When the Wisconsin Commutation Advisory Board meets on August 21 to review 12 applications for a commutation, a form of executive clemency Gov. Tony Evers can order to shorten or modify a criminal sentence, each board member’s recommendation will be based, in part, on the perception of the applicant’s likelihood of re-offend.

The applicants and those who support them will be making their appeals based on evidence that they are ready to return to society and deserve another chance.

The commutation application asks the applicants to provide reasons for how a commutation would “assist with your rehabilitation and benefit the community.” The applicant is asked to provide a list of programs they participated in while incarcerated, education and certification, and other achievements, along with a re-entry plan detailing such things as employment prospects, where they would obtain housing and other resources.

As part of the process, there will be statements by the judge who sentenced the applicant, along with input from the district attorney who brought the charges, and testimony of victims that will be weighed.

Two factors that data has shown to be critical to predict lower recidivism — older age upon release and longer sentences served prior to release — have been designed into the commutation criteria by requiring applicants to serve at least half of their incarceration or at least 20 years of a life sentence. Requiring them to serve at least half their sentence ensures that when they are eligible to apply, they are older and therefore statistically less likely to re-offend.

In an April 2026 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, “Cross Examination: a comprehensive review of the Wisconsin criminal justice system,” data compiled from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections shows that people in prison who are over the age of  40 had a much lower three-year recidivism/reincarceration rate than younger people. Those 60 or older had the lowest rate at 12.3% followed by those 50-59 at 19%. Those who were 40-49 years old had a rate of 25.7%.

The Policy Forum report also  found those who had served a sentence of five or more years were significantly less likely to end up back in prison compared to those who had served less than five years: 18.5% compared to more than 32%.

A 2017 report from the United States Sentencing Commission looking at the effects of aging on recidivism among 25,431 federal offenders released after 2005 noted that  “numerous recidivism studies document well that older offenders are at lower risk for reoffending, and the Commission’s own research has confirmed this finding for federal offender populations.”

One of the commission’s key findings is that “Over an eight-year follow-up period, 13.4% of offenders age 65 or older at the time of release were rearrested compared to 67.6% of offenders younger than age 21 at the time of release.”

A 2022 report by the California parole board notes that of 4,197 persons serving a life sentence in that state released via a parole board ruling between 2011 and  2018 just 2.7% or 114 persons had been charged with a new misdemeanor or felony and only 0.5% were again convicted of a felony against another person.

The California report doesn’t include the average ages of those released via parole or how many years they served prior to release. However, a 2011 study by Stanford Law School, “Life in Limbo,” found that the average age of most people serving a life sentence who were released from prison was 49.9.

When Gov. Evers opened the commutation process via his two executive orders on April 4, he included a special application for juvenile life sentence commutation for those who were convicted of a crime at 19 years of age or younger.

Wisconsin advocates have pushed the state Legislature since 2023 to allow re-sentencing for juveniles who were given a life sentence. A bill introduced in the last legislative session would have allowed resentencing for those who had served at least 20 years of a sentence for a crime involving a death or 15 for crimes that did not involve a death. They pointed to two studies from Pennsylvania involving a large-scale release of juvenile lifers sentenced to life in prison as minors. The studies found that the recidivism rate was very low.

Pennsylvania began a resentencing process for youth lifers in 2017 after the landmark Supreme Court decision in 2012 Miller v. Alabama that ruled mandatory life sentences without parole were unconstitutional for those under age 18, in part, because of brain science that shows youth are still cognitively developing and therefore should not  be held to the same standard as adults. Later, in 2016, the Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v. Louisiana that the Miller decision applied retroactively, “invalidating all juvenile life-without-parole sentences that had been mandated by statute.”

Most of the juvenile lifers in Pennsylvania — 62% — had been convicted of first degree murder, while 38% had been convicted of second  degree murder. Out of 521 youth lifers in Pennsylvania, 459 were resentenced and 323 became eligible for parole and 230 were released.

Of the 174 who had been released from prison from Philadelphia County the average age at release was 51. As of December 2019, only two had been re-arrested and convicted of a new crime and both were considered “low level.”

The most helpful factors for reintegration, another Pennsylvania study found, were family connectedness, stable housing, employment, support groups, transportation and access to healthcare – similar factors considered in the Wisconsin commutation applications.

Amidst a heat wave in Madison, people who were once incarcerated in Wisconsin’s prison system and supporters gathered Wednesday morning to protest outside the Wisconsin Department of Corrections central office. 

Speakers supported a lower prison population, better living conditions for incarcerated people and independent oversight of the prison system, which has been the target of criticism for a rash of deaths in custody as well as conditions of confinement in aging, understaffed facilities.

