For nearly two decades, Wisconsin Books to Prisoners has been sending new and used books to people behind bars. Now, the volunteer group is trying to restore its operations after the Wisconsin Department of Corrections imposed new restrictions.
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Protesters gather outside of the Milwaukee FBI office to speak out against the arrest of Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A federal magistrate judge recommended on Monday that the criminal case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan proceed. Dugan has been indicted on charges that she helped an immigrant without legal status who came to her courtroom for a hearing on a misdemeanor charge evade federal immigration authorities.
Dugan was arrested in April and indicted in May. She’s pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing an individual to prevent arrest and obstruction.
The case has become an example of the Trump administration’s effort to punish judicial interference with its escalation of immigration enforcement. In April, 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was in Dugan’s courtroom when federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest him.
Prosecutors say Dugan helped Flores-Ruiz out a side doorway to avoid arrest but the doorway Dugan led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney use led to the same hallway in which the agents were waiting and one took the elevator down with them. Flores-Ruiz was arrested on the street outside.
In May, Dugan had filed a motion to dismiss the charges against her, arguing she is immune from prosecution because she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and that the arrest violated Wisconsin’s sovereignty as a state by disrupting a state court hearing and prosecuting a state judge.
On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Joseph recommended that the motion to dismiss be denied. The final decision on dismissal is up to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who does not need to follow Joseph’s recommendation.
“We are disappointed in the magistrate judge’s non-binding recommendation, and we will appeal it,” Dugan attorney Steven Biskupic, a former federal prosecutor, said in a statement. “This is only one step in what we expect will be a long journey to preserve the independence and integrity of our courts.”
In her recommendation, Joseph wrote that judicial immunity applies when a judge is being sued for civil damages, not criminal charges.
“A judge’s actions, even when done in her official capacity, does not bar criminal prosecution if the actions were done in violation of the criminal law,” she wrote.
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A federal magistrate judge recommended Monday that the case proceed against a Wisconsin judge who was indicted on allegations that she helped a man who is in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration agents seeking to arrest him in her courthouse.
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Smith and Wesson handguns are displayed during the 2015 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits in Nashville, Tenn. Nashville had the fifth-highest reported gun theft rate in 2022, with 210 incidents per 100,000 residents. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A growing number of firearms are being stolen from parked cars, especially in urban areas, according to a new report that highlights a frequently overlooked source of illegally circulating guns.
The nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice released an analysis examining five years of gun theft data reported to law enforcement in 16 cities — both urban and rural — with populations over 250,000. The analysis found that while the overall rate of reported gun thefts remained steady between 2018 and 2022, gun thefts from motor vehicles rose sharply.
The number of guns reported stolen from vehicles increased by 31% over the five-year period, while gun thefts during burglaries of homes and businesses fell by 40%. In large urban areas, the overall gun theft rate jumped by 42% between 2018 and 2022, while rural areas saw a 22% decline.
The findings are based on data from more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies across the country that consistently submitted detailed crime reports to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System between 2018 and 2022. Together, those agencies represent about 25% of the U.S. population and 12% of all law enforcement agencies nationwide.
As gun violence continues to grip communities across the country, a growing body of research suggests that firearm theft — particularly from vehicles — is a key, but often overlooked, source of weapons used in crimes. While research remains limited, some studies show stolen guns are disproportionately recovered at crime scenes, and gun violence tends to rise in areas where thefts have occurred.
Yet national data on gun theft remains sparse and there is no nationwide system for tracking stolen guns. Even basic details — such as how many guns are taken in each reported incident — are often missing from official police reports.
With crime and firearm policy high on the Trump administration’s agenda, experts say more research is urgently needed to understand how stolen guns fuel broader cycles of violence.
“We really don’t have a full national picture of stolen guns,” said Susan Parker, one of the report’s authors and a research assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University. “It’s really difficult to think about prevention when you don’t know much.”
The report’s findings suggest that parked cars have become a major weak point in firearm security — one that could be addressed through policy, public education and better data collection.
Some states, including Colorado and Delaware, have recently passed laws requiring firearms stored in vehicles to be locked in secure containers. In recent years, several other states have considered similar measures, including legislation mandating safe storage and stricter reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns.
