Leon D. Young
In last year’s state budget, the Legislature endorsed language creating an inmate early release program. Under this provision, two mechanisms were identified for letting inmates out before their sentences are fully served. First, the Department of Corrections Secretary would now have the authority to release inmates who have less than a year left to serve. In the second instance, the Early Release Commission, formerly the Parole Board, can review the sentences of offenders who have served a particular percentage of their sentences and meet other criteria.
However, the current Corrections Secretary, Rick Raemisch, believes that his fledgling early release program is in big trouble and may even be eliminated next session. Since the program’s inception in January, 112 Wisconsin prisoners have been released before they served their entire sentences.
Secretary Raemisch makes a most compelling case in extolling the benefits of early release. For starters, it costs about $30,000 a year to “warehouse” an inmate, and about $3,000 a year to supervise them once they’re out. He points out that the prison beds that have been emptied by inmates who are now on the outside leading productive lives have already saved the state $900,000, and potentially millions more in the near future. Moreover, with this first substantial drop in prison population in recent memory, the state can avert having to spend $1.2 billion in new prison construction over the next decade. (Not to mention freeing up millions more in state revenue that otherwise would be spent on penal staffing and operating costs.)
The positive aspects of early release also resonate inside prison. There is now a greater incentive for inmates to behave and participate in programs that will be of benefit to them once released. Furthermore, there is a direct correlation between their behavior and their eligibility to get out of prison, which is often contingent on their participation in programs like drug and alcohol rehab, anger management, vocational education and GED programs.
Secretary Raemisch in no way should be mistaken as a bleeding-heart liberal. He is a Republican with an extensive law enforcement background (former Dane County sheriff) who has a healthy respect for the “law and order mantra” preached by his GOP brethren. But, Rick Raemisch has come to the realization that an early release program makes perfect sense: it saves scarce state dollars and makes the state a safer place.
About 40 states have undertaken action to review their sentencing policies to cut prison costs. Wisconsin corrections offi cials have been very thorough in its early release screening process, and of the 112 inmates who have been released through this program only 3 have recidivated, all with petty crimes.
Then, why is this program on the cusp of elimination and why are all three of the gubernatorial candidates (Scott Walker, Mark Neumann and Tom Barrett) either strongly opposed or extremely reticent about the program?
In my view, early release is a no brainer!