Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – After a brief reprieve from a rising inmate population, Wisconsin’s prisons are on track to hold a record number of people by 2019 as the state’s violent crime rate continues to increase.

The rising inmate population is fueled, in part, by tougher sentences, according to a review by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

The state Department of Corrections expects to have 23,233 inmates by June 2019 — slightly above the record 23,184 it held in 2007.

After years of increases, the state’s prison population began to decline in 2008. It was a welcome relief to budget watchers, who saw the prison population nearly triple in the 1990s and continue to rise after that.

But since 2013, the population has been moving up again, the taxpayers group found in a report to be made public this week.

Running Wisconsin’s prisons is expected to cost about $1.1 billion for each of the next two years. The price tag has caught the attention of Republicans and Democrats alike.

“I want to fix this now," said Rep. Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh), chairman of the Assembly Corrections Committee. "I think the sense of urgency is huge because of the issues we face with overcrowding.”

Schraa is seeking $5 million over two years to establish a pilot program in Winnebago County that would provide intensive treatment to repeat drunken drivers for 12 to 18 months, reducing the five-year sentences they would otherwise receive. That would get better results and relieve prison overcrowding, he said.

Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) said there needs to be broad prison reform, including allowing people to shorten their sentences if they get treatment, education and training and show they have made changes behind bars.

“We do not have a system that allows for any review of who that person is five years in, seven years in, nine years in,” he said. “It ignores the reality that people do change.”

But Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-New Berlin), who has introduced bills to toughen penalties for carjacking, said he did not believe our system does a good job of identifying those who are likely to improve themselves and those who will remain habitual criminals.

He said costs can’t be the only driver of determining the state’s prison policies.

“We can’t make our decision on who belongs in jail just on what’s the cost of incarceration,” he said. ““The costs for not putting people in jail is as great if not greater.”

A drop, and then a rise

From 2008 to 2012, the prison population dropped by about 3%, to just over 22,000. But that wasn’t accompanied by major spending reductions. That’s because prison costs are largely fixed.

“Significant cost reductions could only be achieved by closing a prison wing or an entire facility, a prospect (corrections officials) said was unlikely without large-scale declines in the inmate population,” the taxpayers alliance report says.

The prison population is on the rise for a few reasons.

Nationally, the violent crime rate decreased from 1990 to 2015. But in Wisconsin it was mostly on an upswing during that time, though it remains below the national per-capita rate. With more crime, more people are going to prison in Wisconsin.

Prison statistics reflect the change. In 2016, 67% of Wisconsin inmates were convicted of violent crimes — up from 59% a decade earlier, according to the taxpayer alliance.

Admissions are also up because of revocations for probation or extended supervision.

A little over 31% of inmates in 2015 were in prison because they had violated their rules of supervision. Another 26% wound up back in prison because they had committed new crimes while they were on supervision, the taxpayer alliance found.

Those going to prison are getting longer sentences, which also contributes to a bigger inmate population. In 2016, nearly 36% of inmates had five years or more left on their sentences, up from 33.5% in 1996.

Violent crimes tend to garner longer sentences, and the state in recent years has imposed longer minimum sentences for drunken driving and some other offenses.

What’s more, the inmates the state is holding now tend to be older, which drives up medical costs. In 2016, 19% of the prison’s inmates were 50 or older — nearly twice as many as a decade earlier.

Gov. Scott Walker has proposed keeping prison costs down by making an early-release program available to 250 more inmates a year. Inmates are eligible for the program if approved by judges when they are sentenced, but some face long waits to get into the program.

Schraa's plan would create a new program focused on drunken drivers with a similar emphasis. If successful, he said it could be broadened to accommodate those with opiate addictions.