Where you store your gun really matters. We see that so many of the guns that are stolen are increasingly from vehicles.
– Susan Parker, research assistant professor at Northwestern University
Currently, just 16 states and the District of Columbia require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement, according to the Giffords Law Center, a nonpartisan gun safety group.
“Where you store your gun really matters. We see that so many of the guns that are stolen are increasingly from vehicles,” Parker said. “That kind of shift in how we’re carrying guns should also maybe be accompanied by shifts in how we’re thinking about keeping them safe and out of the risk of being misused.”
Among the 16 cities included in the report, Memphis, Tennessee, had the highest rate of gun thefts in 2022 — 546 reported incidents per 100,000 residents. That’s nearly double the rate in Detroit, which ranked second at 297 per 100,000, and more than 10 times higher than in Seattle, which had the lowest rate at 44 per 100,000.
Kansas City, Missouri, had the third-highest rate at 234 per 100,000, followed by Milwaukee, at 219 per 100,000, and Nashville, Tennessee, at 210 per 100,000.
While residences remained the most common place guns were stolen from overall, the share of gun thefts occurring in parking lots, garages and on roads rose significantly. By 2022, 40% of all reported gun thefts involved a vehicle, up from 31% in 2018.
Vehicle break-ins resulting in stolen firearms nearly doubled in urban areas — from 37 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 65 per 100,000 people in 2022.
As parked vehicles have become a more frequent target for thieves, the locations of those thefts have shifted. In 2018, about half of all reported gun thefts from vehicles occurred at residences. By 2022, that share had dropped to roughly 40%, while thefts from vehicles in parking lots and garages rose by 76%. The report also found significant increases in gun thefts from vehicles on roads, highways and alleys — up 59% over the five-year period.
In the most rural areas, where gun ownership is often more common, the share of vehicle break-ins that resulted in gun theft rose from 18% to 24%. In urban areas, that figure increased from 6% to 10.5%.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
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.
Wisconsin's 19th-century abortion ban is no longer in effect, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
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A Wisconsin nonprofit is pushing to get books back into prisons after a DOC directive ending the effort. | Getty Images Creative
The nonprofit Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (WBTP) and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) are carrying out a pilot project that involves sending used books to prisoners.
This might lead to the nonprofit regaining the ability to send used books to incarcerated people in DOC facilities around the state. Meanwhile, WBTP says it has experienced an issue with packages of new books, which were not banned, being sent back.
Last year, the department enacted a used book ban. The DOC has cited concerns about drug smuggling, leading to scrutiny of how effective the ban might be and whether the impact on prisoners’ access to books was justified. Camy Matthay of Wisconsin Books to Prisoners told the Examiner in September that the ban hobbles the project.
The agency said in late September that it used to make an exception for WBTP to send used books “due to the organization being based in Wisconsin with leadership who were responsive and willing to work with DOC.” Wardens and librarians could accept used books from certain trusted sources for donation to the institution libraries.
In late September, the DOC said that under a policy announced in January, the department could no longer accept used books from anyone — including WBTP. The department said “that policy is now being enforced when it comes to library donations as well as books sent to persons in our care.”
In March, the Examiner reported on concerns regarding mail between incarcerated people and attorneys, including the question of the accuracy of the drug tests used on materials coming into prisons.
According to incident reports and a statement from the DOC in late September, three separate shipments in February and March 2024 that were allegedly from Wisconsin Books to Prisoners had multiple items testing positive for drugs.
In an email to Wisconsin Books to Prisoners in August, Sarah Cooper, former administrator of the DOC’s division of adult institutions, said the concern was not with WBTP but with people who would impersonate the nonprofit.
“Unfortunately, those who wish to send drugs into the prisons do so under the guise of legitimate agencies, organizations and even legal entities,” Cooper said.
WBTP said the group expects to be formally approved to resume shipping new and used donated books to people incarcerated throughout Wisconsin upon the successful completion of the second phase of the pilot.
“We are cautiously optimistic that WBTP will be back or close to our full operations by September 2025,” the nonprofit said in a statement Friday.
WBTP said it has participated in a pilot program at Oakhill Correctional Institution over the past few months. The nonprofit said that during phase one, it sent three packages of books, one third of which were used books. The books were added to the library collection, making them available for checkout by those who requested them.
