At the State Bar President’s Symposium on Disparate Incarceration in February, I began my remarks by stating we need to have a private conversation about implicit bias and race.
Judge Joe Donald, Marquette 1988, is a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, currently assigned to the Criminal Division, and serves as Milwaukee’s deputy chief judge.
Implicit bias occurs when people hold negative, albeit subtle, views about those who are unlike themselves. These views are often so subtle that people may be unaware they even have them.
I am recommending a private conversation because it would enable people to discuss their innermost thoughts and ideas freely, without being labeled, judged, or discounted.
This conversation would need to be honest and open so we can get beyond our own isolated, myopic perspectives.
If we are to make progress resolving the issue of mass incarceration, we have to become aware of our own implicit biases. I challenge us all, especially members of the bar, to engage in these difficult conversations.
We have to carefully assess who we define as dangerous, who needs to be locked up and for how long. We also have to realize the impact mass incarceration has on our communities – and how it destroys neighborhoods, families, and children’s lives.
We have created an
environment in our own
state in which one in eight
African-American men is
incarcerated.
We have to ask ourselves why we have indicted entire zip codes, and why so many of us are unable to see the impact mass incarceration has on the humanity and dignity of our fellow citizens.
By locking up so many, we weaken families, the bedrock of strong and healthy communities. This point is poignantly portrayed in the documentary, “Milwaukee 53206.”
The world of 53206 is real for so many. We have created an environment in our own state in which one in eight African-American men is incarcerated.
As a circuit court judge, I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have told a young black man that he is now a convicted felon, that he may not vote, that he is remanded into the custody of the Department of Corrections and, for all intents and purposes, his future is fundamentally changed – forever. Any hope or dream of a better life for himself or his family will now be more difficult to achieve simply because of that pronouncement.
Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate of black men in the nation. This is a fact that cannot be ignored or rationalized and it must not be denied. When we talk about race and biases, we have to keep this ugly truth in mind.
So when the proposition is put forth that mass incarceration is only the result of people engaging in criminal activity, and not the result of our implicit biases, we all bear the burden of the loss of so much human potential, no matter the cause.
And if no one cares to have this conversation, then I call the question now. And that is, is it okay for Wisconsin to lead the nation with the highest percentage of African-American men in prison.
I say it’s not. What do you say?
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Mass and disparate incarceration continues to plague our communities. But what can Wisconsin do to improve the system? Speakers share their ideas for tackling one of the most important justice issues in our state.