Republican legislators still pushing for more punishment

Mosaics with symbols of legislation, justice, and government from the interior of the Capitol dome in Madison, Wisconsin. Photographs by Margo Kirchner

By Alexandria Staubach
 
The Assembly’s Committee on the Judiciary held a public hearing this week on five bills, all of which seek to make the criminal legal system more punitive.
 
In a perplexing move, legislators again introduced a bill that limits prosecutorial discretion in dismissing and amending charges for certain offenses and offering deferred prosecutions for a list of crimes. The new bill is AB-66.
 
A similar bill made its way through the Legislature late last session but Gov. Tony Evers vetoed it.
 
Multiple law enforcement association representatives appeared at Tuesday’s hearing to testify in favor of the bill. Considerable frustration was directed at dismissals, specifically in Milwaukee.
 
Alexander Ayala, president of Milwaukee’s police association union said, “if it’s not put nicely, in a nice case, with all the evidence and everything, they just get dismissed,” regarding cases that include charges for felon in possession of a weapon. The charge is used as a “bargaining chip,” said Ayala, who shared concerns about rearresting the same individuals on multiple occasions.
 
“If a case isn’t gift wrapped and perfectly presented, some people aren’t willing to put in a little extra effort,” said James Olson, testifying in support of the measure for the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association.
 
When asked why he thought so many gun cases were being dismissed, Olson first said he wouldn’t speculate, but then said he has heard “prosecutorial discretion or everybody deserves another chance.”
 
The proposed new law would not be limited to cases involving possession of a weapon after felony conviction. Even misdemeanor acts of domestic abuse and violations of temporary restraining orders would be implicated.
 
Including those misdemeanor cases in the bill causes concern for Christian Gossett, a 23-year veteran prosecutor in Winnebago County. Gossett testified that domestic violence victims often recant their testimony. He worried that having to tell a judge and the defense all the problems with their case in open court, as the proposed new law would require, would not help anyone.
 
“If you’re coaching a football team and you had to go tell the coach on the other team what you’re going to do, you will lose all the time,” said Gossett. “This is not manageable for prosecutors.”
 
He highlighted the diversion work being done in his office’s domestic violence unit, which he said has a recidivism rate of just 3.9% at three years postconviction. By contrast he said traditionally 60-65% of individuals convicted of a domestic violence crime who go through the system will reoffend in 5 years.
 
Gossett was the only person to testify in person against the bill.
 
ACLU of Wisconsin’s executive director of advocacy, Amanda Merkwae, submitted written testimony opposing the bill.
 
“There are a multitude of reasons why a charge may be dismissed or amended by a prosecutor, including the innocence of an individual charged with a crime, insufficient evidence for a charge to stand, or constitutional concerns with police action,” wrote Merkwae.
 
She cautioned that “AB-66 will exacerbate the downstream social and economic harms of overcriminalization to individuals, families, and communities.”
 
The committee also heard testimony on AB-85 at Tuesday’s hearing. That bill would require the Department of Corrections to recommend revoking a person’s probation, parole, or extended supervision for merely being charged with (not convicted of) a new crime.
 
Revocations already make up the majority of new incarcerations in Wisconsin. In 2024, 60% of new prison admissions were for revocation, according to records published by the DOC. There were more than 8,000 revocation incarcerations in 2024 alone.
 
Under the current scheme, an administrative law judge decides whether an individual charged with a new offense gets revoked following charges for a new offense, but revocation must first be recommended by the DOC.
 
“It may come as a surprise, but a convicted criminal on community supervision is not immediately revoked if they’re charged with another crime,” said Rep. Brent Jacobson (R-Mosinee), the lead sponsor of both bills.
 
In his testimony to the committee, Jacobson said 6,280 individuals who were charged with new offenses were not revoked in 2019.
 
Without defining the cost, Jacobson argued that the price of this recidivism is high if we consider case load costs across law enforcement and the resources of the courts.
 
However, Jacobson failed to recognize that the average cost to incarcerate an individual now exceeds $65,000 at Waupun Correctional Institution (a maximum-security facility) and $46,000 at Fox Lake Correctional Institution (a medium-security facility), per the DOC’s 2024 end-of-year reports.
 
“A person who has been charged with a crime while on release has violated that promise of good behavior” said the bill’s cosponsor, Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield).
 
Olson reiterated Hutton’s point, saying “I don’t know how many chances we need to keep giving people.”
 
Sean Wilson of Dream.org spoke in opposition to the bill. “Discretion is essential to justice,” he said, adding that the legislation undermines the presumption of innocence and would “exacerbate inequalities.”
 
Wilson cited the need for wrap-around services to promote success in reentry instead of another mechanism to ensnare people in the justice system. “The Department of Corrections already recommends revocation in the majority of cases,” Wilson said. “To add another layer where you’re mandating what they’re already doing doesn’t make sense.”
 
Wilson called the bill a “waste of paper.”
 
The committee also discussed:

• AB-87: Would prevent individuals with felony convictions who have otherwise completed their sentence but may have outstanding fines, costs, fees, surcharges, and restitution from having their right to vote restored. In her written testimony, Merkwae called the legislation “a modern poll tax.”
• AB-86: Would impose the penalty of life imprisonment for the crime of child trafficking.