The pilot program aims to allow DOC to test and refine its screening process for donated reading materials to ensure safety, DOC communications director Beth Hardtke said in an email to the Examiner.
Starting July 1, WBTP will be able to send requested materials directly to individuals at Oakhill Correctional Institution instead of the institution library, Hardtke said.
“The goal is to eventually allow WBTP to send reading materials to individuals at any DOC facility — safely,” Hardtke said. She mentioned a safety concern about people coming into contact with intoxicating substances.
In a statement in late September, the department said staff reviewed contraband incident reports that facility staff had flagged as drug-related between Jan. 1 2019 and Sept. 19, 2024.
The DOC said that not all incident reports flagged as drug-related turn out to be drug-related, and that “some drug-related incidents recorded through a medical record or conduct report may not be reflected in these numbers.”
The department said there had been 214 incidents of drugs being found on paper from Jan. 1 2019 to Sept. 18, 2024 “including in books and letters shipped to DOC facilities.”
WBTP said it was told by DOC that it would continue mailing brand-new books to meet requests made by readers. Many of those packages have been returned to them, WBTP said. The status of some packages is not known, and the nonprofit is investigating the issue. In its statement, WBTP said it has “engaged in discussions” with DOC administrative staff, “in opposition to their policy banning the donation of used reading materials.”
“WBTP remains committed to pursuing every possible avenue to challenge this censorship,” the nonprofit said.
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A Flock camera on the Lac Courte Orielles Reservation in Saywer County. | Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner
The Lac du Flambeau (LDF) Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribal Police Office in Vilas County has a resource most rural law enforcement wouldn’t imagine: a surveillance room with approximately two dozen screens that are monitored by a full-time staff of four and two part-time workers.
Feeding images to those monitors are 160-plus cameras overlooking the central village area, less than one square mile of the reservation, including tribal administrative and commercial businesses.
There’s a good chance there isn’t another northern Wisconsin public space with such a high concentration of cameras or a staff to monitor the live images that are also recorded and stored for a minimum of 30 days.
A post on the tribe’s Facebook page by Clinton D. Isham, first revealed the extent of the tribe’s surveillance capabilities to the Wisconsin Examiner.
“Bro, all those cameras that the Tribal police put up better pay off. Police want to do surveillance on Indians to lock us up, but can’t use them to protect us,” Isham wrote.
Isham’s comment was directed at why those 160-plus cameras at LDF didn’t record any image of Melissa Beson, 37, a tribal member who was last seen on the reservation on March 17 – the site where Beson was last seen was just outside the area of the cameras.
LDF Tribal Police Chief T.J. Bill said there’s another tribe in the Midwest interested in replicating what LDF has created as a way to improve safety for tribal members.
The significant investment at LDF in surveillance prompted the question of whether other Wisconsin tribes have also secured surveillance systems to address safety concerns and whether they are considering acquiring additional surveillance technology.
The Examiner reached out to most of the other 11 federally recognized Wisconsin tribes about their surveillance, and along with LDF, three others responded: Oneida, Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO), and St. Croix.
Police chiefs of the four tribes said it appears that there is a high interest in using surveillance technology among the tribes, particularly a technology called Flock.
Overall, the police chiefs said tribal members are supportive of using surveillance technology, including a reported survey by one tribe that tallied over 80% support by its members.
While law enforcement officials said the use of surveillance technology and implementation of the Flock system was broadly popular among tribal members, the expansion of surveillance capabilities has drawn controversy elsewhere in Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department have recently been at the center of a debate about the use of surveillance cameras and Flock.
“It is critical that our community has a say in if and how invasive surveillance technologies are used, how they are deployed against residents, if and how their data is stored and shared with third parties, and whether spending our limited tax dollars on surveillance technologies is the best way to promote public safety,” the ACLU of Wisconsin wrote in a May letter to the Milwaukee Common Council.
Bill, the LDF tribal police chief, who began working with the tribe in 2013, stated that the surveillance system was already in place when he joined the department. He said that employees of the tribe’s IT department did the wiring and placement of the cameras, mostly between 2010 and 2011.
“It was directed by the tribal government, the tribal council, who wanted it for the protection of the people, for the safety of the public,” said Bill.
