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.
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.
Strategies for improving community-police relations
In 2020, Missouri joined a growing coalition of states in reforming their occupational licensure laws. We hosted an event with Rep. Derek Grier (R-Chesterfield) and Sen. Brian Williams (D-St. Louis) to discuss how they accomplished this
For more than a year, bureaucratic delays and hurdles imposed by the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) deprived Meggan Thompson of a job and an income, and deprived Wisconsinites with debilitating mental health issues of the help she could have long ago provided.
The Badger Institute hosted a roundtable discussion on work, poverty and the use of federal safety nets to promote self-reliance.
The Joseph Project, a program championed by Senator Ron Johnson, connects the formerly incarcerated and others from disadvantaged Milwaukee neighborhoods with good-paying jobs.
Angela Rachidi, resident scholar in poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Eloise Anderson, former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and a Badger Institute visiting fellow, discuss safety net programs and work in Wisconsin. Rachidi is author of the January 2020 Badger Institute report “Wisconsin’s missing rung: Policies linked to work are critical to lifting people out of poverty.”
1.2 million Wisconsinites live in dental care shortage areas. Children, seniors, veterans & the disabled are most likely to lack access to oral care. Here’s a successful effort to provide dental care to underserved populations without relying on taxpayers.
The Hop, a $128 million streetcar that travels a 2.1-mile loop in downtown Milwaukee, is a classic boondoggle made possible by federal grants (i.e., taxpayer money). Meanwhile, the Joseph Project, a Milwaukee transportation enterprise that rejects government funding, is helping central city residents secure good-paying manufacturing jobs in neighboring counties. With a small fleet of church vans (most of them donated), the Joseph Project creates taxpayers instead of fleecing them.
The creation of the dental therapy profession in Wisconsin through Senate Bill 89 would be an important step in improving access to and usage of dental care for disadvantaged and underserved populations in Wisconsin and potentially reducing negative economic and societal costs associated with poor oral health.
Former Michigan state Sen. John Proos (R), chair of the legislative budget subcommittees overseeing corrections and the judiciary budgets, describes the bipartisan reform measures Michigan adopted in 2017 and the dramatic improvements that followed. The event in the Wisconsin State Capitol was sponsored by the Wisconsin Criminal Justice Coalition.
In this short video excerpt, Badger Institute policy analyst Julie Grace testifies before the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee in support of Senate Bill 39, which will make necessary reforms to Wisconsin’s expungement law.
What is occupational licensing? How does it affect labor markets, wages, prices and interstate migration? Morris Kleiner, professor and AFL-CIO chair in Labor Policy at the University of Minnesota and author of “At What Cost? State and National Estimates of the Economic Cost of Occupational Licensing,” discusses his research at the Badger Institute’s Policy Symposium.
