By Lee Berquist
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — For the first time, the state’s adult prison population has dropped for three straight years, the state Department of Corrections says.
The population in the state’s prison system has fallen from 23, 797 to 22, 008 - a decline of nearly 8%.
The agency applauded the decline and said it was the result of years of effort, including its implementation of its early-release program.
“This is a historic milestone for the state Department of Corrections,” Rick Raemisch, secretary of the agency, said in a statement this week.
The agency also reported that the total adult inmate population fell 3% from fiscal year 2005 to fiscal 2010.
The overall prison population increased 5.9% over the last 10 years compared with an increase of 191% the previous decade, the agency reported.
But the state’s early-release program will come under attack from the new Republicancontrolled Legislature when it takes over in January.
Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford), the incoming Assembly majority leader, said his house will pursue a “full repeal” of the early-release program.
“The early-release program has been a disaster,” Suder said.
Suder said that local law enforcement officials and neighbors where prisoners are released have no input into the process. “Fewer criminals in prison do not make our streets and cities safer,” Suder said. “The fact is that our crime rate is up. Their logic is completely flawed.” In his statement, Raemisch said Wisconsin’s early-release program has helped to hold down recidivism, which stood at 39% within three years of release from prison between 1980 and 2003.
The agency said that early release is a tool to help prisoners re-enter the community because 97% of all inmates will live to finish their court-ordered prison time and return to private life.
By working on issues such as education and alcohol and drug dependency to qualify for early release, prisoners are in a better position to make the transition from prison to private life, the agency says. The corrections department also said the average annual cost of incarceration for each inmate is $29,600.
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