Thielman v. Leean

1. The Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) appeals the circuit courts order enjoining DHFS from transporting Richard Thielman and similarly committed ch. 980 patients to and from treatment facilities such as Wisconsin Resource Center (WRC) in full restraints without first making individualized determinations that restraints are needed during transport. The circuit court determined that DHFSs transportation policy for ch. 980 patients violated Wis. Stat. 51.61(1)(i) (1999-2000). Because we conclude that 51.61(1)(i) grants broad discretionary power to DHFS sufficient to permit its treatment facilities to transport ch. 980 patients in restraints for security reasons and because there is nothing in the language of the statute that requires treatment facilities to exercise that discretion for each individual patient, rather than on the basis of its experience with ch. 980 patients as a group and the individualized prior finding of sexual dangerousness that each ch. 980 patient has had made, we reverse the circuit courts order.