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Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch Column: As a former Attorney General and District Attorney, Governor Jim Doyle has dedicated much of his career to making Wisconsin a good – and safe – place to live, work and raise a family. My criminal justice background spans more than a quarter-century. I am a former street cop, four-term Sheriff and state and federal prosecutor. I share the Governor’s strong commitment to keeping Wisconsin safe. I do not – and never will – support a policy that sacrifices safety for savings. There always will be a need for prisons. We know violent criminals need to stay in prison. But we also know that 97 percent of inmates will one day complete their prison term and return to the community. Make no mistake – they are coming back some day. And they can come back either rehabilitated and prepared to lead productive lives, or they can come back angry, unprepared, and more likely to cycle back into a pattern of criminal behavior, re-victimization, and re-incarceration. The latter scenario is not safe for communities, not effective for criminal justice, and not good for the taxpayer. We need a criminal justice and corrections system that holds offenders accountable for their crimes, encourages positive changes in prison, offers the chance for nonviolent offenders to be productive in Wisconsin communities, and focuses resources on more serious offenders who pose a greater risk to the safety of our communities. Governor Doyle’s 2009-11 budget moves us along a path of smart corrections reform that began when he took office in 2003. Under the last three budget cycles, we have increased the resources devoted to alcohol and drug treatment, dramatically expanded treatment options both in prison and in the community, and made more tools available to courts and our agents to hold offenders accountable. One such initiative is the Earned Release Program, which was created in 2004 to allow courts to make certain non-violent inmates eligible for an early prison release if they complete a rigorous alcohol and drug treatment program. The Governor’s 2007-09 budget expanded the Earned Release Program dramatically in an effort to help meet judicial demand. The 2009-11 budget takes the Earned Release concept to a new level by allowing us to develop new tracks within existing rehabilitation programs to address inmates’ primary needs, even if those needs are not completely related to substance abuse but reach into other critical areas, such as education or employment. The budget contains other important measures that we believe will provide inmates with new incentives to develop patterns of positive behavior, along with strong consequences if they fail to do so. These reforms are not happening in a vacuum. Wisconsin is one of more than 40 U.S. states that are making reforms to address sentencing disparities, to find safe alternatives to prison as a sanction, to advance evidence-based practices, and to deal with other challenges facing corrections and criminal justice in the 21st century. Along the way, we are keeping victims’ rights first and foremost. Victims will still have opportunities to be notified of changes in an offender’s status, and to provide input into decisions regarding early release before the decisions are made. And we will continue to hold offenders accountable to ensure restitution is repaid to victims before an offender is granted an early discharge from supervision. Let me be clear: We are not opening the back door of our prison. There is no mass exit on the horizon. In Wisconsin, we can do better. The strategies included in Governor Doyle’s 2009-11 budget will pay dividends in the long run with fewer new crimes, fewer new victims and stronger Wisconsin families and communities. These reforms are the right thing for effective criminal justice, the right thing for taxpayers and the right thing to prevent crime and keep Wisconsin safe.
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