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Get the latest news and research from Badger Institute
- It’s time for Welfare Reform 2.0 in Wisconsin
- Eau Claire teens find police are the opposite of oppressors
- Florida could teach Wisconsin how to demand a more open-minded academia
- Wisconsin still holds $800 million in people’s unclaimed cash despite a top ranking in returning funds
- More Wisconsin circuit courts use text reminders to move justice along: a ‘godsend’
- How to strengthen the climb from the safety net
- The silence breaks: Accountability at last for those who make Milwaukee life unlivable
- Data centers could be a godsend — if communities let them
Browsing: Crime and Justice
Pandemic made the problem of delayed justice worse in Wisconsin
Unless kids are killed or maimed, gun battles at school are just police blotter items.
Pulling cops out of public schools was a crazy idea.
Pretrial risk assessment should be expanded, not scrapped, advocates say
Four Badger Institute police reform recommendations have been signed into law
A proposal to enhance public credibility
These bipartisan, even-handed measures will provide better data, accountability
Reforms recommended by Badger Institute will increase transparency, work opportunities
Conservative organizations, business groups support commonsense reforms
Badger Institute Policy Analyst Julie Grace testified in favor of 2021 AB 108, AB 109 and AB 110 before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Government Accountability and Oversight on May 18, 2021..
These bills would increase transparency in the Wisconsin criminal justice system.
State Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote recently, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that a study on race and prison sentencing in Wisconsin “confirms what I and many others have been saying, which is that we have a long way yet to go to have a system that truly treats all equally.
Badger Institute Policy Analyst Julie Grace testified in favor of 2021 SB 78 before the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety on May 6, 2021.
2021 SB 78 would reform Wisconsin’s expungement laws.
Wisconsin voters often split evenly on big elections and key issues. But voters on the right and the left agree on the dire shortcomings of the state’s corrections system and the need for reform.
The new age of electronic monitoring
Pastor Jerome Smith got a second chance and made sure countless others received one too
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.
Badger Institute Policy Analyst Julie Grace submitted written testimony in favor of 2021 AB 69 before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety on April 7, 2021.
2021 AB 69 would reform Wisconsin’s expungement laws.
A majority of Wisconsin voters believe the state’s criminal justice system needs significant improvements, expungement law needs reform; voters overwhelmingly agree the criminal justice system should ensure people are less likely to commit another crime & help people become productive, law-abiding citizens.
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.
Incarceration is rare for pot-only convictions; coupled with municipal policies, Wisconsin has effectively decriminalized marijuana

