Browsing: Corrections and Public Safety

Know what puts a crimp in any effort to fight crime? Not being able to do anything with suspects once the cops catch them.

Wisconsin’s criminal justice system must first and foremost work to reduce crime, improve public safety and achieve justice for victims.

The Badger State remains, on the whole, a safe place that’s been getting safer. But Wisconsinites who live and work in Milwaukee have seen dramatic increases in homicide, auto theft and aggravated assault. For some specific offenses, other Wisconsin cities are also seeing worsening trends.

The cops have had enough, says Kennedy, and the long lines that have stretched across generations in some families, grandfathers to fathers to sons who all were eager to serve and sacrifice – are being severed.

It now takes, on average, more than 15 months to fully resolve, from arrest to closed case, a homicide charge in Wisconsin. Armed robbery takes a year and sexual assault cases average 14 months.

The new age of electronic monitoring

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.

Incarceration is rare for pot-only convictions; coupled with municipal policies, Wisconsin has, in effect, decriminalized marijuana.

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.

Review and recommendations

What happened in Kenosha is an anomaly, defying the critics’ charge that police violence is systemic

Disciplinary actions against police officers in Wisconsin’s largest cities, whether for use of force or anything else, are rare

A call for greater transparency

What we know thus far

An employer handbook

Two studies look at Wisconsin’s complex community corrections system and why many on supervision are failing.

Fair-chance hiring laws may hurt the job-seekers they aim to help

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.

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?

Badger Institute President Mike Nichols on “UpFront with Mike Gousha” talks about the need for corrections reform in Wisconsin.

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.