“If this is winning, I don’t want it:” Convicted sex offender talks about life after being released from prison
Posted 9:13 pm, September 11, 2016, by Brad Hicks, Updated at 09:41pm, September 11, 2016
MILWAUKEE — On the morning of July 5th, a white van left Fox Lake Correctional Institution. In the back, Matthew Schechter, a Milwaukee man with a history of sex crimes.
As a young man in the late ’80s, he had sex with two teenage girls; in the mid-’90s, forceful sexual assaults on adult women. After 22 years in prison, he’s getting out, his time served.
No one wants a sex offender like Matt Schechter living next door to them, and it’s certainly understandable. Municipalities across the state have codified this with ordinances that restrict where offenders can live. But are those restrictions really keeping you safe?
Four hours after leaving Fox Lake, Matt Schechter walks out of the state building on 6th Street — his first steps into freedom after 22 years. Where those steps will lead him, he doesn’t know. The prison van left him here to be processed by parole and fitted with a GPS monitor.
“They didn’t have any answers for me,” Matt says. “No housing options. Just, ‘We’re gonna put you on this GPS bracelet, and good luck.’ That’s all they told me,” Schechter said.