As I See It
WI not getting its money’s worth in corrections spending
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Taxpayers are rightly concerned about the impact of education spending on their tax bill. It is the biggest chunk of our property taxes. But we should not ignore what is being spent on prisons in the Badger state, especially given the outcome of the incarceration. Wisconsin’s incarceration rates are higher than the national average, and the state, despite its size, has one of the largest corrections budgets in the nation. The current state budget allocates more than $2.7 billion dollars to the Department of Corrections, making it the third largest expenditure in the budget. Wisconsin spends $220 per resident on corrections, higher than the national average, and higher than all of our neighbors, Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa. But our prison system remains mired by understaffing, inmate deaths and abuse. Some progress has been made, but not enough. Governor Tony Evers had a goal of cutting Wisconsin’s prison population in half during his first race for Governor in 2018. Today, the prison population stands at just four percent less than it did at the time. We are spending more, but getting less. When it comes to corrections spending, it is not clear taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.
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walden
July 22, 2024 at 1:05 pm
What’s clear is that Evers would rather throw rocks at the Legislature than do the hard work of managing what he actually has responsibility for, whether it be education, corrections, DNR, etc.
Where’s the follow up from Evers’ Dept of Public Instruction on the $100 million Milwaukee Public School fraud?
Sheer incompetence.