Bill said he didn’t know the motivation behind the creation of the surveillance system but noted that the LDF police department has been at the forefront of using technology and was one of the first law enforcement agencies in the area that had officers wearing body cameras.
“We don’t have 24/7 coverage,” he said of the cameras being monitored by staff, “but we strategically place them (staff) during the busy times, so it all depends on what’s going on, what our crime statistics tell us.”
Besides the 160 cameras, the tribe’s casino has its own internal surveillance system, which the casino monitors, a typical feature for casinos. The nearby LDF K-12 school also has its own surveillance system, which the police department can access and monitor.
With all the cameras in the LDF police department’s inventory, Beson wasn’t recorded because she was last seen in an area where there are no cameras. Bill said there have been efforts to put up remote cameras to monitor using cellular coverage, but cellular coverage is poor in the reservation and the county.
“We can’t rely on cellular-based equipment, especially during the summertime when our population goes from 4,000 individuals to 50,000 (including tourists and seasonal residents) because everyone is on their cell phones,” he said. “The cell service is horrible here in the Northwoods, so we have to rely on something else because we tried cameras in remote locations outside of the community where we can’t hook up electricity or fiber, and it doesn’t work.”
The Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) helped LDF set up a surveillance camera on Highway 70 near a former hotel that was being used for drug sales and possible human trafficking, but because that camera used a cellular connection, it wasn’t reliable.
Bill said the tribe has used recorded surveillance video to prosecute several offenses, including a string of burglaries.
“We went through the surveillance cameras and we found a couple of different vehicles, and we located one vehicle of interest and were able to track that vehicle through town, even though it was nighttime, and we were able to make an arrest for the burglaries,” he said.
They’ve also made several drug arrests using surveillance images.
“We’re able to watch individuals who make transactions,” he said. “The cameras are so good that we’re able to see into the cars where they’re doing the deals and catch them. We see the money exchanged in the car and a package delivered to the other person.”
A live feed from the convenience store showed a man lifting his wallet out of his pants and a small baggie with a white substance falling out, which alerted one of the monitors.
“He walked out of there and didn’t realize he had dropped it,” said Bill. “We went over there and we picked it up and it was a bag of cocaine.” Later, the man was charged with possession.
The big question is, do all the cameras make people safer, and do they deter crime?
Bill said the serious drug dealers know about the cameras and stay out of that area, but there are still some who forget about the cameras or think they hide their actions, but that’s pretty difficult when there are 160-plus cameras in such a concentrated area.
“For the most part, in my opinion, it is a deterrent,” he said. “To those we have arrested and interviewed, they’ll say they are doing the crimes, the transactions, outside the area of the cameras because they are everywhere, so it is a deterrent for them not to do their activity directly in the community, so they take their criminal activity outside that area.”
Having recorded digital evidence, said Bill, helps prosecute offenses.
“You go to court and you provide the evidence, that’s a huge part, not only to help with the investigation but also to protect the officer from allegations.”
Bill said there is support for expanding the surveillance system. This summer, the tribe is looking at using recently laid fiber optic lines to expand the system, allowing cameras to provide coverage of the more rural areas of the reservation such as where Beson was last seen.
Bill said there haven’t been complaints from tribal members over a lack of privacy or a “Big Brother” complaint about being observed by authorities when they are in the village area of the reservation.
“You get a complaint here and there, but it’s very few,” he said. “We don’t get the Big Brother concern. Overall, the community is in support of it.”
Eric Boulanger is the chief of police for the Oneida Nation in Northeast Wisconsin near Green Bay.
According to Boulanger, Oneida has a Security Department that is part of the tribe’s gaming commission that monitors cameras in parking lots outside the casino and several different businesses and buildings, and the school has a security department that monitors cameras within the school that the police also have the ability to access.
Over two years ago, Oneida also invested in four Flock cameras for use by the police department, which uses cameras and computers to record and track license plates. With Flock, Oneida has also integrated with the larger Flock system, which allows for searching and tracking vehicles in other communities.
Boulanger said what drove the investment in Flock is the positive reports from other local law enforcement.
“It’s a great law enforcement tool in general, not just for Oneida but any community that uses them,” said Boulanger. “It’s a fairly advanced system, and you’re able to search for vehicles and plates and that sort of thing. It lets you know if what you’re looking for is in your area.”
