Madison, Wisconsin high school students march on the Capitol on Friday, Dec. 20 | Photo by Daphne Cooper

It was a brilliant, snowy Friday, the last day of school before winter break, as more than 100 students from high schools across Madison converged inside the Capitol. They gathered around the 30-foot balsam fir festooned with handmade ornaments, a model train chugging around the track at the base of the tree. At first it looked like a festive scene, but as the students poured into the first floor of the rotunda, then filled the second- and third-floor balconies, their shouting drowned out a group of Christmas carolers, who retreated, their songs giving way to chants of “No more silence! End gun violence!”

The Madison teens showed up to express their grief and outrage over the deaths this week of a 14-year-old student, her teacher and a gun-wielding 15-year-old girl who opened fire Monday in a classroom at the small private Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side. It was the city’s first school shooting but, incredibly, the 323rd in the nation this year.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children and teens in the U.S. Shouting, chanting, demanding to be heard, the crowd of children came to the Capitol Friday demanding that we wake up and do something about this appalling fact. 

Our nation is an outlier, with a rate of gun violence that dwarfs other large, high-income countries. Firearm homicides here are 33 times higher than in Australia and 77 times higher than in Germany, according to a report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington medical school. Not surprisingly, firearm injuries tend to be more frequent in places where people have easy access to firearms, according to a 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

What other country in the world could live with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where 20 little children between 6 and 7 years old and six adult staff were gunned down, and respond by making no significant restrictions on firearms? 

“My parents constantly talk about how, when Sandy Hook happened, they thought that would be the end of it,” said Danny Johnson, a first-year student at Madison West High School who joined the 3-mile march to the Capitol on Friday, carrying a sign scrawled on a sheet of notebook paper that said, “Thoughts and prayers until it’s your own child.” 

“To constantly have to go through it — we shouldn’t have to be here. We should be in school not having to worry about it at all,” Johnson added.

Hanging over balconies and leaning against marble pillars, teens held up handmade signs that said; “Enough!” “You write your policies on a carpet of our dead bodies,” and “Graduations not funerals.”

In Wisconsin, the rate of gun deaths increased 45% from 2013 to 2022, compared to a 36% increase nationwide, according to the Giffords Law Center.

Every year since he was elected in 2018, Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats in the state Legislature have tried in vain to get Republican cooperation on ending the state’s current exemption from background checks for private gun sales. A proposed “red flag” law that would allow police or family members to seek an extreme risk protection order in court to take guns from gun owners who are found to be a danger to themselves or others has also gone nowhere. Both of these measures are broadly popular with voters across the political spectrum. Somehow that doesn’t seem to matter.

After this week’s school shooting. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos released a statement saying, “Today’s tragedy is shocking, senseless and heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with the students, parents and faculty who will have to live with the trauma and grief of this day for the rest of their lives.” But Vos stopped short of saying he would make any effort whatsoever to protect kids and teachers from being shot to death at school. That phrase “thoughts and prayers,” rightly derided by the students who protested at the Capitol on Friday, is a pathetic substitute for action. 

“Last year it was 12 years since Sandy Hook, 25 years since Columbine, and all our politicians can say from their cushy seats is that they’re sending out their thoughts and prayers about the leading cause of death for children in America!”  yelled Ian Malash, a senior at Vel Phillips Memorial High School in Madison, pacing around the tree in the center of the rotunda. “We’re showing them right now and we are going to continue to show them that we are done with thoughts and prayers. We will make change happen because our lives depend on it.”

Vos, apparently recovered from his heartbreak over Monday’s tragedy and back to his old snarky self by Wednesday, mounted a robust defense of the status quo on X, retweeting a post from Wisconsin Right Now that mocked Democrats who “politicize this tragedy with cheap talking points.” The post claimed that, since it’s already illegal for a 15-year-old to possess a handgun, it’s ridiculous to connect the recent shooting to any effort to change gun laws.

But, as state Sen. Kelda Roys told the crowd on Friday, “We know that states that have passed gun safety laws like background checks, like red flag laws … they see gun deaths and firearm injuries go down. We can do that here in Wisconsin, too.  We just need to change the minds or change the legislators — and the judges, too, by the way.” 

