State of Wisconsin Archives: on Crime
Mandela Barnes:
Critical of racial disparities in police actions
Barnes was outspoken in the 2018 campaign, accusing Walker of ignoring "people who look like me." Barnes also was outspoken following the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. Barnes criticized
Trump for visiting the city amid protests after the shooting. And Barnes was critical of how police reacted to Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teenager who shot and killed two protesters during a violent night of protests.
Source: Associated Press on 2022 Wisconsin Senate race
Jul 20, 2021
Tony Evers:
Granted the first pardons in our state in nine years
I also promised that criminal justice reform would be a central focus of my administration. Part of reforming our criminal justice system is believing in forgiveness and the power of redemption--things that I think speak to the character of our state.
I made good on my campaign promise to reinstate the pardon review board. We granted the first pardons in our state in nine years, offering forgiveness and a second chance to folks who've made amends in their lives and communities.
Source: 2020 Wisconsin State of the State address
Jan 22, 2020
Tammy Baldwin:
Criminal justice system needs review to ensure fairness
Senator Baldwin helped reintroduce the˙National Criminal Justice Commission Act, legislation that would task a National Criminal Justice Commission to propose reforms to address issues facing the criminal justice system. Our criminal justice system
needs a top-to-bottom review to ensure we're doing everything we can to promote public safety, reduce crime and lower recidivism rates. This effort is an important step in the right direction to keep communities safe and make the system more fair.
Source: 2022 Wisconsin Senate campaign website baldwin.senate.gov
Oct 16, 2019
Phil Anderson:
End mandatory minimum sentences
A: OPPOSE! We need massive criminal justice reform, including marijuana legalization, ending mandatory minimum sentencing, jury nullification, a robust pardoning and expungement program, and restoring voting rights to parolees and the incarcerated.
Source: OnTheIssues interview of 2018 Wisconsin Governor candidate
May 18, 2018
Kelda Helen Roys:
Stricter punishment doesn't reduce crime
Q: Do you support or oppose the statement, "Stricter punishment reduces crime"?
A: Strongly Oppose
Source: OnTheIssues interview of 2018 Wisconsin Governor candidate
May 5, 2018
Kathleen Vinehout:
Revamp policies so we don't jail so many
We have to change our criminal laws so we are not jailing twice as many of our citizens as Minnesota. Truth in Sentencing standards need to be changed. Bail procedures must be changed.
We need treatment alternatives to prison for those with substance abuse and mental health problems. We need more effective probation and parole. Supports are essential in helping those released from prison to reintegrate into our communities.
Source: 2018 Wisconsin Gubernatorial website KathleenVinehout.org
Feb 22, 2018
Bob Harlow:
Get people out of prisons and back to living their lives
Harlow posted on Twitter: "We need to get people out of prisons and back to living their lives. #CriminalJusticeSystem"
OnTheissues note: The hashtag "#CriminalJusticeSystem" is associated with a desire for reforming prisons and favoring alternative punishment.
Source: Twitter posting on 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial race
Dec 31, 2017
Leah Vukmir:
Law and order is a critical issue
President Trump talked a lot about law and order during the campaign, and Leah Vukmir agrees this is a critical issue. We must make sure our police officers have the equipment & tools they need to combat violent criminals and keep our communities safe.
Leah has introduced multiple pieces of legislation to toughen penalties for violent criminals because she believes we need to send a message to repeat felons that their behavior will not be tolerated.
Those that keep Americans safe at home are our brave first responders--our police and firefighters. Leah stands with their efforts to keep us safe and believes the unfair attacks on police officers
specifically by the fringe left need to stop. Police officers deserve our praise and thanks, not protests and attacks.
Source: 2018 Wisconsin Senate campaign website LeahVukmir.com
Aug 10, 2017
Bernie Sanders:
We need fundamental police reform
CLINTON: We have to restore policing that will actually protect the communities that police officers are sworn to protect. But, I would also add this. There are other racial discrepancies.
Really systemic racism in this state, as in others, education, in employment, in the kinds of factors that too often lead from a position where young people, particularly young men, are pushed out of school early, are denied employment opportunities.
