By Mark Rice, WISDOM Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator
The Transformational Justice Campaign
The Transformational Justice Campaign promotes policies that:
- prevent people from going to prison
- provide justice within prisons
- help people returning from prison flourish in the community
The principle aims of the Transformational Justice Campaign are:
- For Wisconsin to invest in the programs and strategies that will end the racial and economic disparities that fuel mass incarceration.
- For Wisconsin to reduce its prison population to 11,000, and to reduce the number of people on extended supervision.
- For Wisconsinites to view people who have been convicted of a crime as human beings, members of families, and assets to the community.
- For formerly incarcerated people to be restored to full participation in communities, the economy, and civic life.
The Justice Reinvestment Campaign
We are currently working to advance a Justice Reinvestment Campaign. This Campaign has four primary demands. The demands are:
- No New Prisons!
- Cut Wisconsin’s prison population in half by
- Expanding treatment alternatives to incarceration
- Ending crimeless revocations
- Giving people a fair chance to be released on parole
- Utilizing commutations and compassionate release
- Expanding early release programs
- Ending excessive sentences
- Close Prisons
- Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI), and Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) are among the prisons that must be closed.
- Invest resources in the communities that have been most harmed by incarceration
- Investing in jobs, health care, housing, treatment programs, education, and violence prevention programs will create the type of healthier and stronger communities that we need.
Treatment Alternatives and Diversion (TAD)
The TAD program is one of the most efficient, cost-effective items in the Wisconsin state budget. Study after study over more than 12 years shows that TAD-funded programs save taxpayers more than $4 for every $1 that the state has invested.
TAD funds allow counties to establish or expand proven programs, such as Drug Treatment Courts, Veteran’s Courts, Family Courts, OWI Courts, the Safe Streets Treatment Options Program (SSTOP), and other interventions that divert people from jail or prison and into alternative programming. Besides saving money, TAD-funded programs have all proven to be more effective than incarceration for reducing recidivism. TAD-funded programs enhance public safety and save taxpayer dollars. TAD funding has also been used for programs to fund alternatives to revocation for people on probation, parole or extended supervision.
Earned Release Program (ERP)
ERP is a six-month intensive, federally-approved program designed to address substance use disorders. Currently, there are thousands of people on the waiting list for this program. Many of them could earn their way home as much as three or four years earlier than would be possible without the program. Unfortunately, there is only space to accommodate a few hundred people at a time which means that even for those who do get the opportunity to participate, it often happens shortly before they would have to be released anyway. In the meantime, each year of unnecessary incarceration costs taxpayers between $44,000 – $55,000. It is much less expensive to pay for expanded ERP programming.
Solitary Confinement
Solitary confinement for more than fifteen days is considered torture by the United Nations and is a violation of basic human rights. Despite the moral and factual evidence against solitary confinement, hundreds of incarcerated people in Wisconsin are routinely isolated in closed cells for 23 hours a day. They are virtually free of human contact, for periods of time ranging from days to decades. It has been called “segregation” or “administrative confinement,” or more recently “restrictive housing.”
Crimeless Revocations
The practice of sending people back to prison for violating a rule of their community supervision, after they have served their original sentence, accounts for more than half of all prison admissions in Wisconsin every year. Call it “crimeless revocation” or “revocation without conviction for a new crime,” this practice bloats our state prison population and forces taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions to incarcerate people who have already completed their original sentence for their crime. This is why the budget of the Department of Corrections (DOC) exceeds taxpayer funding for the entire UW System. This practice disproportionately affects people struggling with poverty, housing insecurity, mental health issues, and addiction issues. It also impacts Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities at highly disproportionate rates.
Old Law Parole
In Wisconsin, nearly 2,000 men and women remain incarcerated, even though they are legally eligible for parole under the terms of their original sentences. Their continued incarceration costs the state more than 96 million each year. All of these people were sentenced prior to the enactment of the Truth In Sentencing legislation. Consequently, many were given longer sentences with the expectation that they could be released after 25 percent of their time had been served. At this point in time, many have completed their required programs, have solid release plans, have all been incarcerated for more than 25 percent of their sentence, and many even work in the community with little to no daily supervision. Still, they are continually told that their release would impose an unreasonable risk to the public and that they have not served enough time.
Compassionate Release
This is a program in Wisconsin that enables older and severely ill people to be released early from prison.
Commutations
The Wisconsin Governor can reduce the sentence of someone serving a sentence for a state crime. This is called a commutation.
Ways to Get Involved
- Join a Local Transformational Justice Task Force
- Join a Statewide Transformational Justice Task Force
- Solitary and Conditions of Confinement
- Old Law Parole and Compassionate Release
- Post-Release Issues
- Treatment Alternatives and Diversions
- Invite a Transformational Justice Leader to do a presentation at your organization
- Get involved with our voter and candidate engagement work
For Further Information
Contact WISDOM Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator Mark Rice at [email protected] or 608-843-0171