“My generation and the people in this building have let you down,” Rick Abegglen, the parent of a West High School daughter who helped organize the protest, told the crowd in the Capitol. “I am so proud of each and every one of you for standing up for yourselves. A few moments ago I saw somebody close the doors of the Senate because they did not want to hear your voices. Think about it.”

As he spoke, the students yelled louder, their voices bouncing off the marble walls, becoming harder and harder to ignore.

When the Wisconsin Legislature returns to work in January, Republicans will still be in charge but will have the narrowest majorities since taking control in 2011. That’s giving Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers, optimism that both sides will be able to work together better than they have since Evers took office six years ago.

Both sides are eyeing the state’s massive budget surplus, which sits at more than $4 billion. What to do with that money will drive debate over the next two-year budget, which will be written in 2025, while questions hang in the air about whether Evers plans to run for a third term in 2026 and how the state will interact with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

Here is a look at some of the biggest pending issues:

New dynamic in the Legislature

Democrats gained seats in the November election because of redrawn maps ordered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Republican majority now sits at 54-45 in the Assembly and 18-15 in the Senate. Democrats have 10 more seats in the Assembly than last session and four more in the Senate and are hopeful about gaining the majority after the 2026 election.

“We have already seen a shift in the Capitol due to the new maps,” Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Greta Neubauer told The Associated Press.

She and other Democrats predict it will lead to more pressure from rank-and-file Republicans in competitive districts to move to the middle and compromise with Democrats.

“Everybody understands, at least at this point, that we need to work together, pull together,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told the AP. “And it’s important to get some things done.”

Pushing back against Trump

Democrats say they have been talking with Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul about how Wisconsin can push back against the incoming Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations. But Democrats say they are also looking at other ways the state can fight Trump’s policies on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.

“We’re worried about a lot of the things that former and future President Trump might do, especially when it comes to deportation and immigration,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he would support Trump’s efforts to deport people who are in the country illegally and commit crimes.

Republicans prioritize cutting taxes. Democrats are open

Republicans passed a $3.5 billion tax cut that Evers gutted to just $175 million with his veto in the last budget. With another large surplus, Republicans say they want to try again.

“People struggling to pay their bills,” LeMahieu said. “We heard that in our local races. And so we want to help help help families out there. We have the money to do it. And that’s going to be our number one priority.”

Both he and Vos said they would like a tax cut of around $2 billion.

Democrats say that they aren’t opposed to cutting taxes, but that they want it to be targeted to helping the middle and lower classes and families.

“We are not interested in tax cuts that primarily benefit rich Wisconsinites or corporations,” Neubauer said. “But we are certainly open to tax cuts that help those who are struggling to make ends meet.”

K-12 education funding

The state superintendent of schools, Jill Underly, proposed spending more than $4 billion on K-12 schools in her budget proposal, which is subject to legislative approval. That’s almost certainly not going to happen, both Republicans and Democrats said.

“We’re not going to spend $4 billion on education, I can guarantee you that right now,” LeMahieu said.

While Democrats say they are prioritizing education funding, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to match that,” Hesselbein said of the $4 billion request.

Universities of Wisconsin

Leaders of the cash-strapped Universities of Wisconsin have asked for $855 million in additional funding in the next budget, nearly an 11% increase. System President Jay Rothman says schools need the money to stave off tuition increases, cover raises, subsidize tuition, and keep two-year branch campuses open in the face of declining enrollment and flat state aid.

Evers has promised to include the request in his budget, but Republican leaders said they would not approve that much, and Democrats also said it was a goal that was unlikely to be met.

LeMahieu and Vos both said UW would not get what it wants.

“We’re going to need to see some substantial change in how they’re doing their programing,” LeMahieu said. “We can’t just keep spending more and more on a system that’s educating less and less people.”

Marijuana, health care and other priorities

Vos said he intends to create a state-level task force to improve government efficiency, similar to what Trump created at the national level dubbed DOGE. He also supports passing a bill that would allow for the processing of absentee ballots the day before Election Day, a measure that’s had bipartisan support in the past but failed to pass.

