Browsing: Crime and Justice

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

Wisconsin legislators and stakeholders held a news conference to unveil the “Expungement Reform: Pathways to Employment” bill. The bill would allow individuals with misdemeanors or Class H and I felonies to also seek expungement after they serve their sentence, remove the age 25 restriction and would apply retroactively to those who served time before the new legislation.

Badger Institute analysis: Current restrictions undermine lawmakers’ intent, create obstacles to employment.

When law enforcement and ex-offenders come together, good things can happen.

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.

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.

A decade ago, the Grafton Fire Department was a private, all-volunteer service that had operated the same way for more than a century.

Suggesting changes to fire department practices isn’t an affront to heroes

Firefighters almost never fight fires nowadays, turning fire departments into emergency medical services agencies. Is there a better way?

Institute welcomes first member of new Visiting Fellows Program.

Priorities should include tax reform, corrections, professional licensure and tolling

Meet Daniel Kelly, the most improbable candidate to land a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
A Colorado boy, Kelly did not grow up in Wisconsin. He didn’t attend either of the state’s two law schools, the legal factories that stamp out most of the top judges in Wisconsin. In the two decades that Kelly worked as a lawyer in the Badger State, it was largely out of the public spotlight on complex commercial litigation.
And when his name surfaced last year as one of three finalists to replace retiring Justice David Prosser, Kelly was excoriated as an extremist by lefties horrified at the high court’s rightward tilt. He was far from the odds-on favorite to earn the governor’s appointment.

We compiled a list of resources for state policy-makers on issues ranging from professional licensure to transportation funding to corrections reform. This handy brochure includes reports, commentaries and links to videos designed to inform public discourse on issues that will affect Wisconsin residents for years to come

On Aug. 12, 2015, Christina Traub’s boyfriend forced her to the ground and put his hands around her neck. On a Madison street in broad daylight, he slammed her head against the sidewalk and strangled her, his thumbs over her throat.

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?

Litscher: “We’re in a slow creep”

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.

Chris Petko, retired lieutenant from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Hope for Prisoners mentor coordinator, speaks at the “Unlocking Potential” event.

Jon D. Ponder, founder and CEO of Hope for Prisoners, speaks at the “Unlocking Potential” event.

Question and answer session with guest panelists at the “Unlocking Potential” event.