Carr promises improvements and new action from Gov. Evers on criminal justice reform

Gov. Tony Evers is planning an aggressive year on criminal justice reform in 2020.

That was the message from Kevin Carr, secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, at a recent panel during the fifth and final part of Milwaukee Turners' program "Confronting Mass Incarceration." 

Conor Williams, an economist and policy analyst from Community Advocates, hosted the panel featuring Sylvester Jackson, a community organizer for EX-incarcerated People Organizing; Christine Apple, chief psychologist at Wisconsin Department of Corrections' Milwaukee Community Corrections; Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor; and Carr.

Carr pointed out that Evers reinstituted the pardon board responsible for pardoning those who are released and said the governor will roll out a plan to address crimeless revocations in the spring and is looking to implement it by mid-year. Crimeless revocations send people on community supervision back to prison for technical violations.

Carr also said the new Wisconsin Parole Commission chairman, John Tate II, is developing a plan to address the 3,000 people still in prison under old sentencing laws.

On a programming note, Carr said the department is partnering with Milwaukee Area Technical College to bring an online associate degree program to all their medium-security facilities across the state.

He recently purchased a $600,000 mobile lab that can travel to multiple prisons and teach prisoners how to weld and operate heavy machinery.

He said this coming year will represent his first chance to put a budget together, the 2021-23 budget, and he plans on requesting more money for such training and resources.

The panelists also rehashed old issues: the need for psychological, job skills and training programs on the front end to keep people out of prison in the first place; the lack of diversity among most corrections staff; and what some called Evers’ slow pace on criminal justice reform.

Jackson said that even though Evers is facing a Republican Legislature reluctant to pass criminal justice reform laws, he has the power to commute the sentences of the elderly and people sent to prison for crimeless revocations.

“We need to find out if the governor is going to speed up the process to get some of these people out,” Jackson said.

Still, Carr cautioned the audience against seeking quick solutions through executive actions, explaining that such actions could quickly be undone by a new administration.

“If you want significant change that’s going to have a permanent impact, you have to get buy-in from the Legislature,” he insisted.

Reformers like Jackson want more peer support and earned release programs. Wisconsin currently has two: Thinking for a Change (T4C) and Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Substance Abuse (CBISA).

Klingele said a piecemeal release of prisoners won’t reduce prison costs.

“There will be no cost savings anywhere unless we shut down prisons, and that is going to take large-scale change,” she said.

While Carr said he and the governor have no interest in building new prisons, he agreed changes need to take place.

“What is not working right now is what we’re currently doing,” he said.

What do you think should be done to reform criminal justice?

Contact Talis Shelbourne at (414) 223-5261 or tshelbourn@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @talisseer and Facebook at @talisseer.

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