Democrats say they will continue to push for ways to expand and reduce costs for child care, health care for new mothers and prescription drugs. Both Republicans and Democrats say they want to do more to create affordable housing. The future of the state’s land stewardship program also hangs in in the balance after the state Supreme Court said Republicans were illegally blocking funding of projects.

Democrats also say they hope to revive efforts to legalize medical marijuana, an effort that was backed by some Republicans but that failed to pass last session.

LeMahieu predicted the slimmer Republican majorities will make it more difficult for any marijuana bill to pass because some lawmakers “are dead set against it.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Wisconsin Legislature’s tight Republican majority sparks hope for bipartisan cooperation is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

“Make no mistake, we still hold the majority,” Felzkowski said. “I hope we have better conversations. I hope we have better negotiations," Senate President Mary Felzkowsi said. (Screenshot via Zoom)

New-elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) said Tuesday that she hopes for more bipartisan conversations next year, but that her caucus plans to operate in the same way it has previously, since Republicans still hold the majority in the Wisconsin Legislature, even after losing a handful of seats this election year. 

The Legislature will return with closer margins next year following elections under new legislative maps. Republicans will have an 18-15 majority in the Senate, down from their previous 22-seat supermajority.  In the Assembly Republicans will hold  a 55-45 majority. Felzkowski made her comments during a WisPolitics panel Tuesday alongside Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) and two strategists — Keith Gilkes, a consultant and former chief political advisor for Republican former Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic strategist Tanya Bjork.

“Make no mistake, we still hold the majority,” Felzkowski said. “I hope we have better conversations. I hope we have better negotiations.” 

Felzkowski said she would “love” to have more meetings with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, noting that former Gov. Scott Walker used to conduct weekly meetings with lawmakers during his time in office. (During the Walker administration, Republicans controlled both chambers of the Legislature and Democrats accused them of breaking the law by meeting in secret with Walker.)

Democratic leaders have said that they believe there will be more opportunities for work across the aisle next year, and that more competitive legislative districts will encourage that. 

“We’ve got some Republicans. We’ve got some Democrats who are in close, 50-50 seats,” Neubauer said during the panel discussion. “I expect that some in Republican leadership want things to continue as they have in the past, but I expect that a lot of those members who are in those difficult seats are going to be pushing to invest in K-12, to lower costs for working families, to take up popular policy.” 

The state budget — and potential use of the $4 billion budget surplus — will be a major focus for lawmakers when they return in 2025. Writing the budget is a time when lawmakers discuss potential policy changes on a wide array of issues, and the potential funding that should be placed behind them. 

Potential budget proposals and policy changes in wake of school shooting

Neubauer and Felzkowski discussed ways to address school safety, through policy changes and the budget, after a 15-year-old girl shot and killed a teacher and another student before turning the gun on herself at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison Monday. Six other people were injured in the school shooting.

“This is the deadliest school shooting on record in Wisconsin and it’s just an incredible tragedy. I know that people across the state are sending their good thoughts, of course, to those who were impacted but also really are looking for leadership in this time,” Neubauer said. She said proposals from President Joe Biden, who called for Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as new proposals from Wisconsin legislators in the state budget could be paths for improving school safety. 

“In Wisconsin, for many years, we’ve been talking about red flag laws. We’ve been talking about universal background checks. These are policies that are widely supported by the people of this state, and I think in particular when it hits home for kids,” Neubauer said. 

“For my school district here in the Racine area, they would really like to invest in school safety, there are important programs that they run, there are physical improvements that they would like to make, and I know that we’re going to be having a budget conversation very soon,” Neubauer continued. “I do hope that we’re able to keep in mind that investments in K-12 are also investments in school safety, and that’s a responsibility of the Legislature for the coming session.” 

Felzkowski stopped short of endorsing the policy changes that Neubauer mentioned. She instead said that people need to look at what has changed in American society, adding that people also took guns to school 30 and 40 years ago.

“We went hunting after school and nobody was afraid. Nobody was afraid that they were going to get shot at school, so society has changed,” Felzkowski said. “I think we need to recognize those factors that have changed in our society.” 

