Corrections and Public Safety
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Wisconsin’s criminal justice system largely fails both the population it is meant to serve as well as the taxpayers footing the bill. Our prisons are overcrowded, spending on corrections is increasing and too many returning citizens struggle to integrate back into their communities. Here we offer the Badger Institute’s guiding principles that inform our work and research related to criminal justice reform.
Four Badger Institute police reform recommendations have been signed into law
November 10, 2021
A proposal to enhance public credibility
November 10, 2021
These bipartisan, even-handed measures will provide better data, accountability
June 23, 2021
Reforms recommended by Badger Institute will increase transparency, work opportunities
June 17, 2021
Conservative organizations, business groups support commonsense reforms
June 3, 2021
The new age of electronic monitoring
By Patrick Hughes
May 2021
Eighty-seven percent of people who would qualify for an expungement under proposed legislation have never committed anything more serious than a misdemeanor, according to new data from the Badger Institute.
By Julie Grace
May 6, 2021
In a state where voters split on nearly everything, we can all agree on the need for criminal justice reform.
By Julie Grace and Jenna Bottler
May 1, 2021
A majority of voters believe the state’s criminal justice system needs significant improvements, nearly three-quarters believe expungement law needs reform, among other findings.
April 7, 2021
The Badger Institute recently hosted a virtual discussion with two Wisconsinites who have seen firsthand the need for expungement reform: State Public Defender Kelli Thompson and Shanyeill McCloud, founder of Clean Slate Milwaukee.
Expungement reform would open new opportunities for grandmother, teacher
By Julie Grace
March 22, 2021
Incarceration is rare for pot-only convictions; coupled with municipal policies, Wisconsin has, in effect, decriminalized marijuana.
By Julie Grace
March 2021
The Wisconsin Criminal Justice Coalition, led by the Badger Institute, offers policy ideas for combating recidivism, fostering opportunity, saving taxpayer money and maintaining public safety in its second edition of Criminal Justice Reform Recommendations.
February 2021
Wisconsin’s criminal justice landscape and ideas for reform
By David Fladeboe and Julie Grace
February 2021
If Wisconsin policymakers want to reform the state’s criminal justice system in a way that achieves better outcomes for taxpayers, communities and offenders, they will need detailed, accurate and robust data.
Review and recommendations
By Patrick Hughes
January 2021
A trilogy of reports looking at police use of force, police discipline, and violent crime
By Patrick Hughes and Julie Grace
November 2020
A cop's toughest call: if and when to use force to apprehend a suspect
By Mike Nichols
What happened in Kenosha is an anomaly, defying the critics' charge that police violence is systemic
By Patrick Hughes and Mike Nichols
Cutting cops unnecessarily to placate protesters will do nothing to help George Floyd or Jacob Blake
By Mike Nichols
The state labels thousands of offenders violent when they've never committed an act of violence
By Julie Grace
Disciplinary actions against police officers in Wisconsin’s largest cities, whether for use of force or anything else, are rare
By Patrick Hughes
October 2020
State needs better crime data to get an accurate picture of who’s incarcerated here and why
By Julie Grace
September 2, 2020
A call for greater transparency
By Patrick Hughes
August 2020
Wisconsin needs criminal justice data collection and reporting legislation
By Patrick Hughes
July 7, 2020
What we know thus far
By Mike Nichols, Patrick Hughes and Julie Grace
July 2020
Policymakers will need to look to reforms to address overcrowding issues
By Patrick Hughes
June 4, 2020
Move would stress support and health care systems throughout the state
By Patrick Hughes
April 22, 2020
Home detention one option for helping prevent virus’ spread while maintaining public safety
By Patrick Hughes
April 1, 2020
Badger Institute analysis shows the rate is much lower, and complicated crime reporting makes comparisons difficult
By Julie Grace
February 26, 2020
Revoking supervision for ex-offenders accused of new crimes would cost taxpayers without improving public safety
By Patrick Hughes
February 20, 2020
The current system is vulnerable to politics and perverse incentives
By Julie Grace and Patrick Hughes
January 10, 2020
An employer handbook
By Julie Grace and Thomas Lyons
November 2019
Two studies look at Wisconsin's complex community corrections system and why many on supervision are failing
By Cecelia Klingele, Julie Grace and Patrick Hughes
July 2019
Wisconsin’s law, which requires a judge to decide on expungement at the time of sentencing, is unlike any in the nation.