He added, “If you have an incident and you have any sort of vehicle description or if you have a suspect and you know their vehicle information, you can enter that into the system and then it’ll give you feedback on whether or not that vehicle was in your area.”
He added, “If you’re looking for a white Ford Bronco, you can put those parameters in there, and then they’ll show you pictures of those vehicles in a particular area.”
He was asked if the four Flock cameras are sufficient to cover the reservation.
“In the future, we may expand it,” he said. “Everything comes with a cost. They’re not real affordable, but you know where we have them placed, and with the other agencies in the area and the ability to use theirs, there’s pretty good coverage right now of our main thoroughfares, and highly trafficked areas.”
Asked if the surveillance cameras and Flock cameras help deter crime at Oneida, he said, “Well, you would think they would, but there are still plenty of people doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing.”
“The cameras aren’t hidden, so it’s quite obvious and it’s posted, the areas under surveillance, “but people still do what they’re going to do. So, I mean, I would imagine it would deter some people, but obviously, it doesn’t deter everybody.”
He noted that recorded footage is very useful in the prosecution of a crime.
“Jurors and judges and prosecutors and defense attorneys like to have video,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to dispute a claim on either side if there is video.”
Boulanger hasn’t heard objections to the surveillance cameras or Flock.
“I haven’t heard any specific comments, nobody has directly addressed concerns with me about it, but I feel our community is pretty public safety cautious, so I think they’re probably more on the side of in favor of it than anybody would be against,” he said.
The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indian Tribal Chief Susie Taylor said the tribal police doesn’t have a surveillance system of cameras operated by the police department or a special security department. Still, police have used footage from the casino for investigations, and the K-12 school does have its own surveillance system of cameras.
She notes that former chief of police Tim DeBrot was instrumental in securing Flock cameras for the tribe, which were placed earlier this year.
Taylor said the Flock cameras record and track information about vehicles, but they will not be used for speeding violations. She said the primary use is in the investigation of crimes.
In March, Taylor put out a press release about the Flock cameras that was printed in the Lac Courte Oreilles News:
“Flock cameras are designed to enhance public safety by capturing objective evidence, including license plate information, to help law enforcement prevent and solve crimes. These cameras do not use facial recognition and are not intended for traffic enforcement. Instead, they serve as a valuable investigative tool to identify stolen vehicles, locate missing children and adults, and deter criminal activity.”
In the press release, Taylor noted that the data from the cameras is stored and then deleted after a certain number of days if it is not being used in an investigation, and access to the information is limited to “authorized personnel” and not used for “surveillance or tracking individuals without cause.”
She also noted to the Wisconsin Examiner that the Flock cameras, by tying into the larger network of cameras, allow for the sharing of information across jurisdictional boundaries.
“Many other law enforcement agencies across the country have implemented Flock cameras due to their effectiveness in reducing crime and enhancing community safety,” she said.
She noted there are Flock cameras off the region’s major highway, Highway 53, located in Washburn County, that would be very effective in helping track a vehicle that had been on the reservation in Sawyer County.
Joe Morey, public relations director for LCO, said a survey of tribal members had been conducted regarding the use of surveillance technology, and over 80% of respondents were in support.
Of the four tribes, the St. Croix Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has the least investment and deployment of surveillance equipment.
According to police chief Donnie Holmes, in 2014-15, the St. Croix Tribal Police Department began using body cameras.
Holmes said his office will place stand-alone cameras to address individual complaints or for investigations. As an example, he mentioned that there were complaints at the Sand Lake basketball court and parking area, where robberies had occurred, so cameras were installed on the assumption that the criminals might return.
Individual tribal businesses have their own security system for recording video that could be used for an investigation or prosecution.
“Super expensive,” Holmes said of the cost of implementing a surveillance system for St. Croix similar to LDF’s or even Oneida’s. He said for St. Croix it would be even more of a challenge in that the reservation is located in pockets of land over four different counties: Burnett, Barron, Douglas and Polk.
However, St. Croix is exploring the acquisition of Flock cameras. The biggest factor against proceeding is the cost.
Holmes appreciates the capability of Flock cameras, especially for integrating with other Flock cameras to track a suspect’s vehicle. If a vehicle can be identified, Holmes believes Flock cameras would be helpful locating a missing person.