“We can pass a lot of different legislation, but we need to start looking at underlying causes…Is it social media? Is it cyberbullying? Is it too much screen time in our children? Is it violence that we’ve allowed them to watch at a young age?” Felzkowski asked. “I hope we can come together with a lot of tough conversations and look at that.” 

Felzkowski said increasing weapons screening in schools could also be a point of discussion. 

“Those are conversations that we should have in this budget to help fund ideas, so that people can’t walk through the door with no screening,” Felzkowski said. 

Spending the surplus, funding priorities

The state’s $4 billion budget surplus will likely be a key point of discussion during the budget writing process. Felzkowski said that when it comes to the surplus Republicans will “do exactly what we did last time,” and don’t plan on using the money for recurring projects. 

“If the majority of this is one-time money we’re going to spend it on one-time projects,” Felzkowski said. “One-time money should be spent on infrastructure. Instead of borrowing, we’ll spend it on our roads. We’ll spend it on maintaining our buildings.”

Felzkowski said during the budget process, lawmakers will survey current spending costs and what funding could be needed for other priorities. She said returning money to taxpayers would also be a priority.

“If we have a $4 billion surplus, then we have too much of our taxpayers’ money; we can return it to them,” Felzkowski said. 

Felzkowski added that the government didn’t choose for property taxes to rise in certain communities. Her comments follow a Wisconsin Policy Forum report that found gross K-12 property taxes in the state are expected to rise by the largest amount since 2009. She said she voted in favor of raising property taxes in her own community.

“When people vote at the local level to increase their taxes, their property taxes, that’s a decision they make, and that’s a decision they choose to make,” Felzkowski said. “I don’t think that’s government making that decision for them and I think that’s something they can do.” 

Neubauer said Assembly Democrats would be open to conversations about tax cuts, if they’re targeted. 

“We’re just simply not gonna give a tax cut to the wealthiest Wisconsinites and people who do not need it. We are very open to considering a tax cut that is targeted, that is focused on middle class and working families,” Neubauer said. She said also that people in their communities are being “forced to raise their own property taxes in order to fund their schools.” 

Felzkowski didn’t specify what potential tax cut proposals would look like, but noted that Evers “moved the needle” for what he considered a middle class tax cut when he vetoed some tax cut bills lawmakers sent him earlier this year. Those proposals included raising the top income in the state’s second-lowest tax bracket to just over $112,000, exempting up to $150,000 in retirement income from the state income tax and increasing the current maximum marriage tax credit. Evers did sign a law increasing Wisconsin’s child care tax credit. 

“If Gov. Evers continues to move the needle on what ‘middle class’ is, then we’re kind of at a loss,” Felzkowski said, adding that some families struggling financially could use a tax cut. “We gave [Evers] the tax cut and he still vetoed it. I’m hoping that that needle doesn’t move again.”

Several policy proposals are likely to be discussed next year in relation to the budget, including for Medicaid expansion and higher education. States that accept the federal Medicaid expansion agree to cover people with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty guideline, and the federal government pays 90% of the cost for the additional Medicaid recipients, more than the 60% Wisconsin currently receives. 

Evers has proposed that Wisconsin join 40 other states across the country in adopting the Medicaid expansion every budget cycle, and Republicans have rejected the proposal each time. Felzkowski said that it remains off the table for Republicans. 

“We don’t have a gap in Wisconsin, so why would we take people off of private insurance to put them on government insurance and put our hospitals, who are already suffering, into a worse position with a lower reimbursement rate?” Felzkowski said. “We don’t need to create more gaps in health care when we have people covered.”  

Neubauer said that Medicaid expansion would continue to be a priority for Assembly Democrats. She said that some insurance remains a “huge strain” on families with private insurance.

“They frankly are not able to afford it. They are cutting in other areas to afford that insurance,” Neubauer said. 

Higher education will also be a focus of budget discussions as the UW System has requested an additional $855 million to bring the system up to the national median in state spending. Felzkowski said that she hasn’t heard much support for the proposal. 

Other issue areas

Lawmakers may also turn their attention back to medical marijuana legalization this year. Felzkowski said that there was one person standing in the way of getting it done last session: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. 

