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n2doc

(47,953 posts) Mon Jun 8, 2015, 11:18 AM Jun 2015

Scott Walker Is Clueless About His Jails

Unbeknownst to the governor, Wisconsin’s jails are flooded with non-violent offenders—and he may pay a price for his ignorance on the 2016 campaign trail.

Gov. Scott Walker says he is proud of the way Wisconsin handles non-violent criminals.

The Badger State governor traveled to Disney's Magic Kingdom last week to speak at a forum hosted by Florida Governor Rick Scott for some of the 2016 presidential contenders. He spoke very highly of his own record on criminal justice.

“I think, nationally, that’s something we need to look at,” Walker said, discussing reform of mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders. “In our state, we have relatively few compared to the federal government.”

Then he added, “The challenges in terms of people being incarcerated for relatively low offenses is not a significant issue in the state of Wisconsin.”

The only problem? Criminal justice advocates argue he’s totally wrong.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/08/scott-walker-is-clueless-about-his-jails.html

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Scott Walker Is Clueless About His Jails (Original Post) n2doc Jun 2015 OP

The Wisconsin prison population grew from about 8,000 in 1985 Jackpine Radical Jun 2015 #1

Scott Walker is clueless. Lifelong Protester Jun 2015 #2

You got there... 3catwoman3 Jun 2015 #3

The line wrote itself. Lifelong Protester Jun 2015 #4

No. He doesn't care. He's heartless, not clueless. nt valerief Jun 2015 #6

GOPers only need image, not truth. Fact-checking is for woosy liberals. nt valerief Jun 2015 #5

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)

1. The Wisconsin prison population grew from about 8,000 in 1985

Reply to n2doc (Original post)

Mon Jun 8, 2015, 11:26 AM

Jun 2015

to 23,000 today. And that doesn't count the people in jail. In WI, sentences of under 1 year are customarily served in county jails, while longer ones are served in state prison. The state went on a prison-building binge in the 90's, and was housing large numbers out-of-state (e.g. Tennessee) private prisons before we got enough new prison cells of our own. Toxic Tommy Thompson was the driving force behind that particular insanity, although subsequent administrations did nothing to halt the process.