Jason Stein

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - Abuse survivors who still live in fear of their tormentors will soon have a new free tool: confidential mailing addresses from the State of Wisconsin.

The program that was approved last year was rolled out this week at the state Capitol by GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel and a bipartisan squad of lawmakers who teamed up to give victims protection that already exists in most other states.

The Safe at Home program will debut in Wisconsin on Saturday, thanks in part to the stories of victims like one young woman who had moved dozens of times after escaping a cult-like group that had forced her to marry at age 14.

"I've moved 29 times, changed my name more than once, left behind good people, good careers, and good communities," the woman wrote in anonymous testimony to lawmakers last year. "I've also fallen in love, married and have a beautiful, little family that comes with me whenever it's time to move again."

After hearing this story in her La Crosse office, Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, a Democrat, started working to help ensure the woman didn't have her whereabouts revealed and have to move again.

"My jaw dropped," Shilling said of the woman's struggles. "I couldn't believe it."

The effort to pass the law included some of the leading elected officials of both parties: Schimel, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) and Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc). Gov. Scott Walker signed the legislation in April 2016.

“Those living in fear that their abuser might someday find them deserve to feel safe and secure in their own home, school, and workplace," Schimel said in a statement. "The Department of Justice is honored to be able to provide this important public service and subsequent peace of mind to the most vulnerable of crime victims.”

Shilling said 34 states already have a similar program to mask victims' addresses and now Wisconsin will join them. Here's how it works:

Safe at Home is for victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse, stalking and threats as well as for the parents, family members or partners of victims. The victims need only to attest to the crime, threat or fear; they do not need to give the state documentation of the crime or threat.

Applicants for the free program can go to this state website www.SafeAtHomeWI.gov or call (800) 446-6564 for more information.

The state Department of Justice will then give the enrollees an address where they can have their mail sent. Then the program will forward their mail within one to two days to the victims' actual address, adding up to a total wait of five to 10 days. The program will reveal the actual address only in limited cases of a court order or law enforcement request, and even then the program will seek to keep the address sealed in court records.

If a Safe at Home participant makes a written request to a county clerk, register of deeds, clerk of court or municipal clerk to keep his or her actual address private, then that public official also cannot reveal the address except in the case of the court order.

Shilling said she expects that the program will have several thousand participants.The Department of Justice estimates the cost at $400,000 a year.

Fitzgerald, the Senate leader, said he was proud to have helped pass what he called a "common-sense measure."

“The freedom to feel safe in one’s home is absolutely essential for survivors as they attempt to rebuild their lives, and this program aims to provide that security," he said.