By Julie Grace
April 11, 2019
How can Wisconsin improve its criminal justice system? Representatives from the University of Wisconsin, Right on Crime, and the Charles Koch Institute discuss areas for reform.
Featuring Cecelia Klingele, Tom Lyons and Jeremiah Mosteller
February 20, 2019
Fair-chance hiring laws may hurt the job-seekers they aim to help
February 2019
This video tells the story of Partners in Hope, a Milwaukee prisoner reentry program where cops, federal agents and prosecutors (among others) offer training, mentorship and friendship to people directly returning from prison or jail.
November 14, 2018
The Wisconsin Criminal Justice Coalition, led by the Badger Institute, offers policy ideas for combating recidivism, fostering opportunity, saving taxpayer money and maintaining public safety.
October 2018
How to let Wisconsin's judges help job-seekers and employers.
The report includes two policy briefs:
► Problems with Wisconsin's Expungement Law: How the Law is Used and How to Make It More Equitable and Effective
► Sentence Adjustment Petitions: Is this Truth-in-Sentencing Provision Really Working?
May 2017
Litscher: "We're in a slow creep"
By Michael Flaherty
February 23, 2017
The Badger Institute's "Unlocking Potential" event in Milwaukee drew more than 100 participants representing law enforcement, the judiciary, the Legislature, business, community groups and faith leaders. The discussion focused on how ex-inmates, with help from one of their own and the same cops who once pursued them, can find a way back to their families and jobs.
February 14, 2017
Wisconsin cannot afford the status quo on its corrections policy. Programs across the nation that are working to reduce recidivism should be part of the state's strategy.
Authors include Michael Flaherty, Marie Rohde, Michael Jahr, Janet Weyandt, Joe Stumpe and Gerard Robinson.
December 2016
Evidence suggests that there are ways to minimize the risk of non-appearance while avoiding unnecessary detention of defendants.
By Kate Lind
March 2013
MPS has a fundamental lack of focus. Instilling accountability will require a structural and cultural transformation similar to the one the Milwaukee Police Department has undergone — one that revolves around measurable objectives.
By Mike Nichols
September 2011
Wisconsin’s criminal justice system is marked by a pronounced cycle of crime followed by incarceration followed by parole followed by repeated crime.
By Kate Lind
July 2009
An examination of potential cost savings
By Dennis Winters
May 2002
Fugitives from the justice system
By Jean White
June 2000
The path to fewer prisons
By George Mitchell
April 1999
Is it an idea whose time has come (again)?
By Sammis White
May 1998
Plea bargaining, punishment, and the public interest
By George Mitchell and David Dodenhoff
March 1998
What's the connection?
By William Thompson, Ricardo Gazel and Dan Rickman
November 1996
A profile of urban inmates in Wisconsin prisons
By John DiIulio and George Mitchell
April 1996
As Wisconsin spends more money on its correctional system, this report analyzes how much value citizens are getting
By George Mitchell
August 1995
Liquor, Disorder, and Crime in Wisconsin
By John DiIulio Jr.
May 1995
Can it cut crime?
By John DiIulio Jr.
October 1993
Every day in the state of Wisconsin, there are approximately 45,000 convicted criminals who are still under sentence and are living in our neighborhoods and communities
By Anne Morrison Piehl
August 1992
On any given day, 83% of the offenders who have been convicted of a serious crime in Wisconsin are not in prison: they are on the streets, while 17% of criminals are in Wisconsin prisons
By George Mitchell
June 1992
A survey of prisoners and an analysis of the net benefit of imprisonment in Wisconsin
By John DiIulio Jr.
December 1990