 By Alexandria Staubach A recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report highlights problems in Wisconsin’s criminal justice system ranging from the state’s continued place as a national leader in the disproportionate incarceration of people of color to expected increases in costs associated with the state’s prison population. The April report, entitled Cross Examination: A comprehensive view of Wisconsin's criminal justice system, shows persistent troubling trends and hopes to be a “baseline assessment of Wisconsin’s criminal justice landscape.” Much in the report will not surprise readers current with Wisconsin’s criminal justice system, but the report's statistics show the context and alarming depth of some issues. For instance, Black residents composed 5.9% of Wisconsin’s population in 2024 but accounted for nearly a quarter of all criminal complaint case filings. Black residents are concentrated in Milwaukee, with 52.9% of the state’s Black population even residing in a single Milwaukee zip code. And 18.6% of Wisconsinites had a substance use disorder in 2022-2023, ranking the state 15th nationally. WJI evaluated the report with one question in mind: if case filings are down, arrests are down, and the volume of people on community supervision is down, how does Wisconsin continue to incarcerate more people year over year? While the report does not answer this question directly, it shows changes in the state’s prion population that may be key. Overall crime has decreased, but the number of people incarcerated on long sentences for violent crime has increased, incarcerations for intoxicated driving have grown significantly, and charging of at least one felony offense has increased in frequency. The report says “these trends have contributed to Wisconsin’s prison and community supervision rates remaining high even as overall crime rates fell between 2019 and 2023.” Who Wisconsin is incarcerating has evolved over time. Report data showed a “greater than expected” increase in incidents of arrest for older adults and a decline for youth. The numbers suggest the increase in arrests for older adults is driven predominately by charges for those arrested for driving under the influence. Adults aged 50 and above accounted for 20.4% of intoxicated driving arrests, an outsized share of their otherwise much lower offense rate. Only 4.7% of total arrests are for individuals aged 60 and older, but total arrests for that age group increased by 24.8% from 2019, with a 56.4% increase for drug or substance abuse related offenses.  Graph from the Wisconsin Policy Forum 2026 "Cross Examination" report, showing the increase in incarceration rate for older adults in Wisconsin since 2010. The report suggests that while Black Wisconsinites experience a large proportion of arrests, “it is possible that the deployment of law enforcement personnel to particular municipalities or neighborhoods of certain racial or ethic groups makes it so that crime committed by the individuals who live there is more easily detected.” Given Milwaukee’s relatively low clearance rates (27.9% for the Milwaukee Police Department versus 53.7% for all other agencies in Wisconsin), and that most of the state’s Black residents live there, raising clearance rates in the city might also affect the demographics of those arrested in the state. The report notes that MPD’s management of a larger population and its greater share of more violent crimes make a direct comparison of its clearance rate unproductive. Statewide, white individuals represented 81.4% of all arrests for driving under the influence, 63.9% of all theft offenses, and 66.2% of all drug/narcotic offenses. In Milwaukee, drug crimes (2.8%), fraud (1.8%), theft (1.7%), and driving under the influence (1.7%) accounted for a smaller proportion of arrests than statewide. Case filings, like arrests and crime more broadly, are down statewide. Declines in filings are also more pronounced in some demographics than others. In 2005, 102,679 cases were filed against white individuals. That decreased 40.9% to 60,695 in 2024. Meanwhile, case filings against Black individuals fell, but by a smaller margin: from 35,616 cases in 2005 to 25,682 in 2024 (a 27.9% drop). U.S. census data shows that Black individuals have made up roughly 5.6% of the state’s total population during this same time frame. The report attributes much of the decline in case filings to a drop in misdemeanor charges but highlights an increase in felony filings. The cases in which the most serious offense was bail jumping or escape saw significant growth from 2014 to 2024.  Graph from the Wisconsin Policy Forum April 2026 "Cross Examination" report, showing changes in felony and misdemeanor case filings by type. Prison admissions are up for new sentences, but down for revocations of those on release. Prison admissions due to revocations (without a new sentence) still compose more than a quarter of all prison admissions but remain below levels seen prior to the pandemic, when Wisconsin’s prison population peaked. The report says this decline may be influenced by the Department of Corrections’ “Evidence-Based Response to Violations program,” though many remain skeptical of its efficacy. Admissions for revocations involving new charges, however, peaked in 2023. Prison admissions for intoxicated driving offenses increased dramatically, from 386 in 2000 to 1,314 in 2023. The community supervision population shrank moderately after 2019, but significant differences for demographic groups exist as shown in the chart below.  Graph from the Wisconsin Policy Forum's 2026 "Cross Examination" report, showing the rate of community supervision in 2023 for various demographic groups.