“There’s a severe overcrowding crisis in Wisconsin’s prison system right now,” said Mark Rice, transformational justice campaign coordinator for the nonprofit advocacy group WISDOM. Rice said the crisis is creating dangerously unstable conditions for people who work in the prisons as well as incarcerated people. 

In October, the State of Wisconsin Building Commission voted to release $15 million to prepare preliminary plans and a design report for a prison system revamp, a first step toward large-scale structural change to the system of prison facilities.

Rice urged people to get out and vote, and said voters should talk with candidates and elected officials about the state of Wisconsin’s corrections system. He referenced WISDOM’s gubernatorial candidate forum last month. 

“I want to see candidates have the courage to step up and talk about these issues, too,” Rice said. 

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections provided a detailed statement in response to a request for comment from the Examiner, replying to the criticisms of Wisconsin’s corrections system from activists. 

The department first directed the Examiner to the last four state budgets proposed by Gov. Tony Evers, “much of which were rejected by the Republican-controlled Legislature,” communications director Beth Hardtke said. 

“Beyond that, you will need to ask lawmakers what their plans are to address Wisconsin’s corrections challenges and move our correctional system into the 21st Century,” she said.

Different portrayals of solitary confinement

Activists at the protest and the DOC differed in their descriptions of what it’s like to experience solitary confinement in the Wisconsin prison system. 

Rice told the Examiner that stories shared about solitary confinement and “other inhumane conditions of confinement” during his group’s virtual meetings had inspired the protest. At an event covered by the Examiner last year, people who experienced solitary confinement described it as traumatizing, and questioned its effectiveness as a way to change behavior as well as arguing that incarcerated people are sometimes put in solitary for things they shouldn’t be punished for. 

Talib Akbar of the WISDOM affiliate MOSES showed the Examiner a portable replica of a solitary confinement cell inside a truck, which was parked in the Department of Corrections parking lot during the protest. 

Akbar, who said he left prison in 2013, said the truck is based on a replica constructed by Edgewood College over a decade ago. That replica was based on Akbar’s own experience in solitary confinement. 

Hot days, like the day of the protest, can bring an additional burden for people in prisons, many of whom do not have access to air conditioning. 

Crystal Keller of FREE Movement, which focuses on women impacted by the justice system, said she’s been raising her grandson while her daughter has been incarcerated at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. She said her daughter is currently in restrictive housing, also known as solitary confinement. 

“Because she doesn’t have access to a tablet, my daughter and I are limited to one 15-minute phone call every nine or 10 days,” Keller said, adding that she can’t visit her daughter in person in restrictive housing and that logging onto video visits requires driving more than an hour each way. 

Hardtke, the DOC communications director, said in her statement to the Examiner that the “popular image” of restrictive housing often shows a “small dark room,” which she said is inaccurate. 

“I should also note that the popular image of restrictive housing often shows a small dark room,” Hardtke said. “It’s not accurate. The cells in the restricted housing unit at Waupun Correctional Institution, for example, have windows where individuals can see outdoors. Individuals can control their own lights in their cells. Clocks are hung to be visible from every cell front.”

Hardtke stated that people in disciplinary separation — people sent to solitary confinement because they were found to have committed a violation — “still have plenty of human interaction each day.” She attached a copy of a restrictive housing policy and said it lays out that a person is supposed to be kept there for the “minimum amount of time necessary to help them change their behavior.”

“They have access to visits, recreation, therapy and programming in their cell and on the restrictive housing unit,” Hardtke said. “Communication with family and others is not cut off. Individuals in disciplinary separation also have the opportunity to be released back into the general population after serving only half of their sentence if their behavior in restrictive housing is appropriate.”

A report the DOC released in November from its partnership with Falcon Inc., a consulting and management firm, took a different tone on solitary confinement. 

The DOC has contracted with the firm to implement a series of reform proposals, the Examiner reported earlier this month.

The Falcon report released in November stated that out-of-cell programming and recreation time is “very limited,” and that each individual in restrictive housing should receive a minimum of two hours of out-of-cell time per day for recreation and/or programming, not including necessary activities like showers. 

A person involved with the Wisconsin Mental Health Action Partnership (MHAP), which aims to improve mental health care in Wisconsin, sent the Examiner a slideshow dated March of this year that the DOC reportedly presented to one of the group’s committees. 

The slideshow indicates that the Department of Corrections was stating that the agency would need at least one of the following to provide two hours of out-of-cell time per day for each person in restrictive housing: additional staffing, material resources, new construction or remodeling, technology upgrades or significant changes to current policies or operations. 

