By Alexandria Staubach
Today, the Milwaukee Common Council’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee unanimously approved a legislative lobbying plan that includes amending state law to increase use of jail as punishment and to eliminate protections against jailing of the poor by municipal courts. The state legislative package approved by the committee Monday morning describes what city representatives should pursue with the Legislature in 2025 and 2026. That the committee would take up the package was announced late Friday. Wisconsin Justice Initiative, the ACLU of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Turners, and several individuals were denied the opportunity to speak about the package, despite appearing in person at the meeting on short notice. In explanation, Alderperson Mark Chambers, Jr. said the document was a “living file” and in theory subject to change. Alderperson Robert Bauman encouraged interested people and entities to reach out to their alderpeople individually. “It felt a bit like a cold shoulder on a 12-degree day,” said James Gramling, WJI board member and former municipal court judge, who attended the committee meeting. WJI and others specifically sought to address the legislative priority of amending state law to increase the use of jail to enforce municipal forfeitures. Many municipal judges have decreased the use of jail commitments to enforce municipal forfeitures, as such jail time is widely considered counterproductive and harmful to low-income individuals. The ACLU of Wisconsin recently released a report highlighting how carceral sanctions in Wisconsin’s municipal courts inherently criminalize poverty and result in racially disparate effects. The city's legislative priority would have its lobbyists pushing for statutes permitting municipal courts to impose jail time “as a penalty for individuals who have failed to appear in court and have accumulated more than 15 outstanding citations or owe $20,000 or more in unpaid fines.” But Wisconsin law already permits jail time for any unpaid monetary judgment ordered by a municipal court, not just after a certain dollar amount accumulates. Using jail as punishment for those with 15 or more citations, though, is new. Importantly, an alternative proposed change would eliminate protections that prevent poor defendants from jail time when they do not have the ability to pay. The city’s lobbying proposal seeks to “waive the requirements” of the statute that “limits the use of jail sentences in certain situations.” Those "certain situations" include when a defendant is deemed impoverished and lacks the ability to pay municipal court forfeitures, such as when a defendant receives public benefits. “The proposal to waive these requirements will essentially recreate debtor’s prisons—a torturous, outdated and unconstitutional relic openly forbidden by Congress in 1833 and condemned by everyone from Charles Dickens to Michelle Alexander,” Emilio De Torre, executive director of the Milwaukee Turners, told WJI. The state legislative package includes more than one hundred priorities, which its executive summary says are designed to “reflect Milwaukee’s unwavering commitment to a brighter future” and “shape Milwaukee’s development for years to come.” Bauman described the document as a “big wish list.” The committee unanimously adopted the legislative plan as proposed. It will go to the Milwaukee Common Council for approval before heading to the mayor’s desk.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Donate
Help WJI advocate for justice in Wisconsin
|