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By Margo Kirchner
Gov. Tony Evers just vetoed a bill that would have required the Department of Corrections to recommend revocation if a person on extended supervision, parole, or probation is charged with a new crime. In his veto message, Evers wrote that he objected "to the unfunded mandate that such revocation would impose on the Department of Corrections, which would move Wisconsin in the wrong direction on criminal justice reform without improving public safety. This bill is estimated to have a fiscal impact of more than $330 million in just the first two years and hundreds of millions of dollars in unknown, ongoing costs to state taxpayers in the years to follow. This significant price tag does not include construction costs to build additional state correctional facilities, which would likely be needed, or take into account the fiscal impact on local governments. This fiscal impact is particularly untenable on the heels of the legislature significantly underfunding existing operations at the Department of Corrections in the most recent state budget." Evers wrote that "Wisconsin should be investing in data-driven, evidence-based programming that addresses barriers to reentry, enhances educational and vocational opportunities for individuals who will be released after completing their sentence, and provides treatment for mental health and substance use issues, which will help to reduce recidivism and save taxpayer money while improving public safety." Wisconsin Justice Initiative and Wisconsin Justice Initiative Action wrote to Evers on Wednesday, urging him to veto the bill, AB 85. Currently, the DOC has discretion to pursue revocation when a person on release is charged with a new crime. Revocations are then decided by administrative law judges, rather than sentencing judges. AB 85 would have taken away the DOC’s discretion and required that the department recommend revocation, even though new charges are based only on probable cause and could later be dropped or defeated at trial. The Assembly passed AB 85 in March along party lines with the exception of cross-over votes by one representative from each side. The Senate passed the bill in June along party lines. The bill was sent to Evers yesterday. As of today, Wisconsin holds 23,346 people in prison. The most recent available number of people on probation or parole, from May 31, is 63,420. Estimates indicated that if the bill became law, more than 4,600 additional people would end up in Wisconsin prisons each year, with a price tag of $250 million annually once the additional population was in place. In written testimony in the Legislature, even the Badger State Sheriffs’ Association and Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association questioned the bill, expressing concern about its cost and impact on jails and prisons. WJI and WJI Action's letter to the governor said that “the bill turns the long-standing American concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ on its head. The bill would require that a person on supervision is presumed guilty of a violation of the terms of release merely upon accusations of other, as yet unproved, conduct, which are made on only probable cause.” Further, WJI and WJI Action wrote, “individuals on supervision or parole already face overwhelming odds against making it to the finish line. . . . People on release face a long list of behavior controlled by the DOC, and for more than a decade, the Department of Corrections has failed to develop rules and guidance implementing 2013 Wisconsin Act 196 to provide those on release with guidance.” As WJI reported recently, Act 196 calls for DOC to develop a list of sanctions that may be imposed for the most common violations, offering “clear and immediate consequences for violations.” The law also mandates that any rule developed by DOC take into account the impact of revocation on an offender’s employment and family. WJI and WJI Action pointed out that Wisconsin’s prisons are already at capacity and that this bill sends that number higher, at great fiscal and societal cost. The organizations also questioned the removal of discretion from the DOC. Minister Roy Rogers, executive director of The Onesimus Group Milwaukee and a WJI board member with personal experience in the justice system, had this to say about the bill: "Assembly Bill 85—though cloaked in the language of accountability—is, in truth, a reactionary measure. It weakens due process, disrespects the discretion of our criminal justice professionals, and burdens our communities with costly, ineffective incarceration." "Out of the 6,280 individuals charged with new crimes while under supervision in 2019, we must ask: how many of those charges ended in actual convictions? According to the Department of Corrections and the Badger