The Falcon report also stated that restrictive housing initiatives still require support, particularly to improve conditions for incarcerated people and staff. It made a series of recommendations that aim to decrease the overall use of restrictive housing and improve living conditions, though the slideshow indicates the DOC stated further change is needed before some of these recommendations are feasible.

The report also noted potential negative effects of solitary confinement in general (not specifically analyzing Wisconsin) including physical harm and negative effects on mental health and overall well-being, as well as an increased risk for self-harm and suicide. 

Calls for oversight

One speaker at the protest read a statement from the prison reform advocacy group Ladies of SCI, calling for an ombudsman office for corrections that would help address complaints about prison problems, instead of relying on the prison system’s internal complaint process. 

Prison reform activists have been calling for Wisconsin to join the ranks of states with independent prison oversight bodies since at least 2024. Hardtke told the Examiner that the Department of Corrections supported Evers’ plan to create a DOC ombudsperson’s office, which the governor proposed as part of the last state budget. 

“Again, that is not something the agency can do without legislative action and funding,” Hardtke said. 

Last year, Evers proposed an Office of the Ombudsperson for Corrections that would have been attached to the Department of Corrections, which was removed by lawmakers. Wisconsin Public Radio reported that officials with Evers’ administration said the office would operate in a “functionally independent” manner. 

“We’d much rather see it be completely separate to stay with the purpose of an ombudsman,” Susan Franzen of Ladies of SCI told the Examiner over email last year. “But we would be supportive of any movement towards some sort of oversight at this point.” Rebecca Aubart, of the same group, said that if the office Evers proposed was not independent, it could not be properly described as an ombudsman. 

In February 2025, Wisconsin Public Radio reported that Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) criticized the proposal, stating that “de facto lifetime appointments (which the ombudsperson appears to be), almost a dozen new bureaucrats, and millions of dollars are not creative solutions.” 

Overcrowded prisons, especially for women

Yolanda Perkins, of FREE Movement, said that overcrowding in prisons is “suffocating,” not just uncomfortable, and is an environment where mental health breaks down. 

“Women are entering into a system, carrying (trauma already), and instead of receiving care, they are met with long waits, limited access or no support at all,” Perkins said. “Pain that can be treated is ignored until it becomes a crisis.”

In May, Wisconsin Watch reported that the state’s three women’s prisons collectively housed 18 women for every 10 the prisons were designed to hold, and that they were the most crowded of all state facilities. 

In a court filing in April, the DOC said that due to overcrowding, Taycheedah Correctional Institution, a women’s prison, had already undergone conversions to turn spaces into living areas that were not originally meant to be living areas.

Wisconsin Watch reported that Hardtke said beds have previously been set up in the gym at Taycheedah but that no one was currently living in the gym. Hardtke said staff were converting a “former property room” into a dormitory to house 20 women.

This isn’t unheard of for Taycheedah. A 2020 draft report on the DOC’s website indicates that at the time of the report, 340 incarcerated women were living in two “very old buildings” that had been converted into correctional housing. Some group rooms and an office space in those buildings 

Most of the 50-square-foot maximum security, non-segregated cells at the often-scrutinized Green Bay and Waupun Correctional Institutions were being used for double occupancy, and failed to meet standards such as the American Correctional Association Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions.

The Examiner reported in April on how the DOC has said it wants a program that would allow eligible incarcerated women to live with their babies within prison walls but that this is “currently impossible” in the existing prison system. The department cited a lack of sufficient funding and overcrowding in women’s prisons. 

Hardtke said that the Department of Corrections’ role in the justice system is to carry out the sentence the courts impose on a person as well as provide opportunities for rehabilitation and skills so that people can successfully return to communities. 

Except under limited circumstances such as the earned release program, the department doesn’t have the ability to alter a person’s sentence, Hardtke said, adding that reducing the prison population would require legislative changes and resources. 

Community corrections

At the protest, Rice argued that the Department of Corrections needs to put fewer people back behind bars for breaking a rule of their supervision in the community without committing a new crime. 

Rice argued that the money that’s being “wasted” on this type of revocation could be used to help incarcerated people return to the community. 

In her statement to the Examiner, Hardtke argued that while advocates highlight cases where a person’s community supervision was revoked for violating the rules of supervision, most individuals returned to prison have their supervision revoked for criminal behavior. 

Hardtke said that the DOC’s research and policy team recently looked at revocations for 2024 and 2025 to determine how many were solely for rules violations. She said that in 2025, 6,952 people had their community supervision revoked for a criminal offense and 1,188 individuals were revoked because of a non-criminal rules violation. 