So, when we talk about criminal justice reform and ending the era of mass incarceration, we also have to talk about jobs, education, housing, and other ways of helping communities.
SANDERS: We need fundamental police reform. I would hope that we could all agree that we are sick and tired of seeing videos on television of unarmed people, often African-Americans, shot by police officers.
Source: 2016 PBS Democratic debate in Wisconsin
Feb 11, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
By 2020, I pledge to have fewer people in jail than China
Where we are failing is in the very high rate of recidivism we see. People are being released from jail without the education, without the job training, without the resources they need to get their lives together, then they end up back in jail.
When we have more people in jail, disproportionately African American and Latino, than China does, a communist authoritarian society four times our size. At the end of my first term as president we will not have more people in jail than any other country
Source: 2016 PBS Democratic debate in Wisconsin
Feb 11, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Whites & blacks smoke pot equally, but blacks go to jail
What we have to do is end over-policing in African- American neighborhoods. The African-American community and the white community do marijuana at about equal rates. The reality is four times as many blacks get arrested for marijuana. Far more blacks get
stopped for traffic violations. We need fundamental police reform when we talk about a criminal justice system. What we have got to do is make it clear that any police officer who breaks the law will be held accountable.
Source: 2016 PBS Democratic debate in Wisconsin
Feb 11, 2016
Glenn Grothman:
Community notification when sex offenders become residents
2013-2014 Legislative Accomplishments: Bills passed and signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker- AB 161: Reforming court powers on injunctions of state law
- AB 290: Wrongfully convicted/imprisoned: Robert Lee Stinson
- AB 612: Allowing the victim
to view their portion of the pre-sentence investigation report
- SB 294: Access by Assistant Attorney General to a pre-sentence investigation report
- SB 599: Public defender access to health records
- SB 668: Requiring notification of the community
when a sex offender becomes a resident in the area.
2011-2012 Legislative Session: Bills passed and signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker- SB 202--Act 219: elimination of compensatory and punitive damages for acts of employment discrimination
or unfair honesty or genetic testing.
- SB 399--Act 285: the admissibility of hearsay evidence at a preliminary examination.
Source: 2014 Wisconsin House campaign website, GlennGrothman.com
May 31, 2014
Mark Neumann:
Death penalty for terrorism convicts
Question 13. Should those convicted of carrying out a terrorist attack in the United States regardless of country or origin be given a death penalty?
Mark Neumann: Yes
Tommy Thompson: Yes
Source: 2012 Wisconsin Tea Party Senate Debate Questionnaire
Aug 13, 2012
Tommy Thompson:
Death penalty for terrorism convicts
Question 13. Should those convicted of carrying out a terrorist attack in the United States regardless of country or origin be given a death penalty?
Mark Neumann: Yes
Tommy Thompson: Yes
Source: 2012 Wisconsin Tea Party Senate Debate Questionnaire
Aug 13, 2012
Jim Doyle:
Expand definition of what constitutes criminal incest
Legislative Summary: AB27: Under current law, a person who has sexual intercourse with a blood relative, if the relationship would prohibit them from legally marrying, is guilty of a felony. This bill expands the definition of "sexual
intercourse" to include cunnilingus, fellatio, or anal intercourse or any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person's body or of any object into the genital or anal opening.Twin Cities Pioneer Press analysis:The measure's
author said prosecutors told him of a 2007 Milwaukee County case in which a man was accused of having oral sex with his developmentally disabled adult daughter. The man was charged with incest, but the count was thrown out because the allegations didn't
involve vaginal sex.
Legislative Outcome: Passed Assembly 86-10-3 on Apr/23/09; Passed Senate by Unanimous consent (no roll call) on May/13/09; Signed by Governor Jim Doyle on May/21/09
Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press on Wisconsin AB27 voting records
May 21, 2009
Leah Vukmir:
Expand definition of what constitutes criminal incest
Legislative Summary: AB27: Under current law, a person who has sexual intercourse with a blood relative, if the relationship would prohibit them from legally marrying, is guilty of a felony. This bill expands the definition of "sexual
intercourse" to include cunnilingus, fellatio, or anal intercourse or any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person's body or of any object into the genital or anal opening.Twin Cities Pioneer Press analysis:The measure's
author said prosecutors told him of a 2007 Milwaukee County case in which a man was accused of having oral sex with his developmentally disabled adult daughter. The man was charged with incest, but the count was thrown out because the allegations didn't
involve vaginal sex.