Institute, more than half did not. Yet this bill would treat every charge as though it were already a conviction—punishing men and women based solely on an accusation." "That’s not justice," he told WJI. "That’s preemptive punishment—a direct threat to the constitutional principle of 'innocent until proven guilty.' . . . Charges can stem from false accusations, mistaken identity, or insufficient evidence. And in historically over-policed, marginalized communities, we know all too well that it doesn't take much to find yourself charged." Rogers, too, noted that the bill stripped discretion from DOC agents and administrative law judges, who "weigh the severity of the violation, the individual's risk level, and history. That’s what smart justice looks like. AB 85 would remove all that wisdom and replace it with a blunt, one-size-fits-all mandate—rooted in fear, not facts." "Public safety is essential," Rogers told WJI. "But AB 85 did not offer real safety—it offered mass disruption under the guise of accountability. We cannot incarcerate our way into healthy neighborhoods. We need wiser strategies that reduce harm, restore people, and invest in transformation." By Alexandria Staubach
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections will hold a virtual hearing on July 8 for public comments on proposed new rules that could improve supervision and avoid revocations, though an advocate says the rules could be even better. More than a decade ago, the Legislature passed 2013 Wisconsin Act 196, which says the DOC “shall” create rules for a system of short-term sanctions for violations of supervision conditions, with “a list of sanctions to be imposed for the most common violations.” The rules were to give flexibility in imposing sanctions while providing “offenders with clear and immediate consequences for violations.” Implementation of the law had the potential to eliminate harsh revocation prison sentences and dramatically reduce the prison population. Instead, in 2019, the DOC created an administrative rule that an advocate says gives lip service to the law and continues opaque standards that prop up incarceration as the primary vehicle for revocation sanctions. “The rule was one sentence,” WISDOM’s Tom Gilbert recently told WJI. “It said they will adopt an evidence-based response to violations, which is what they had before the law was passed.” Gilbert calls the current administrative rule “wasted words and paper.” He strongly believes that the current rule does little to address the requirements imposed by the law. “I understand the difference between the word ‘shall’ and the word ‘may,'" Gilbert said. “When I learned about Act 196 and its potential for changing the way things are done and the consequences, I thought this could be a game changer,” said Gilbert. On behalf of WISDOM, Gilbert has been meeting with DOC about the law and rule since 2019. WISDOM is a statewide network of faith-based organizations and others advocating for racial, social and economic justice. In 2024, more than 8,000 people were admitted to Wisconsin’s prisons, and roughly 60% of those admissions were based on revocations, per DOC data. Act 196 was designed to ensure that short-term sanctions for individuals who violate the rules of their probation, parole, deferred sentence, or community supervision are tailored and take several individual factors into account. While correcting the offender’s behavior, providing proportionate consequences, and protecting the public are all objectives, the law requires DOC also to ensure “that efforts to minimize the impact on an offender’s employment” and “efforts to minimize the impact on an offender’s family” are made when imposing sanctions. Gilbert said that if DOC followed the law and considered the impacts on a person’s employment and family, it would be a radical departure from its current Electronic Case Reference Manual, which “says very little about these things.” The statute also requires DOC to be transparent about specific sanctions for the common types of rule violations. Before Act 196 passed, and continuing today, DOC has determined revocation sanctions using an evidenced-based, but proprietary, tool called “the Compass,” Gilbert said. “Because it’s a proprietary tool, no one can see how (DOC) arrives at their decisions." Defendants and defense attorneys have no way of knowing what sanctions will be imposed for what violations or how decisions to revoke are made, he said. Proper implementation of Act 196 through an improved rule could require DOC to set forth a clear list of sanctions for the most common offenses. “People would know in advance,” and “that kind of transparency is sadly lacking in supervision today,” said Gilbert. This year, DOC proposed new rules, which are the subject of the July 8 public hearing. After the hearing, interested individuals will have 30 