In 2024, 7,064 people were revoked for a criminal offense and 1,026 were revoked for a non-criminal rules violation, she said. 

On June 19, Gov. Tony Evers announced the names of eight appointees to the newly formed Commutation Advisory Board he created by executive order on April 4.

Under the governor’s authority in the Wisconsin Constitution, a commutation, which is a shortening or a modification of a criminal sentence, is one of the governor’s powers of clemency along with pardons and reprieves.

Evers said in his executive order creating the board that offering commutations “promotes rehabilitation by providing a system that rewards the positive efforts of incarcerated individuals who demonstrate personal growth and a commitment to change with the possibility of a second chance to contribute to society, become productive members of their communities, make amends, and improve their lives and those of the people around them.” 

One of the eight appointees is Noble Wray, 66, a career police officer who served as Madison’s police chief from 2004-2013. He was a member of Gov. Evers’ Pardon Advisory Board from 2019-2025 where he reviewed applications, including asking applicants why they believed they merited a pardon. In an interview, he spoke with the Examiner about why he chose to serve on the commutations board and the unique perspective he brings to the role. 

Why did you want to serve on the board?

“In total, I’m 100% in support of commutations,” said Wray. “I think it’s critical for the criminal justice system to have something like this in place.”

On the Pardon Advisory Board, Wray said he was inspired by stories of people who took accountability for their lives and were making meaningful changes.

“I’ve worked or reviewed just about every part of the criminal justice system during my career,” he said, “and nothing has been more personally fulfilling than the pardon board.”

He agreed to be on the Commutation Advisory Board, he said, because he believes people in prison who are trying to make constructive changes to become productive citizens should have an incentive to pursue those changes. He believes it’s important for the state to support  successful reentry into society, focusing on employment, family support, treatment and accessing services.

“Being involved in criminal justice reform for so long and understanding that you can’t just look at a system that has punishment as its only motivation — human beings are more complex than that,” he said. “There are people that we know that can contribute to society, and the system, the structure must provide triggers, must provide systems to acknowledge those folks, both in prison and when they have completed their time.”

But he also acknowledged an applicant might not be ready for a commutation.

“I’m here to tell you, the first to tell you, it may not be for everyone,” he said. “It may be that someone just needs time to think through what they’ve done and to really grasp and understand it. It may be, you know, taking college credits. It may be working while they’re in prison on vocational training.”

What is the importance of the Commutation Advisory Board?

Wray emphasized that the advisory board brings together members  from different backgrounds in the criminal justice and social services system, with diverse experiences, who will challenge one another and offer varied perspectives.

“So you know I support commutations,” he said. “But you know what? I am a cop. I’ve lived my whole life being a cop, and bottom line, I want to make sure that people in the community and out on the streets are safe, that neighborhoods are safe. So if I see something or hear something that I think is going to compromise that, I’m going to push back.”

At the same time, he added, someone who has  a different perspective could see something he doesn’t perceive.

“What I hope we would get out of this is that we really hear what the people are saying that are requesting a commutation,” he said. ”And we really review the information and make the best decision, balancing the need to have a human being get back into Wisconsin society and make a contribution to Wisconsin society, balancing that with ensuring that no one will be harmed in any way, shape or form by this person.”

Asked about the pressure to ensure that the board doesn’t make a bad decision, leading to more harm caused by someone whose sentence is commuted,  Wray drew on his experience  as a police officer. It’s wrong, he said, to treat an entire neighborhood as being made up of criminals when only a few people are causing problems. He said the same standard should be applied to commutations, not letting one person’s bad actions ruin the chances for others who are trying to change their lives.

“Politically, people will get up and say, ‘Hey, this thing failed because one person did this,’” Wray said. “How sad is that when you can help others? Now, again, I understand you can’t place all of the emphasis on helping someone that has done something wrong to society, but if everything is totally punishment, you don’t have a balance” between punishment of the crime and rehabilitation of the offender.  “That’s why the numbers stay the same, because you don’t have a balance,” he added, referring to Wisconsin’s prison population which is on track to break the record set in 2019 of 23,826 people behind bars, many more than the state’s prison system was designed to hold.

Asked if he knew how the advisory board would evaluate applications for those who meet the minimum criteria to apply, Wray said he thought it would be similar to the Pardon Advisory Board, but also noted that there is no official guideline yet.

“We’re supposed to come together and meet and discuss that,” he said, adding that he expects it will involve “exercising some discretion.”

What perspective do you bring to the Commutation Advisory Board?