Legislative Outcome: Passed Assembly 86-10-3 on Apr/23/09; State Rep. Leah Vukmir voted YES; Passed Senate by Unanimous consent (no roll call) on May/13/09; Signed by Governor Jim Doyle on May/21/09
Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press on Wisconsin AB27 voting records
Apr 23, 2009
Tom Nelson:
Expand definition of what constitutes criminal incest
Legislative Summary: AB27: Under current law, a person who has sexual intercourse with a blood relative, if the relationship would prohibit them from legally marrying, is guilty of a felony. This bill expands the definition of "sexual
intercourse" to include cunnilingus, fellatio, or anal intercourse or any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person's body or of any object into the genital or anal opening.Twin Cities Pioneer Press analysis:The measure's
author said prosecutors told him of a 2007 Milwaukee County case in which a man was accused of having oral sex with his developmentally disabled adult daughter. The man was charged with incest, but the count was thrown out because the allegations didn't
involve vaginal sex.
Legislative Outcome: Passed Assembly 86-10-3 on Apr/23/09; State Rep. Tom Nelson voted YES; Passed Senate by Unanimous consent (no roll call) on May/13/09; Signed by Governor Jim Doyle on May/21/09
Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press on Wisconsin AB27 voting records
Apr 23, 2009
Tom Barrett:
My police department arrests felons instead of hiring them
In the final debate between the two candidates, Barrett accused Walker of dirty tactics for airing a crime-themed ad he compared to the notorious "Willie Horton" spot--and then he all but called Walker a crook: "I have a police department that arrests
felons," Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, said in the debate's most charged exchange. "He has a practice of hiring them" [referring to the John Doe scandal].The ad in question, being aired by Walker's campaign, opens with the blurred face of a 2-year-
old who died after being hospitalized for child abuse. "But Tom Barrett's police department didn't consider it a violent crime," the narrator intones, going on to conclude that Barrett "isn't telling the truth."
The Milwaukee police department failed
to correctly report many violent crimes, making the city's crime statistics look better than they actually were. But Barrett contends that the ad's emotionally charged imagery all but accuses him of killing a small child.
Source: The Atlantic on 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall debate
Jun 5, 2002
Tommy Thompson:
Zero tolerance approach to crime
Gov. Thompson believes the most fundamental responsibility of government is to provide a safe environment for its citizens to live, work and play. Therefore, the governor takes a zero tolerance approach to crime. The governor is dedicated to making
sure Wisconsin remains a safe haven for its citizens and visitors.1999 crime statistics indicate state residents are enjoying the lowest total of index crimes in 26 years (index crimes include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault).
Source: Wisconsin Governor’s web site
Dec 25, 2000
Tommy Thompson:
Truth in Sentencing, no exceptions
Gov. Thompson eliminated the charade of parole and mandatory release, imposing a new program called Truth in Sentencing.The program is as straightforward as it sounds: a criminal will serve 100 percent of his or her sentence. No exceptions.
No excuses. From now on, when a judge hands down a 20-year sentence, the criminal will serve 20 years behind bars. “We are weighting the scales of justice back in favor of the law-abiding citizens of Wisconsin,” Gov. Thompson said.
Judges will now hand down two sentences: a prison sentence and an extended supervision sentence. The extended supervision sentence must be at least 25 percent of the prison sentence. Therefore, on a 20-year prison sentence, the
criminal must spend at least five years under extended supervision after serving his sentence.
Source: Wisconsin Governor’s web site
Dec 25, 2000
Tommy Thompson:
Life means life, no possibility of parole
Gov. Thompson also eliminates time off for good behavior and replaces it with more time for bad behavior. Prison officials can now extend a disruptive prisoner’s time behind bars as well as transfer a prisoner to a more secure and strict prison.
The governor created a “life means life” law that allows judges to sentence murderers to prison without the possibility of parole.
Source: Wisconsin Governor’s web site
Dec 25, 2000
Page last updated: Oct 14, 2021