“The nice thing about Flock is they can alert to car movements with other cameras tied to the system,” he said.
Holmes was asked if tribal members would have any objections to having a more advanced surveillance system, and he noted that there is some interest in investing in technology, but he also wonders if there would be objections over privacy rights if a surveillance system became too expansive.
Holly Beilin, director of communication for Flock, said in Wisconsin three tribes are using Flock cameras and in the United States 24 tribes have it, but because of confidentiality, she cannot identify which tribes have it.
Boulanger, the Oneida Nation chief, was asked why he thinks tribes are showing an interest in Flock cameras.
“With technology it’s a useful investigative tool,” he said, “And if you know any tribal agencies or tribal nations that have independent police departments and can fiscally handle the cost, it is probably going to look towards some sort of Flock or surveillance system just because that’s the trend right now in law enforcement, using technology.”
Beilin objected when told that at least two of the police chiefs said the Flock system is pricey.
“We typically hear it is much more cost-effective than other solutions,” she responded.
One of the big issues across Indian Country is missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives. The Flock cameras can be especially helpful for missing persons because they are automatically tied to Amber Alerts for children and Silver Alerts for seniors.
Beilin said Flock is working on incorporating the new federal alert for Native Americans, called Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP), which will be implemented later in 2025 and will be known as Turquoise Alerts.
“If a vehicle is associated with an Amber Alert, the license plate passes a camera in real time and will alert local law enforcement, so that law enforcement know, like, OK, that vehicle just passed this camera and is going in this direction, so it’ll be, you know, at this location, in five minutes,’” she said, “and they can actually go, hopefully, and apprehend that person.”
However, she noted that those who use the Flock system don’t have to tie into the larger network of Flock cameras and instead can just use them locally. She also noted the local user is responsible for how long information is stored.
“No customer has to share,” she said. “So if a tribe wanted to share with local law enforcement nearby, they could, and if they wanted to just have their own police get those alerts and use it for investigations. That would also be fine,”
She was asked what is Flock’s appeal for tribes.
“It actually works,” she said. “It solves crime, and it helps find missing persons. I mean, we just really see that as soon as the cameras are installed, it starts to actually help these agencies or these tribes. You know, the vast majority of crime has some kind of a vehicle involved, right? Which makes sense. We all literally drive daily, and as do folks who commit crime.”
As for whether the Flock system infringes upon privacy rights,“We don’t own the data, the agencies or the tribes do, so they can choose what to do with it,” she said. “We can never sell it or share it without their permission. They can set or legislate their own retention period, so maybe they only want to keep the data for. Our default (to erase data collected) is 30 days, but it could be even less.”
Sergio DeSoto is a consultant from Arizona who works with tribes in the Southwestern areas of the United States on surveillance systems. He said that most tribes he has worked with invest in camera security after an incident has raised safety concerns.
“We hear, ‘we want to make sure our people are safe,’” he said.
DeSoto said surveillance cameras are typically requested for housing, administration, courts, and border security, and most tribes have staff who live-monitor cameras.
The safety concern can be over external issues like sex trafficking on the reservation, or internal issues of domestic disputes or alcohol or drug-related issues.
He said the No. 1 motivation for the tribal nation he deals with is personal safety.
“They’re not interested in the assets; they’re more interested in the people,” he said.
Typically, he said, there is an issue or an incident that drives a discussion about how to raise safety at a particular location, such as a homicide in tribal housing. Once the surveillance system has been in place for a while, the tribe often requests help focusing on other areas on the reservation.
DeSota said the tribal councils are also learning the importance of educating tribal members before implementing a new surveillance system.
“With the elder center in Quechan (Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe in Yuma, Arizona), the tribal council did a super good job communicating with them that we want to make sure everybody’s safe,” he said.
Regarding the question of whether surveillance cameras help deter crime and increase safety, DeSota said he doesn’t have any data to support that contention. However, he noted that when tribes consistently seek to expand their systems, it would indicate that they are receiving positive feedback.
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Advocates are calling on the state Legislature to appropriate more money for crime victim services after funding approved by a budget committee on Friday fell short of the amount requested by Wisconsin's Attorney General Josh Kaul.