days to submit written comments. Gilbert said the proposed rules “still will not implement the law” because they merely quote the eight requirements of Act 196 and fail to develop the mandated system of short-term sanctions. He called this a “conscious omission, not an oversight.” However, “the release of the proposed Act 196 rules for public comment provides a real opportunity to communicate our vision of a community corrections system that focuses on restoration, both of affected individuals and the communities in which they and we live,” Gilbert told WJI. More information about the hearing and how to make public comments can be found here. Nicole D. Porter, senior director of advocacy with The Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., presented "Decarceration 2.0: Charting New Strategies on Prison Population Reductions and Closures" to close to 100 attendees at Wisconsin Justice Initiative's fundraiser event on May 14. Porter discussed other states' recent efforts to reduce their prison populations, the current political climate impacting incarceration rates, and what can be done here in Wisconsin to return incarcerated people to their communities and reverse the past five decades of mass incarceration. Attendees enjoyed a cocktail hour with appetizers and engaging conversation, followed by Nicole's thought-provoking presentation and an informative question-and-answer session. The event was held in the Palm Garden at historic Turner Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you missed the event or want to watch Nicole's presentation again, click on the YouTube video link below. We admit we're not professional videographers, but the content is excellent! To better see the PowerPoint slides from the event, click here. Please share the video with those in the justice system, carceral system, and Legislature whose actions impact the rates of incarceration in Wisconsin and with concerned citizens who can use their voices to call for change. Many thanks to the following sponsors of the event: Diamond Level  Platinum Level
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Margo Kirchner Edgar Lin By Alexandria Staubach
A group of system-impacted individuals is building a coalition seeking to disrupt stagnation around criminal justice reform by using connection. Personal connection with legislators will be at the forefront. The group plans to build a relationship with every member of the Legislature, regardless of party or politics. Shannon Ross, founder and executive director of The Community, leads the effort. WJI recently sat down with Ross to talk about the coalition, its goals, and how they plan to achieve them. “As a society we should seek more collaboration,” said Ross. “There are (legislators) who genuinely agree with us,” he told WJI, “and maybe our goals are unpopular with their constituents, but we are going to find a way to connect with them … a way to help their constituents understand.” Coalitions are common among organizations, but this group intentionally includes individuals regardless of what other affiliations or professions they have. Ross hopes everyone involved will have the ability to act independently from positions that other organizations may take. Messaging will be central to the group’s success, Ross said. “We need big numbers,” he said. “We need a lot of engaged people to make this work.” The coalition includes individuals from all over Wisconsin. So far, everyone participating has engaged in policy work and two are already registered lobbyists—numbers the group hopes to expand, Ross said. While the current group members are mostly directly system-impacted individuals, Ross wants to avoid only engaging those who are system impacted. “We need everyone,” he said. Structurally, the coalition is intentionally built in opposition to the experience people have within the system, meaning there is no top-down hierarchy. It is organized from the middle outward, comprised solely of committees. While the group will have a “coalition coordinator,” no one individual will be a central figure. Ross does not anticipate winning that role. He hopes he will be able to fade into the background of coalition’s work. Ross says he was inspired by gridlock in the Legislature. He has observed “a consistent failure to get anything across the finish line that was something serious,” he told WJI. He hopes the group will be able to cross party lines and end what he described as “two decades without any real policy change.” Over the summer, the group participated in a retreat, speaking with Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Carl Ashley and former Department of Corrections secretary Kevin Carr, who left that job in 2024. While the group is still fleshing out all of its goals, Ross said he anticipates their short list will include capping supervision, and overturning truth in sentencing will be a long-term project. The coalition is still recruiting members. According to the Wisconsin Division of Community Correction year-end review, 18,909 people were on extended supervision at the end of December. Extended supervision can last decades, requiring adherence to 18 or more rules during all that time. People often find themselves back in custody for rule violations alone. In November 2024, 48% of people admitted to Wisconsin prisons were admitted solely due to revocation of supervision, regardless of whether an individual had new pending criminal charges; 16.6% of admissions were for revocations resulting from a new criminal sentence.  By Alexandria Staubach
