Alternatives to incarceration could drastically cut lock-up rate in Wisconsin. This week the Department of Corrections will finally take up a 2014 law that aimed to do just that. | Getty Images

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) will hold a public hearing this week on Act 196, legislation that received bipartisan support and was signed into law in April 2014 by then-Gov. Scott Walker. The law aimed to create sanctions for people who violate the conditions of their parole, probation and extended supervision as an alternative to revocation, which sends people back to prison sometimes for small infractions that violate the terms of their release. The hearing on implementing a new rule, 11 years after the law was signed, will finally take place on Tuesday, July 8 at 10 a.m.

The public can join the virtual hearing by going to a DOC link and selecting the “hearing information” section. The text of the rule is also available online at the same hearing link.  

Act 196 states the intent to “Develop a system of short-term sanctions for violations of conditions of parole, probation, extended supervision, and deferred prosecution agreement (an agreement not to prosecute pending the accused meeting requirements such as drug treatment).”

A sentence for a criminal violation, besides fines and fees, typically includes a period of incarceration and supervision outside incarceration via parole, probation, or extended supervision.

If a condition of supervision, such as the requirement to remain sober or stay away from minors, is not meant, the probation officer has the option of requesting a revocation hearing before an administrative judge that could result in the person serving a portion or the remainder of the “supervised” sentence behind bars.

Act 196 states “short-term sanctions” should include “examples of high, medium and low level sanctions and what factors to consider when determining which level of sanction to apply.”

The law is not  just punitive. Act 196 also says the DOC is to determine “how to reward offenders for compliance with conditions of parole, of probation, of extended supervision or of the agreement (such as deferred prosecution).”

The 2014 law also states the DOC should “minimize the impact on the offender’s employment” and also minimize “the impact on an offender’s family.”

The 2014 law would appear to meet the stated goals of the DOC and Gov. Tony Evers to lower the revocation rate for Wisconsin that has resulted in thousands returning each year to prison.

WISDOM, a statewide network working on reform of the prison and criminal legal systems and other social justice issues, is pleased the DOC is finally taking steps to implement the 2014 law into a rule.

“Adding more short-term community-based alternatives to revocation has the potential to significantly reduce the number of people sent to prison each year,” said Mark Rice, Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator for WISDOM, a statewide network working to overhaul the criminal legal system and other unjust systems.

“Sending people back to prison for convictionless rule violations is fueling the overcrowding of Wisconsin’s prisons,” said Rice.

Tom Gilbert, a father whose son has been incarcerated and had supervision revoked and returned to prison, has led WISDOM’s efforts to get the DOC to implement Act  196.

“It is way past time for Wisconsin to transform its supervision program of people who have been released from their original sentence,” said Gilbert. “Revoking people back to prison for rule violations is counter-productive. Other states have moved to better methods of supervision and are closing prisons.”

But WISDOM officials also have concerns that DOC will use current practices of sanctions, such as 90-day jail confinements, that WISDOM say don’t meet the intent of ACT 196 to “minimize” the impact on employment and the family.

Wisdom officials are also concerned the DOC has not fleshed out how to implement ACT 196 by describing the actual “system of short-term sanctions.” The proposed rule to be considered at the July 8 hearing merely replicates language stated in Act 196 without specifying the actual short-term sanctions or the rewards for meeting the conditions of supervision.

“If the Department of Corrections truly implements both the letter and spirit of Act 196, we see the potential transformation of its community corrections programs to one that focuses on healing individuals and communities affected by crime,” said Gilbert.

Joining the public hearing

Members of the public who are not able to join the hearing online can use a call-in number for the meeting: (608) 571-2209, with conference code 930 614 929.

Persons making oral presentations at the meeting are also required to submit their comments in writing.

Written comments are also taken until August 8. Written comments can be mailed to DOC Administrative Rule Committee, Caitlin Washburn, Administrative Rules Coordinator, PO Box 7925, Madison, WI 53707-7925.

Written comments can also be sent via email to: DOCAdministrativeRulesCommittee@wisconsin.gov or can be submitted on  the DOC’s website: https://doc.legis.wisconsin.gov/code

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Update: This story was updated at 11:50 a.m. on Monday, July 7 to make requested edits to a quote by WISDOM’s Mark Rice.

