Washington Co., WI – Governor Tony Evers campaigned on a platform of cutting our state’s prison population in half. As governor, he claimed that 75-85% of inmates were there for drug-related offenses, a falsehood which received a “Pants on Fire” rating from PolitiFact. Unfortunately, lies such as these lead to the false humanitarianism preached by those who advocate for a soft on crime approach to criminal justice.
Like the governor, I would like to see fewer people in prison, but the only way to get there is to have fewer people committing crimes. Emptying our prisons will do nothing if it fills our communities with unreformed criminals.
Furthermore, being soft on crime will definitely not reduce the number of crimes occurring in our communities. It certainly did not prevent Darrell Brooks from killing several innocent bystanders at the Waukesha Christmas parade. Brooks was a repeat offender with a history of forfeiting bail and violating conditions of release, and yet he had recently been released on a pitiful $1,000 bail when he went on his killing rampage. The court had no business granting such a routine bail amount.
To that end, I recently joined many of my colleagues in the Milwaukee area in issuing a letter to Governor Evers calling for the removal of DA John Chisholm as Milwaukee County District Attorney. We are also introducing a package of bills to prevent judges and district attorneys from setting lax bond policies for repeat violent offenders and defendants with a history of bail jumping.
But having people in place who do take a hard stand against crime does nothing if they don’t have effective laws to enforce. That’s why the legislature has been taking action to improve our legal environment to ensure that we can go after criminals.
I’m sure you are familiar with the long list of Darrell Brooks’ crimes. His most recent is victim intimidation. Shortly after his arrest for his killing rampage in Waukesha, Brooks intimidated the victim of his prior domestic abuse over the phone from jail. Thanks to our state’s witness intimidation laws, recently strengthened by my bill, 2019 Wisconsin Act 112, Brooks can be charged with additional felonies. We need more bills like this to hold criminals accountable for their actions.
Our criminal justice system has undergone more scrutiny than any other arm of the government in recent years. While this scrutiny has uncovered some deficiencies, it also has revealed the crucial role our police play in protecting our families. Defunding our police will not get the job done. Rest assured legislative Republicans will continue to back the badge and support our law enforcement.