On April 4, the Dane County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved doubling the daily wage rate paid to in-custody workers at the county jail. Incarcerated persons at the jail previously earned a wage of $3 per day for their work. Resolution 382 lifts the wage to $6 per day. The county said in the resolution that the prior rate was "insufficient” and that it would seek additional means to improve wages and combat poverty upon reentry for incarcerated persons, calling the wage raise an “interim step.” The Dane County resolution recognizes that most correctional facilities in the United States do not pay the $6 a day the county now will, and that Dane County seeks to “be an example for other communities on this issue.” Dane County has been spending about $24,000 per year on wages to incarcerated persons. The doubled annual cost is unlikely to impact the sheriff’s budget, according to a consensus of the county’s Personnel & Finance Committee. The resolution does not provide for more jobs at the jail. In November, several Democratic legislators introduced a package of 17 bills to improve conditions at correctional facilities throughout the state. The package included Assembly Bill 816/Senate Bill 862 to raise the minimum wage for incarcerated people in jails and prisons to a minimum of $2.33 per hour, which is the rate for tipped workers. The bills, introduced in December 2023, did not progress before the Legislature adjourned last month. The Dane County resolution was sponsored by Dana Pellebon, Kierstin Huelsemann, Michele Ritt, Sarah Smith, Heidi Wegleitner, and April Kigeya. By Gretchen Schuldt The number of paroles granted last year was down 82% from a peak just three years earlier, Department of Corrections figures show. The number plummeted from 201 in 2020 to just 37 in 2023.  Source: Wisconsin Department of Corrections What happened?
“We’re trying to figure that out, too,” said Mark Rice, Transformation Justice Campaign coordinator at WISDOM. The nonprofit has long been active in criminal justice reform efforts. DOC did not respond to a request for reasons behind the decline. Inmates eligible for parole are those who were convicted of crimes that occurred before the state's 1999 truth-in sentencing laws took effect. Those laws eliminated parole. The drop seems part of reduced efforts to lower prison populations, Rice said. Gov. Evers and DOC Secretary Kevin Carr took steps to cut populations during the Covid pandemic but now “it’s back to business as usual,” Rice said. The number of parole-eligible inmates declines each year as more die or serve out their sentences, but the drop in grants also appears linked to Evers' 2019 hiring and then de facto dismissal in mid-2022 of Parole Commissioner Chair John Tate II. The rise and fall in grant numbers neatly matches the dates of Tate’s employment. The Republicans ran ads attacking Tate's use of parole to release incarcerated individuals, Rice said. “Some of it was total lies” and there were “a lot of attempts to dehumanize people,” he said. Tate’s Parole Commission, which granted parole to some serious offenders, brought Evers under heavy political pressure as he sought reelection in 2022. First Evers intervened in May 2022 to successfully request Tate to rescind a decision to parole convicted murderer Douglas Balsewicz, who stabbed his wife to death in front of their children. Less than a month later, in June, Tate was gone after Evers asked him to resign. He was replaced by former State Sen. Jon Erpenbach, who assumed office in January 2023. Parole grant numbers followed the events: there were 43 grants in the first quarter of 2022, before the Balsewicz controversy blew up; then 31 in the second quarter, as the drama unfolded and Evers requested Tate's resignation. The number of grants dropped after Tate left to 19 in the third quarter and 18 in the fourth, according to DOC figures. Meanwhile, those who were paroled during Tate's tenure generally are doing well and making positive contributions in their communities, Rice said. "No human being is irredeemable," he said. Evers ran on pledges to reduce the prison population, but he and Carr have