“That person has some pretty strict ideas on how that bill should be drafted,” Felzkowski said. Vos’ proposal last session included opening a handful of state run dispensaries, an unpopular idea among many in the Legislature. “We’re hoping to have a conversation in early January to see if there isn’t a way that we can come to a consensus between Assembly Republicans and Senate Republicans to negotiate a compromise.” 

Felzkowski said that a bill to allow “Monday processing” of absentee ballots could also come forward next session. A proposal to allow election clerks to begin processing absentee ballots  on the Monday before the election passed the Assembly last session but never advanced in the Senate.

“There are many senators that were very much in support of that. The chair of the Senate elections committee was not and chose not to hear that. He is no longer a member of the Senate,” Felzkowski said. Sen. Dan Knodl, who served as chair of that committee, chose not to run for reelection under the new legislative maps, but will serve in the Assembly next year. “I’m hoping this year that we will have a committee hearing on that bill if it’s brought back and that we have a robust conversation on that. I personally think that is something that we should be doing in the state of Wisconsin.”

Wisconsin politics were shaken up this year with the signing of new legislative maps that ended over a decade of extreme and effective Republican gerrymandering.

It was the first time in Wisconsin history a Legislature and a governor of different parties agreed on legislative redistricting, the Legislative Reference Bureau told Wisconsin Watch.

In a good Republican year across the country, Wisconsin Democrats flipped 14 seats in the Legislature — largely because of those new maps. It wasn’t enough to win a majority in the Assembly or the Senate, but the resulting 54-45 and 18-15 splits better reflect Wisconsin’s swing-state status.

Wisconsin’s congressional maps were not redrawn. Republicans kept six of the state’s eight congressional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The state’s current congressional maps were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and approved by the then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2022. The last time a governor of one party and a Legislature of another agreed on congressional maps was in 1991.

Evers’ maps were slightly more favorable to Democrats than the previous decade’s maps, but they didn’t change that much because the court established a “least change” rule when deciding which maps it would approve. That meant they would largely conform to the Republican maps that had been in place since 2011.

In March, the now-liberal high court denied a request to reconsider the state’s congressional maps before this year’s elections without stating a reason. Evers had asked for changes to the congressional maps soon after he signed the new legislative maps into law in February. Those maps were approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Elias Law Group filed a motion in January asking the court to revise the congressional boundaries ahead of the 2024 election. The Democratic law firm argued that new maps were justified after the court abandoned the “least change” approach when deciding on the legislative map challenge last year. In that case, the state Supreme Court said it would no longer favor maps that present minimal changes to existing boundaries.

Democrats argued that Evers’ congressional boundaries drawn in 2022 were decided under the “least change” restrictions later thrown out by the court in the legislative redistricting case.

Republicans pushed back, arguing that newly elected liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz prejudged the case during her 2023 campaign. They requested she recuse herself from the case. But Protasiewicz said she decided not to vote on the motion to reconsider the congressional maps because she wasn’t on the court when the underlying case was decided.

Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Brian Schimming in a statement called the court’s decision “the demise of Governor Evers’ latest attempt to throw out his own hand-drawn congressional maps.”

Republicans have retained control of six of Wisconsin’s eight House seats, with Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore safely controlling the two districts that cover Madison and Milwaukee. In comparison, Democrats held five of the eight seats in 2010 — the year before Republicans redrew the maps.

The 1st and 3rd districts are currently the only competitive congressional districts in Wisconsin, represented by Republican Reps. Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden respectively. Steil won his race this month with 54% of the vote, and Van Orden won with 51.4% of the vote.

Conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler and Justice Rebecca Bradley in their concurrence wrote the new majority’s “reckless abandonment of settled legal precedent” in the legislative redistricting case “incentivizes litigants to bring politically divisive cases to this court regardless of their legal merit.”

Representatives of Elias Law Group did not respond to Wisconsin Watch when asked if they anticipate another legal challenge to the congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“I remain very interested between now and 2030 in trying to find a way to get the court to … tell us whether partisan gerrymandering violates the Wisconsin Constitution. I believe it does,” Jeff Mandell, founder of the liberal legal group Law Forward, told Wisconsin Watch. “I believe the court will say it does when we present the right case.”

