data quality
concerns regarding the information contained in the inventory. As explained in the attached
?Inventory Overview and Request for Phased Inventory Approval? document, to help facilitate
the completion of the inventories and the data quality review, the state was recently divided into
four regions for the phased completion of the inventory. The goal is to use this approach to
address the timely completion of the inventory, while still allowing the project to proceed with
the processing and testing of a portion of the kits. This approach will help manage the workload
of incoming kits both for the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory (WSCL) for receipt and
processing, as well as for the external lab for testing. The phased approach will also allow us to
identify other issues that may arise as the testing process is formally initiated. Using this regional
approach, to date we have received inventories from approximately 76 percent of law

enforcement agencies in the state and contact with the remaining agencies is currently underway.
The challenge is that most inventories do require some level of follow-up once received from the
agency, which slows the review and internal approval process. Many of the agencies that are still
outstanding, which includes some of the largest agencies in the state, will require direct
assistance in the review and ?nalization of their inventory. We also recognize that although we
are recommending the inventory be completed and submitted in phases, the information
contained within the individual agency inventories may be somewhat dynamic and subject to
change as victims come forward who may not have previously reported to law enforcement, as
well as when additional information is received from the agency or by the WSCL that may
rede?ne the testing status of a portion the kits outlined on an agency?s inventory.

Given the time that has been involved in the inventory process to date, we anticipate that we will
be able to complete one phase of the inventory each month for the next four months. Phase I will
be completed no later than October 31, 2016, with a goal to have it completed by mid-October.
Phases II, II, and IV would then be completed by November 30, December 31, and January 31,
respectively. We are hoping to be ahead of this timeline, but also recognize there will be
additional work to balance as agencies in Phase I start to submit their kits for testing, pending
approval of this request.

As we work to fully complete our inventory and release the entire amount of funding under this
award, we are requesting the release of $250,000 in order to continue operations of our SAKI
team and continue to implement our project as designed. Based on current spending levels, we
anticipate that this amount will expire by June 30, 2017.

During this time period, we anticipate ?nalizing the ?rst round of inventory data collection in its
entirety, seeking approval from BJA for each phase of the inventory as it is completed. If this
request is approved, we would also begin the process of having kits submitted to the WSCL
where they would be processed and sent to the external contracted lab for screening and testing.
The submission of the kits would also be managed by phase, to maintain a ?ow of kits through
the crime lab process. By the end of this time period, we would. also anticipate starting to receive
results back from the external lab to be uploaded into CODIS, to then begin the investigative and
prosecutorial phases of the project.

We are hoping to begin processing kits as soon as possible while we have a window of
opportunity with the external lab contract. Please let me know if you need any further
information regarding this request.
Sincerely,

(6W C77W
Bonnie Cyganek
Administrator, Division of Management Services