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The Joint Finance Committee convened at 10:17 p.m. Friday — over 12 hours after it was originally scheduled. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Joint Finance Committee convened at 10:17 p.m. Friday — over 12 hours after it was originally scheduled — to vote on a fraction of the budget areas it had originally planned and to release part of the literacy funding that is set to expire next week.
Legislative leaders have been working behind closed doors over the last week to negotiate with Gov. Tony Evers and work out the details of the state budget as the end of the fiscal year approaches next week.
Areas of the budget still left to take up are at the center of negotiations including the University of Wisconsin system, where Republicans have considered cuts, and the Department of Children and Families, which is responsible for the state’s Child Care Counts program. Evers has said he would veto a budget without funding for the program, which will run out of federal money soon. The committee also still needs to take up the Department of Health Services, the Department of Transportation, the capital budget and more.
The committee co-chairs did not take questions from reporters ahead of the meeting, but as the meeting started Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said the other agencies “will be taken up at a later date.” He didn’t specify when that would be.
The budget committee did approve the budget for several state agencies including the Department of Natural Resources, part of the Department of Justice, the Higher Education Aids Board, the Department of Administration and the Tourism Department. Each action the committee did take passed along partisan lines.
The committee voted unanimously to release $9 million of the nearly $50 million left in funding for literacy initiatives that was first allocated in the 2023-25 state budget. The majority of the money has been withheld by lawmakers since 2023 and is slated to lapse back into the state’s general fund if not released by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Lawmakers said action on the other $40 million will be taken soon.
“This has taken a long time to get here. One of the things that this bill was originally about was to make it so that kids could read. We want to help kids read. We want to give schools the tools to be able to do that,” Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said. “Unfortunately, it’s taken this Legislature a tremendous amount of time to allocate the funds for that, and ultimately, that’s simply not acceptable.”
Born said he is glad lawmakers were releasing part of the money Friday and would have further motions on it in the future. He also said the delay on the funding was Evers’ fault. Lawmakers were holding the funding back due to a partial veto Evers exercised on a bill related to the literacy funding. The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that partial veto was unconstitutional and restored the original language of the law.
“We’re glad that justice has been done, and we’re here now with the proper accounts and able to do these two separate motions here in the next couple of days in the committee to get this program that was a bipartisan program moving along,” Born said.
Noticeably missing from the Republicans’ Department of Natural Resource motion was funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program, which allows the agency to fund the purchase of public land and upkeep of recreational areas.
Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said lawmakers were missing an opportunity by not funding the program in the budget.
“There’s a lot of individual pet projects in here that seem to be of interest to individual legislators, but there aren’t a lot of park projects that are of interest to Wisconsinites, particularly Knowles-Nelson,” Andraca said.
The committee approved funding in the budget for an array of projects including $42 million to help with modernization of the Rothschild Dam, $500,000 to go towards the repair of a retaining wall for the Wisconsin Rapids Riverbank project, $2.2 million environmental remediation and redevelopment of Lake Vista Park in Oak Creek, $70,000 for a dredging project in Manitowoc River in the Town of Brillion, $1.75 million for dredging the Deerskin River and $100,000 for assistance with highway flooding in the Town of Norway in Racine County.
Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc), who is the author of a bill to keep the program going, said lawmakers are working to ensure it handles the program in the best way, which is part of why the funding is not in the budget as of now.
“We actually have until 30th of June of 2026 to work on this. It’s something that Sen. [Patrick] Testin and I have been working on along with our staff over the last six months. It’s something that is a bipartisan effort. We’ve met with so many different stakeholders, so many different groups, so many fellow legislators on getting this done,” Kurtz said. “We are committed to get it done.”
Kurtz said that the hearing on the bill was “good” and there will be “a lot more coming up in the future” when it comes to Knowles-Nelson.
The committee also approved raising nonresident vehicle admission sticker fees, nonresident campsite fees and campsite electricity fees.
The Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety will get 13 permanent staff positions and $1.57 million to continue its work. That’s about $700,000 less than what the agency had requested, but is about what Evers had proposed for the office.
The office serves as a resource for K-12 schools — helping them improve security measures by providing training on crisis prevention and response, grants for safety enhancements, threat assessment training and mental health training. It also operates the Speak Up, Speak Out tipline where students can anonymously report safety concerns.