But Mandell said nothing has been drafted, and his group won’t bring a case to the Supreme Court unless it has “got the goods.”

Wisconsin Watch readers have submitted questions to our statehouse team, and we’ll answer them in our series, Ask Wisconsin Watch. Have a question about state government? Ask it here.

Why were state legislative districts redrawn for 2024, but congressional districts remain unchanged? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The Wisconsin State Capitol reflected in the glass windows of Park Bank on the Capitol Square in Madison. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Candidates for some districts of the Wisconsin State Legislature on the eastern side of the state recently shared their positions on criminal justice issues. Their stances varied, even among candidates of the same political party. 

Two advocacy organizations, JOSHUA and the League of Women Voters, conducted interviews with the candidates. Another group, SOPHIA, held a candidate forum for Assembly candidates for the 13th, 15th and 82nd districts. The events addressed criminal justice and housing, among other issues.

David Liners, executive director of the statewide network that includes both JOSHUA and SOPHIA, said he wants to expand the group of people who are willing to hold their decision makers accountable on this issue.

“[We believe part of our mission] is to make sure that the people who are not directly impacted by the criminal legal system understand and feel what’s being done,” Liners said. “Partly because what’s being done in our prisons is being done with our money, but it’s being done in our name.” 

Both events covered the controversial Green Bay and Waupun prisons. A former Waupun warden and eight members of his staff were charged with crimes related to the treatment of incarcerated people, the Examiner reported in early June. The Examiner reported on life at GBCI in August. State lawmakers have heard testimony alleging problems in Wisconsin prisons at committee hearings. 

No Republicans attended the forum or provided an interview, but the Examiner received responses from four candidates who didn’t attend the events.

SOPHIA forum addresses electronic monitoring, Truth in Sentencing, juvenile justice 

Sarah Harrison, a Democrat running for the 15th Assembly District, expressed support for the practice of electronic monitoring in the community over maintaining the current number of people behind bars in Wisconsin facilities. Kevin Reilly, Democrat candidate for the 82nd Assembly District, also supported electronic monitoring. 

Harrison said she thinks “we need to find ways to get people into programs where they can continue being part of the community.” 

Reilly’s opponent, Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha), currently represents the 97th Assembly District, but he has been redistricted into the 82nd. 

Allen told the Examiner that electronic monitoring is a tool for our courts to use, but he expressed some reservations. He said he’s been told that clever individuals have determined ways to remove the device at will. 

Allen said it seems electronic monitoring should only be used only on people who do not pose a threat to society. 

“This tool is not a panacea to the problem of overcrowding in our prisons,” Allen said. 

Reilly and Harrison expressed support for juvenile justice reform. Harrison said she supports legislation that would keep underage offenders from being tried as adults “except in some sort of extraordinary circumstances.” She instead pointed to diversion programs, counseling and drug treatment programs. 

Allen said charging minors as adults should be “rare.” He said it is “reserved for the most heinous of crimes.” 

“Charging minors as adults ought to be rare, but it should remain an option if we are going to remain mindful of the importance of public safety,” Allen said.

Candidates at the forum also discussed the elimination of parole for certain crimes under a “Truth in Sentencing” law in Wisconsin. 

Harrison wasn’t familiar with the two-decade-old law when asked a question during the forum. After hearing others talk about it, she said she would support repealing it. Reilly criticized the law.

“It’s one of those scare things that certain people are putting out there, along with several other legislations that make it difficult for the people that are really working hard to change their lives, to move forward and get out of prison… it’s one of a number of different laws that have demonized, basically, the criminal justice system,” Reilly said. 

Allen didn’t rule out reforming parole restrictions in Wisconsin. He said “our number one goal should remain public safety” and “any and all reforms should be viewed through that lens.” 

“Constituents have described to me a lack of incentive for good behavior and reform for the residents in our Department of Corrections facilities,” Allen said. “I’ve been told that there is a certain blackmail culture that allows for intimidation to occur amongst the prison population. I’m not certain what reforms would make sense at this point in time, but a comprehensive review of current practices would help.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) has been in negotiations with a third party, Falcon Correctional and Community Services, to conduct a review of DOC policies and procedures and offer recommendations.

