Legislative Watch
Correcting the Course of Corrections
The "prison-pay-as-you-go bill" mandates fiscal
estimates and appropriations for new crime bills.
by Shirley Krug
Wisconsin's prison population continues to soar and consequently so
does the cost of our prison system. The Department of Corrections (DOC)
demands and receives an ever-bigger portion of the state budget. In
response, I have proposed what has become known as the
"prison-pay-as-you-go bill." For the first time in state history, this
bill mandates fiscal estimates and appropriations, among other things,
for new crime bills.
Rapid Rise in Prison Spending
State corrections costs threaten to outstrip those of the University
of Wisconsin System. Our general purpose revenue (GPR) contribution to
the U.W. System went up 12.2 percent from the last biennium to this one.
During that same period, GPR spending for corrections rose 26.2
percent.
Prison spending has unbalanced our system of justice. Probation and
parole agents are in short supply. Court dockets are jammed for lack of
circuit judges. Civil court cases take years to schedule in some
places.
Counties are crying for more assistant district attorneys. The
governor vetoed the addition of 17.5 such prosecutors from the budget
bill. Various measures to add assistant district attorneys this year
have been proposed. Whether they will be approved cannot be
predicted.
And the justice system is just one example of a vital area of state
government that is forced to scrape by while our prisons absorb an
ever-larger share of our financial resources.
Political Motivations
Let's be honest: One reason that prison spending has spun out of
control is that legislators want to establish records for being tough on
crime. When a particularly heinous or troubling crime occurs, we are
assured that someone will offer a new bill enhancing the penalty. These
bills have come to be called "crime du jour legislation."
Here are some facts about our prison system in the "crime du jour"
era:
- Between 1990 and 1999 the Wisconsin prison population increased by
162 percent. DOC costs have more than doubled in that time.
- Wisconsin's prison population grew by 19 percent from summer 1997 to
summer 1998, while the national prison population grew by 4.8
percent.
Wisconsin has enjoyed an economic boom for several years. Tax
revenues have grown steadily. Still, our state budgets remain tight,
largely because of the costs of running prisons and building new
ones.
To reach your state legislator
Address your correspondence:
State Representative (Name)
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8952 (Reps. A-L)
Madison, WI 53707-8952
or
State Representative (Name)
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8953 (Reps. M-Z)
Madison, WI 53707-8953
or
State Senator (Name)
State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882
Madison, WI 53707-7882
Legislative Hotline: (800) 362-9472
In Wisconsin, lawmakers have been free to enact stiffer penalties or
create new crimes unmindful of burgeoning correctional system costs.
That is because crime bills are the only spending bills for which fiscal
estimates or appropriations are not required.
Unlike other programs, the costs of enhanced penalties continue even
if the law enacting them is revoked. Anyone convicted under an enhanced
penalty will remain in prison until the sentence is completed.
Some 70 percent of police chiefs surveyed said they thought
prevention programs offer a more effective crime deterrent strategy than
trying more juvenile offenders as adults. The survey was conducted in
October 1999 by Stephen Mastrofski and Scott Keeter, professors at
George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The study was commissioned by
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a bipartisan, nonprofit organization of
police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, and victims of violence.
After-school and educational child care programs are more effective
than hiring more police officers or putting surveillance cameras in
schools, according to 87 percent of the police chiefs surveyed by
Mastrofski and Keeter.
The problem in Wisconsin continues to be that legislators use the
wealth of the state disproportionately for bars and bricks. Local
prevention programs like those preferred by the police chiefs get
whatever is left, if anything. Strategies that might really take a bite
out of crime in the long run apparently don't have the political appeal
that "crime du jour" bills do.
Getting Back on Course
The "prison-pay-as-you-go bill" is designed to inject fiscal reality
and responsibility into this atmosphere of prison expansion. Here are
the main provisions:
- A fiscal estimate is required for any bill that would create a new
crime, increase the period of imprisonment for an existing crime, or
increase the period of probation or parole. Currently all bills that
affect state or local costs must include such an estimate, with the
exception of crime bills.
- Both houses of the Legislature are prohibited from voting on a crime
bill unless an appropriation is attached.
- The appropriation for each new crime or penalty enhancement law must
equal the amount of additional operational and capital costs for housing
prisoners for two years.
- The money appropriated would be set aside in a corrections special
reserve fund that could be used only for debt payments on correctional
facilities, DOC operational costs, or community corrections programs.
- Any interest created by the reserve fund would be used for child
abuse prevention efforts. Child abuse is a major factor in contributing
to criminal behavior.
Wide Bipartisan Support
This proposal was forged with participation by staff from the
Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Legislative Council, Department of
Corrections, and Dane County. Bipartisan supporters include Attorney
General Jim Doyle, Senate Republican Leader Mary Panzer, Wisconsin
Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin Education Association Council,
and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees.
Conclusion
State Rep. Shirley Krug was
elected Democratic Leader of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1998, the
first woman to lead Democrats in
either house. She has served 16 years in the Legislature, representing
Milwaukee's northwest side.
Krug holds a master's degree in economics from U.W.-Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Gov. Thompson
said he will sign this bill if it gets to his desk.
"I think the legislators need to know that every time they pass a
bill that's going to lock people up that there's a cost to it," the
newspaper quoted Gov. Thompson as saying. "I know from looking at all
the budgets that I have to on prisons, and on opening up a prison, how
expensive it is," the governor added.
It is imperative that we put crime bills on the same footing as every
other piece of legislation that spends money. We need to determine the
costs and find the dollars. If we don't, the operating expense of our
prison system might put every other important goal of state government
at risk.
This bill will not prevent passage of crime bills. What it will do,
for the first time, is put these proposals into direct competition with
bills to cut taxes or enhance programs.
For the good of our state, that is how it must be. I invite readers
to call their legislators and urge them to support the
"prison-pay-as-you-go" measure. The legislative hotline number for
contacting legislators is (800) 362-9427.
Wisconsin
Lawyer