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It’s tempting to begin a story about Emily Sterk with an anecdote about her advocacy around mass incarceration. 

Or with her reflections on how her privilege plays into that work. Or with an exploration of how her religious faith intertwines with her concern for those caught up in the criminal justice system. 

But she also loves musicals – and is a little embarrassed to admit how much she enjoys “Wicked.” She has a beloved tortoiseshell cat named Stevie and is fond of puzzles. 

Having said all that, people are starting to notice how good she is at what she does, said Krissie Fung, associate director of Milwaukee Turners, the state’s oldest civic organization, where Sterk is completing a fellowship.  

“People have heard her speak in public, and folks are beginning to look to her opinion,” Fung said. 

This ability to gain trust within criminal justice reform circles is especially valuable as the organization grows, said Emilio De Torre, executive director of Turners.

“Having someone who can help us build stronger networks, have an informed leader in these different rooms – it expands our ability to educate others who don’t understand this and to empower people who are impacted but unsure of what to do,” De Torre said.

From the academy 

During her final year of graduate school at Pennsylvania State University, Sterk – in her spare time – taught in two correctional institutions. 

“That was one of the first times I felt like, ‘Oh, well, I should be doing something about this,’” she said. 

Sterk arrived in Milwaukee last fall as a Leading Edge Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies, a national program that places Ph.D. graduates at justice-focused nonprofits.

At Turners, she conducts research, participates in advocacy and develops policy ideas geared toward confronting mass incarceration.

‘Watching the watchers’

One area Sterk has focused on is civilian oversight of law enforcement. 

At an April 15 meeting of the Milwaukee County Board’s Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee, Sterk testified in support of a civilian board that would oversee the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. 

She told committee members that, in order to be effective and independent, such a board must have the authority to hire and fire law enforcement officers – including the sheriff – and have policymaking authority. 

Sterk pointed to a 2024 audit of the county jail that, she said, “unearthed deeply troubling policies, practices and procedures that have long since been ingrained in the facility and its staff.” 

She highlighted an instance in which an officer accused of misconduct was assigned to respond to the grievance filed against them.

With emotion in her voice, Sterk reminded supervisors that the audit devoted just three sentences to a suicide attempt that auditors personally witnessed during their visit.

Two weeks after this committee meeting, Sterk presented to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission the findings of a six-month monitoring period of the commission’s activity – “watching the watchers,” as Fung put it.

The commission was significantly restructured in July 2023 after Wisconsin Act 12 stripped its ability to shape police policy, shifting that power to police and fire department chiefs.

The public report resulting from the monitoring concluded that the commission “appears to serve as a rubber stamp.”

Honey, not vinegar

However, Sterk is not hostile or self-righteous in her criticism. Care and sincerity are at the center of her approach – even for the offices and bodies she’s criticizing.

At the Fire and Police Commission presentation, multiple commissioners thanked the Turners and echoed the call to improve public engagement.

Currently, Sterk is fostering a collaboration on jail-based voting between the Turners and the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County. Here, too, her thoughtfulness has left its mark.

“The first thing she talked to me about was educating people about having respect for people who are incarcerated,” said Gail Sklodowska, the second vice president of advocacy and action for the league. “Like how we refer to them, how we talk about them. And I went, ‘Wow, I never even thought of that as a place we should start.’

“But she’s right.”

This combination of rigor, respect and resolve is rooted in deeper values, said Carlos de la Torre, Sterk’s partner and a rector at a church in Chicago. 

“Amidst the work of justice, of restoration, of reconciliation, of liberation,” he said, “Emily knows that there’s a place for beauty in all this.

“The point of all this work is to offer people access to a good life, to the beauty of this world, to be free in creation.”

Sterk’s fellowship ends September 2026, but she is open to staying in Milwaukee after that – and so are others.

“I would love for us – and for Milwaukee – to keep her,” Fung said. 

‘There’s a place for beauty in all this’: Faith informs scholar’s advocacy for Milwaukee’s incarcerated 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.

Green Bay Correctional Institution | Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner

Prison reform advocates gathered by Green Bay Correctional Institution on Monday, calling for change at a moment when the prison’s future is uncertain. 