Candidates respond to scrutiny of troubled prisons 

Candidates gave a variety of answers when asked about the Green Bay and Waupun prisons. 

Democrat Amaad Rivera-Wagner is running for the 90th Assembly District, which covers central Green Bay and is a likely Democratic seat, Wisconsin Watch reported. He spoke about housing people  who’ve committed crimes, creating room and space elsewhere before getting rid of GBCI and carrying out criminal justice reform, such as bail reform and legalization of marijuana. 

“I think that people in Green Bay and the Legislature can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Rivera-Wagner said. “…And we’ve seen how overcrowding at this prison has caused problems…We’ve seen the staffing there to be less than 80% full. And so we need to do something to reform that immediately.”

The current vacancy rate at GBCI for correctional officers and sergeants is 11.6%, according to DOC data. 

In a letter in May published by Fox 11, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said any plan to close GBCI “must be comprehensive and considered holistically based on the needs of Wisconsin’s adult corrections program.” He also said a new facility would not realistically be able to start accommodating incarcerated people in this decade. 

Evers said there must be “a serious conversation about criminal justice reform in Wisconsin” and a meaningful effort to find consensus on “evidence-based, science-driven measures” to reduce the number of people in Wisconsin prisons, focusing on treatment and rehabilitation. 

“Any conversation about closing GBCI must begin there,” Evers said.

Jessica Henderson, Rivera-Wagner’s Republican opponent, told the Examiner she supports closing the Green Bay and Waupun facilities “as long as it does not mean releasing violent offenders into the community.”

Henderson said there is a lack of mental health services that can lead to more people being incarcerated. She said from her experience, access to mental health care reduces incarceration. Decreasing the prison population would eliminate the need to keep Green Bay and Waupun operating, she said. 

Democrat Jamie Wall is running for Senate District 30, which covers the metropolitan Green Bay region and is a toss-up, Wisconsin Watch reported. He said closing the prisons requires determining what should happen with the incarcerated people living there, which means looking at what the prison and criminal justice systems should look like. He promoted increasing alcohol and drug treatment for nonviolent offenders. 

“Now unfortunately in Madison, all of that has been bolloxed up in partisanship,” Wall said. “And I think my opponent would contribute to that.” 

Wall’s opponent, Jim Rafter, categorized the people incarcerated in Waupun and GBCI into three groups: people serving life sentences, people with significant mental health needs and people who have committed serious crimes but have a chance at rehabilitation. He supports closing both prisons. 

“We need a facility that addresses these unique needs from day one, providing specialized programs and services,” Rafter said. “Since 90% of incarcerated individuals will eventually be released, it is critical that we provide the tools necessary to ensure their safe reintegration into our communities.”

Democrat Ryan Spaude is running for Assembly District 89, a toss-up district that includes Ashwaubenon and borders the Fox River to the east, Wisconsin Watch reported.

“We could probably talk about other facilities, but a maximum security prison cannot simply be shut down,” Spaude said. “It must be replaced.” 

One question from SOPHIA said in part that they believe by reducing crimeless revocations and increasing earned release programming and treatment alternatives, Wisconsin could reduce its prison population and close the two facilities without building a new one.

Reilly said Minnesota has the same demographics as Wisconsin but is “doing a phenomenally better job.” He echoed Henderson’s message on mental health.

“…A lot of people in prison are there because of addiction, they’re there because of mental health, they’re there because they might even be cognitively declined,” Reilly said. 

Reilly expressed support for closing the two prisons without building a new one. Allen told the Examiner over email that “a new prison needs to be built.” 

Rep. David Steffen (R-Green Bay) told the Examiner that the two prisons are too expensive, small and dangerous to continue operating. Replacing them with a modern facility would reduce operating and maintenance costs and provide a safer, more productive environment for staff and incarcerated people, he said. 

In a statement in April, Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) said that due to Wisconsin’s budget surplus, “a plan to close GBCI and build a new prison has never had a better opportunity.”

Criminal justice was not the only topic covered by the SOPHIA forum and the interviews from JOSHUA and League of Women Voters. The candidate interviews can be viewed on LOWV’s YouTube page.

Sortwell’s office said he was unavailable and unable to comment.