It's time to repeal the 1994 Crime Bill • Wisconsin Examiner

Friday the 13thth September 1 marks the sombre anniversary of the signing of the Federal Crime Act of 1994. It is also an opportunity to begin correcting a terrible mistake.

It seems rare that there is consensus among the leaders of our two political parties on a meaningful change. Sometimes that is great progress. Sometimes it is simply a major bipartisan mistake. This was the case 30 years ago when the U.S. Congress and President Bill Clinton passed and signed the Crime Bill of 1994.

In 1994, our politicians recognized a real problem – the victims of drug addiction. But they proposed the wrong solution. That mistake cost billions of dollars, it devastated entire communities, it broke families, and it ruined thousands of lives.

The Crime Bill of 1994 had very little effect on crime. In the United States, as in Wisconsin, there is virtually no relationship between crime rates and prison population. However, the Crime Bill had a devastating impact on many communities, particularly low-income communities and communities of color. The Crime Bill imposed extremely harsh penalties for even minor drug offenses. It was famously far harsher for crimes involving crack than for crimes involving powder cocaine, resulting in more and longer prison sentences for inner-city residents. The U.S. federal prison incarceration population was less than 50,000 in 1994. Today, it is more than 158,000.

The Crime Bill of 1994 had a tremendous impact on Wisconsin and other states. The Crime Bill helped fund new prisons. It rewarded police departments for higher arrest rates and stricter sentencing laws, such as Wisconsin's so-called “Truth in Sentencing.” Aided and encouraged by the Crime Bill, Wisconsin's prison population grew from fewer than 10,000 in 1994 to more than 22,000 today.

In 2024, there is a new bipartisan consensus in Wisconsin: We must close at least two Wisconsin prisons. Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) and Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) were built in the 1800s. Both have received much-deserved negative publicity recently as people have died and the horrific conditions in these prisons have become more well-known. Even with drastic pay raises, the Department of Corrections has not been able to maintain enough staff to fully run the programs at GBCI and WCI. The facilities are dangerous and outdated. Even if you spend about $50 million on each facility every year, it is impossible to make them livable for people or suitable for people who want to work there.

All of us, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, believe that GBCI and WCI must be closed. The question is: how? There are people who want to spend $500 million of taxpayer money to build a new prison. We believe there is a better way.

Wisconsin can close the Waupun and Green Bay prisons by taking common-sense steps to safely reduce the prison population. Consider this: The combined population of GBCI and WCI is about 2,000 people, less than 10% of the prison population. Wisconsin's 38 prisons have about 5,000 people incarcerated for “nonpunitive revocations.” These are people who have served a sentence and were sent back for a formal violation of their parole – not for another crime. By reducing such revocations, as states like Texas have done, we could easily have 2,000 fewer people in prison in less than a year.

Thousands of people in Wisconsin prisons are eligible to participate in earned release programs as part of their sentence. But we have underfunded the earned release program, so many of them have to wait years to get into the program and go home. Hundreds of seniors are languishing in Wisconsin prisons, some of them in assisted living settings.

Building a new prison would cost Wisconsin about $500 million and take at least 4-5 years. In the meantime, we would force inmates and staff to continue to suffer in WCI and GBCI. With common sense measures, the population could be reduced enough that we could create enough space to move everyone out of the Green Bay and Waupun prisons within a year.

In 1994, we spent billions to upgrade prison infrastructure. In 2024, we can change that and reinvest the savings in education, mental health and addiction treatment, and other programs that will heal and revitalize the communities devastated by the Crime Bill.

After 30 years, we have a new chance to get it right. We can get it right in Wisconsin by closing our worst prisons without building new ones. And in 2025, our new president must work with the new Congress to repeal the Crime Bill of 1994 and replace it with a Justice Reinvestment Bill of 2025.

Angela Long Robert Kraig David Liners
Black leaders organizing communities (BLOC) Wisconsin Citizen Action WISDOM