The vigil included prayer for incarcerated people in solitary confinement and for the families of Shawnee Reed and Brittany Doescher, who died at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. 

“We’re all human,” JOSHUA Coordinator Caitlin Haynes said. “So whether you committed a crime or not, you deserve humane treatment. So we’re here for that, and to bring light to the situation that they deserve better.”

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections reports on how long prisoners spend in disciplinary separation, where a prisoner might be sent after committing a violation. GBCI has the longest average length of stay in disciplinary separation of any of the adult facilities listed, at 48.6 days, as of the most recent data.

JOSHUA, a local affiliate of the advocacy organization WISDOM, holds monthly vigils at Green Bay Correctional. 

Leslie Hill, who attended the event, said her son died by suicide after leaving prison. 

“I spoke to him daily whenever he wasn’t in solitary, and he had many traumatic experiences,” Hill said. “He had no support. And he was facing one more charge, he was on bond. I had bonded him out to have some mental health treatment…and I think [a] contributing factor to his death was [the prospect of going back].”

In a post before the event, WISDOM said advocates were gathering with four other groups “to call on Gov. Evers to veto any budget that continues to invest in punishment over people.” At a rally at the Capitol in late May, advocates called on the governor to veto the budget if it lacked certain items. 

“We’re urging [Evers] to veto any budget that does not include adequate investments in health care, child care and public education,” said Mark Rice, Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator at WISDOM. “Also, we want him to ensure that no new prisons are included in the budget… Also wanting to adequately fund measures in the budget that would reduce the prison population.” 

GBCI’s future to be determined 

In February, Gov. Tony Evers laid out a plan that included closing GBCI in 2029 and updating Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI).

Last week, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved a level of corrections spending that was significantly lower than Evers’ proposal.

Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said GBCI wouldn’t be discussed until later in the week, when the committee would take up the capital budget. That meeting was canceled. 

According to the Evers administration, the governor’s plan opted to close GBCI instead of Waupun because of local support for closing GBCI and the lower cost of updating the Waupun facility, the Examiner reported in February.

Long stays in restricted housing

According to the most recent data, 138 incarcerated people were in disciplinary separation at GBCI. There were 71 people in restrictive housing in the facility for over 30 days, the highest of any facility listed and nearly triple the number at the second highest facility.

Over the years, the average length of stay in disciplinary separation has declined across facilities, from 39.7 days in 2019 to 27.8 days in May 2025. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has entered a contract with a third-party management and consulting firm, Falcon Correctional and Community Services, Inc. The partnership includes studying restrictive housing practices at adult prisons. 

An aging facility 

GBCI was built starting in 1898. As of June 20, it housed 381 more incarcerated people than its design capacity of 749. 

Overcrowding puts additional burdens on staff to maintain a facility’s safety and security, a 2020 draft report on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections website stated. Overcrowding also “stresses inmate programs and support functions.” 

The report found that GBCI and Waupun Correctional Institution, the oldest facilities in the system, were both “at or nearing the end of their useful lives.”

Without extensive demolition and reconstruction of housing, program and support services buildings, the report stated, “they will not begin to achieve the safety, security, efficiency and flexibility found in modern correctional institution design.”

Maximum security housing at the prisons opened with 50 square foot cells designed for single occupancy, according to the report. Most of those cells were being used to house two people, presented operational issues and did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act or meet American Correctional Association standards. 

The report said new maximum security housing was needed in the long term. In the short term, “consideration should be given to reducing populations at GBCI and WCI if possible to allow for more single occupancy cells.” 

The 2020 report also said a number of facilities have ADA-accessible housing accommodations, but “there exists a particular lack of accessibility at the GBCI and WCI maximum security institutions.” 

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As Wisconsin’s prison population climbs toward pre-pandemic levels, Senate Bill 153 seeks to expand alternatives to incarceration.

Wisconsin’s Treatment Alternatives and Diversion program was established in 2005 to provide counties with funding to create programs to divert adults with nonviolent criminal charges into community-based treatment for substance abuse. 

Senate Bill 153 would formally expand the scope of these programs to explicitly include individuals with mental health issues.

