This post from Prison Policy explains why local prison gerrymandering is a problem and how local governments have been prohibited from addressing the issue by a 1981 Wisconsin attorney general decision.
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Racial Disparity in Wisconsin Felony Sentences
Columnist Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the news last week that Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack has been sitting on a year-old study that showed a clear pattern of racial disparity in Wisconsin prison sentences. Specifically, the study shows substantial racial differences in the likelihood
Read moreDane County Jail Downsizing
Dane County Jail Downsizing: How was it accomplished and who was still in on May 9, 2020? Link to PDF version of this report Author: Pamela Oliver, analyzing data collected by Eric Howland. Data source: Scraping daily web reports of Dane County Jail. In custody status as of 6:30 a.m.
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Racial Disparities in Plea Bargaining in Dane County 2000-2006
A forthcoming research article, (and now published) by Carlos Berdejó a professor of Law at Loyola of Los Angeles who also has a PhD in economics, has documented racial disparities in the plea bargaining process in Dane County, Wisconsin (home of the University of Wisconsin – Madison) in the years 2000-2006.
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For Closing the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility
Activists in Wisconsin’s Close MSDF coalition are focusing attention on the inhumane conditions in the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF) and the problem of crimeless revocations that send people there. The MSDF was built in 2001 to house people temporarily who had been accused of violating the terms of their
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Use of Pepper Spray to “Fog” Inmates in Jail: A National Trend?
Police use of force has recently stirred widespread public interest and concern. Recent use of force incidents have been well-publicized on social media due to the ability of the public to witness and video record police actions. However, owing to the fact that the operations of jails and prisons are
Read moreAnother bad idea: automatic revocation if charged with a crime
Hopefully the enormous costs will dissuade legislators from passing a bill that would require the Wisconsin Department of Corrections to automatically recommend revocation of anyone “charged with a crime.” The bill literally says “charged with a crime.” Not a felony, not a violent crime, “a crime.” Although ordinances that are
Read moreClock restarting and Wisconsin’s Revocation Problem
A quirk in Wisconsin’s Truth in Sentencing law increases the “churning” in and out of prison via revocation and creates the possibility for massive injustice & increases costs.[i] A Wisconsin sentence has a total length that is divided into two parts, imprisonment and extended supervision in the community. If a
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Offense, Admission Types, In Prison Vs. Admitted
I’ve written several posts trying to clarify the reasons you will get a different mix of offenders in a snapshot of who is in prison versus the flow of prison admissions. This also comes up as we compare the combination of offense type and admission type. To illustrate this,
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Wisconsin Imprisonment Trends By Offense
A reporter’s inquiry led me to look into the changing mix of offenses among people in Wisconsin’s prisons 2000-2014. This is a short version of a longer report about what what I found. A report in the Wisconsin Taxpayer Magazine provides a substantial amount of analysis, including summaries of important policies
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