not done what is within their power, including commuting sentences and granting more compassionate releases to seriously ill inmates, he said. In Wisconsin prisons, Rice said, "The problem isn't understaffing. It's overpopulation." By Gretchen Schuldt Advocacy groups on Tuesday called on Gov. Tony Evers to expand the compassionate release program to allow the release of more aged and infirm incarcerated people from state prisons. "The prison health system cannot handle a massive outbreak of COVID-19. State officials must work to keep our communities safe without putting those serving prison sentences at unnecessary risk," the groups said in a letter to Evers. "You and the DOC (Department of Corrections) must act now to release some of those imprisoned. Lives really are at stake." The letter was signed by the Wisconsin Justice Initiative; the ACLU of Wisconsin; the Milwaukee Turners Confronting Mass Incarceration Committee; the National Lawyers Guild, Milwaukee Chapter; and WISDOM. The groups requested Evers to direct DOC to "aggressively" use the program to release qualified, low risk-people from "our overcrowded, understaffed prisons." "Wider use of compassionate release will reduce prison crowding and help prevent the spread of coronavirus," the groups wrote. "It will reduce stress on prison medical staff and take a long overdue step toward making the compassionate release program an effective and useful tool. The risks posed by coronavirus to too many incarcerated people are greater than the risks these people pose to the public. "   By Gretchen Schuldt The State Building Commission chaired by Gov. Scott Walker rejected Department of Corrections' recommendations that would help two prisons comply with Prison Rape Elimination Act guidelines, records show. And the Republican Legislature went along. DOC requested $9.4 million to replace Adams and Harris Halls at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. Both have numerous problems stemming in part from their age – they were opened in the early 1900s – and are at their population capacity or over. In addition, according to DOC's budget request, "Adams Hall also has a lack of cameras making it non-compliant with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) guidelines." The State Building Commission recommended no money be spent to replace or renovate the building, but called for Walker's Department of Administration to "conduct a comprehensive long range master plan of DOC facilities."  The commission also recommended the state entirely reject a $20 million request for the first phase of a housing unit replacement project at Fox Lake Correction Institution.
Citing a litany of problems with the existing units, DOC said in its budget request, "The layout of the older buildings has been problematic and each building requires two sergeants, where the newer buildings in the DOC system with this security level contain more beds and can be staffed with a single sergeant. Building layouts are not fully compliant with federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) guidelines." That request, too, was rejected. Again, the commission recommended a long-range facilities study. The Legislature earmarked $600,000 for the study. Walker Administration officials, in at least a public relations nod to the prison rape problem, said they disbanded the DOC internal investigative team that uncovered abuses at the state's juvenile prisons so DOC could put more effort into preventing and investigating sexual assaults behind bars. Leaders of the internal team said their jobs were changed because they had done their jobs too well, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Updated Oct. 27 - Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook contends the posted below is misleading because, he said, it misinterprets a statement in the department’s 2017-19 capital budget request. WJI stands by the post. The statement was a direct quote from the budget request: "Adams Hall also has a lack of cameras making it non-compliant with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) guidelines." Cook said an audit based on a November 2015 site visit found the prison PREA-compliant. No mention of the audit was included in the Taycheedah budget request. The department’s budget request was not meant to bring the prison into compliance, "but rather to build on our current compliance by examining ways that we can exceed standards and create an even safer environment for staff and inmates," he wrote. DOC takes a conservative approach when doing self-assessments of PREA compliance, he said. The disputed quote “reflects DOC’s opinion of its compliance, not the results of the audit, which is the only opinion which affects our statutory compliance,” Cook said in another email. (Emphasis added) |
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