Access to more funding

While some counties, including Milwaukee, already provide some diversion options for individuals with mental health needs, Senate Bill 153 could allow Milwaukee County to access funding not currently available. 

“The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has always supported the expansion of the Treatment Alternatives and Diversion program to include those individuals with severe and persistent mental health issues in addition to those with alcohol and drug dependency issues,” said Jeffrey Altenburg, Milwaukee County’s chief deputy district attorney.

He added that such an expansion would allow the district attorney’s office to focus most of its traditional prosecutorial resources on violent crime. 

Bipartisan support

State Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, who co-authored the bill, said that the legislation enjoys broad bipartisan support as well as backing from those who work inside the criminal justice system.

“Folks that I’ve talked to – whether it’s probation and parole, law enforcement more generally – these are folks that see that it works because you don’t see repeat involvement in the criminal justice system,” he said. 

“It is transformative and uplifting when you see the changes that people are able to make in their lives.”

Marshall Jones, currently incarcerated at Fox Lake Correctional Institution, hopes more lawmakers have that sort of mindset. 

“If politicians were more proactive in helping people in the system address the underlying issues they have, then more people will be in a position to experience lasting, genuine change,” Jones said.

Research shows that treating the underlying causes of criminal behavior helps individuals rebuild their lives after incarceration and prevents future offenses.

“Most people who have mental health issues are already running or hiding from a fear they have,” said Aaron Nicgorski, a patient at a Wisconsin Department of Health Services facility. 

“Providing treatment says ‘Hey, we understand you have an issue, here are some programs to get you on a path to a better future’ versus ‘Hey, we’re gonna put you in a cage to think about what you’ve done.’”

Diversion vs. incarceration

Over time, the criminal justice system has recognized that many people commit crimes because of economic or psychological factors rather than some sort of character flaw. 

Diversion – the process by which people get “diverted” into voluntary programs and away from formal prosecution – has been used to address these factors.

“The whole idea is to divert them from the traditional system and get them placed with, hopefully, programs that can break the cycle of any criminal behavior,” said Nick Sayner, co-founder and chief executive officer of JusticePoint, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit organization that provides diversion-related services among other criminal justice programs.

Breaking that cycle is better for the public’s safety as well as the safety of the person being diverted, said Mark Rice, coordinator for the Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign at WISDOM, a statewide faith-based organization.

It’s also much more cost-effective to treat people in communities rather than to incarcerate them, Rice added.

Incarceration is not an experience that lends itself to improving a person’s mental health, he said.

“One man attempted to commit suicide; several other men had to be put on suicide watch; others mutilated themselves,” said Rice, referring to his time in the special needs unit at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. 

What’s next?

On May 8, the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety unanimously recommended Senate Bill 153 for passage. It is now awaiting scheduling for a vote by the full Senate.

People can track the bill’s progress on the Wisconsin Legislature’s website. 

Wisconsin lawmakers seek to expand alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness 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.

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As of May 21, all Milwaukee County teens who are the responsibility of the county and held in Wisconsin’s youth prisons were Black or Hispanic.

There were 28 teens (96.4% Black) under “non-serious juvenile offender” court orders.

That includes teens age 17 and under sentenced to the state-run Lincoln Hills or Copper Lake schools – where costs approach $500,000 per year per youth – or the Mendota mental health facility.

Milwaukee County official Kelly Pethke said the county pays for non-serious juvenile offenders; the state pays for juveniles who are sentenced for more serious felonies. Pethke said in early May there were 35 Milwaukee County teens under serious orders, but she didn’t have a racial breakdown. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections said May 22 it tracks racial data by region. Nine of 66 youths (13.6%) in the southeast region were white.

Researcher Monique Liston cited the racial disparity in a social media post.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Milwaukee County: Youth In Our Care Dashboard May 21, 2025
• Milwaukee County: Youth In Our Care Dashboard
• Wisconsin Watch: One child, $463,000 per year: Ballooning costs of troubled Lincoln Hills youth prison
• LinkedIn: Monique Liston post
• Wisconsin Department of Corrections: Email

In May 2025, were all Milwaukee County teens under county authority in youth prisons Black or Hispanic? 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.