Wray said his background in law enforcement and his work on other boards will inform his work on the commutation board. 

“My common background being law enforcement, that I spent 30 years attempting to reduce fear, harm and disorder in the Madison area …  that’s really, you know, where it starts,” he said.  “I also bring a perspective of dealing with people at a level that probably no one gets to see other than a police officer, and that is in that hour of need, hour of distress, or when it happens, you’re out there … it’s that intimate time of a crisis or call or problem that very few people will see.”

He added that a police officer has to hold people accountable while also supporting and caring for victims, and “doing it with humility and with practical wisdom. I think that I bring that perspective.”

Wray also noted his experience consulting across the United States and internationally as an expert in police reform, police culture and implicit bias in policing.

“We don’t talk about this, but there is a financial cost to justice,” Wray added, “and if it’s not properly handled, if we’re too focused on arresting and incarcerating people, there is a cost, but there’s also a financial cost if we’re not doing the right thing by keeping communities safe.”

Finally, reflecting on his experience both in law enforcement and in his work on criminal justice reform, Wray said, “I just wish that more people could see when redemption is exercised properly.”

The seven other appointees to the commutation board include Maryann Sumi, a former Dane County Circuit Judge; David Meany, a former Ashland County District Attorney; Jerome Dillard, a criminal justice advocate and former executive director of EXPO (Ex-incarcerated People Organizing); Kathy Byrne Stilling, a former public defender, criminal defense attorney and retired Waukesha County Circuit Judge; Jonathan Scharrer, University of Wisconsin Law School professor and Director of the Restorative Justice Project; Geri Segal, the former executive director of Family Support Center in Chippewa Valley;  and Kat Kasmaule, program and policy analyst for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and a former child protection case manager.

The eight will join chair Mel Barnes, Evers’ chief legal counsel, and vice chair Cindy O’Donnell, a corrections veteran.

In 2025, the number of adults in Wisconsin prisons for drunk driving and other Operating While Intoxicated offenses was four times higher than it was in 2000, according to a report published Thursday by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

The report describes Wisconsin’s penalties for initial OWI convictions as generally less severe than those in neighboring states, but says Wisconsin has among the most severe penalties for the most serious convictions. 

A record number of 1,313 adults entered the Wisconsin prison system in 2023 for OWI offenses, though declining admissions over the next two years suggest that “they may now be trending downward,” the forum said in its press release. 

In December 2025, 2,750 adults were incarcerated in Wisconsin prisons for OWI offenses, which doesn’t include people incarcerated in local jails for lower-level offenses. People incarcerated for OWIs make up a larger share of people in Wisconsin prisons than they used to, the report found, from about 3% in 2000 to about 12% in 2025. These numbers declined from 2024 to 2025 but remain higher than they once were. Black Wisconsinites and American Indian/Alaska Native Wisconsinites are overrepresented in Wisconsin prisons for OWIs.  

 

From 2020 to 2024, incarceration for OWI offenses rose sharply, the report states. A backlog of OWI cases in the court system, changes in behavior and policies that increased penalties for people who have committed four or more OWI offenses may have contributed to this trend. 

OWI arrest data suggests that Wisconsin may be making fewer arrests for less severe drunk driving and more arrests for severe or repeat offenses, with less arrests overall, the report states. 

The state is facing prison overcrowding and increasing financial and human costs of the prison system and a “relationship with alcohol use that many public health leaders view as problematic,” the report states. 

It lists a series of measures that policymakers could consider to address the problem without increasing incarceration for OWIs. It says these are strategies being used in other states that have been shown to reduce consumption of alcohol or drunk driving. 

Some of these ideas involve more programming:

• State funding for alcohol age compliance check programs 
• More Wisconsin communities implementing a Place of Last Drink program, in which police can identify bars and restaurants where people last consumed alcohol before committing an OWI, aiding local data to address drunk driving
• Creating OWI or hybrid courts that help connect people charged with OWIs to programs or resources that may be more likely to prevent another OWI than a regular sentence, especially in areas where these courts are less common, such as northern Wisconsin. 
• Improving access to substance use programs in Wisconsin prisons by increasing funding
• Giving people better options for alternative transportation after they have consumed alcohol, particularly in rural areas

Other ideas involve new restrictions: 

• Imposing higher taxes on one or more types of alcohol
• Limiting alcohol licenses for retailers, or reduce alcohol permits (Wisconsin has one alcohol outlet per 345 people, the report states,  citing the Medical College of Wisconsin, far above the national average)
• Reducing the legal BAC limit to 0.05% as recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board
• Decreasing the days and hours during which retailers can sell alcohol