The Wisconsin DOJ will also get help filling funding gaps for Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants left by federal funding cuts.
Wisconsin’s federal allocation for VOCA grants has been cut from $40 million to $13 million. Domestic violence shelters and victim services organizations along with the state DOJ have been navigating the limited funding for over a year. The organizations that receive VOCA grants help people who are the victims of a crime by assisting them with finding housing, providing transportation to and from court appearances and navigating the criminal justice system.
The Republican-approved motion will provide $20 million to cover the federal funding loss. It will also provide $163,500 for two staff positions, which will expire in July 2027. The Wisconsin DOJ had requested an additional $66 million in the budget to make up for the funding gap.
McGuire noted the funding would be significantly less than what the state agency had requested and would essentially create a two-year program rather than an ongoing one.
“[This] maintains the Legislature’s level of input, but it doesn’t actually maintain the same level of service because of the declining revenues as a result of the federal government,” McGuire said. “While we can’t fix all the things that are the result of what the federal government is doing wrong … this is something that will have an impact on communities across the state. It’s going to have an impact on people who’ve had the worst day and the worst week in the worst month of their life. It’s gonna have an impact on people who have been harmed by violence who have been in toxic, abusive relationships. It’s going to have an impact on people who desperately need services through no fault of their own. These are really vulnerable people and they should receive our support.
The committee did not take up the budget for the University of Wisconsin system. It’s been one of the key issues for debate as Republican lawmakers have considered cuts, while Evers and UW leaders have said the university system needs $855 million in additional funding. Evers has said that in negotiations he and lawmakers were discussing a “positive number.”
The committee did take up the Higher Educational Aids Board, which is the agency responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s student financial aid system, investing in the Wisconsin Grant Program. The program provides grants to undergraduate Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in degree or certificate programs.
The Wisconsin Grants program would receive an additional $5.6 million in 2025-26 and $11.9 million in 2026-27 under the proposal approved Friday. The UW system, private nonprofit colleges and Wisconsin Technical College System would receive equal dollar increases. It also includes a $75,000 increase for tribal college students.
Evers had proposed 20% increases for the Wisconsin Grants for the state’s public universities, private nonprofit colleges and technical colleges — a total $57.7 million investment.
The Wisconsin Technical Colleges System had requested $10.8 million in each year of the biennium, saying there has been a waitlist for the grants for the first time in 10 years and that list is projected to grow.
The committee also approved $3.5 million in 2026-27 in a supplemental appropriation for emergency medical services training costs to reimburse training and materials costs.
“Recruiting volunteer EMS personnel is a challenge all over the state of Wisconsin — certainly is in my Senate district,” Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said. “We believe that this will remove one barrier to recruitment of volunteers in our EMS units all across the state.”
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National animal advocacy groups are calling on the Buffalo County district attorney to charge a bankrupt chicken processor over the abandonment of hundreds of thousands of chickens last fall.
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The Milwaukee County Courthouse (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday, calling on the Milwaukee County Sheriffs Office (MCSO) to work with the community to create a regulatory framework for the use of facial recognition technology. MCSO is currently exploring an agreement with Biometrica, a data company that provides facial recognition technology to local police departments.
“Facial recognition technology has been proven to disproportionately affect communities of color and young women,” said Sup. Juan Miguel Martinez. “The more facial recognition technology, the more people are able to criminalize people executing their First Amendment rights. I feel this is an issue not left or right.” Miguel Martinez also expressed concerns about the use of facial recognition technology to aid immigration enforcement or to surveil protests.
Privacy concerns have been heightened during the Trump administration’s surge in immigration enforcement and crackdowns on dissent. In Milwaukee, several people were arrested by federal agents after attending regular hearings at the county courthouse. In April, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested and accused of obstructing federal agents after she directed a man sought by immigration officers out a side door in her courtroom that led into a public hallway.
MCSO leaders said they aim to use the technology to identify people after violent crime incidents.
Nevertheless, members of the public and some elected officials raised concerns about the technology. The resolution contains language stating that facial recognition technology can be inaccurate and could negatively affect certain groups including people of color, LGBTQ people, activists, immigrants and people seeking reproductive health care.
The resolution states that the county board supports pausing any future acquisition of facial recognition until regulatory policies can be developed. It also calls on the county’s Information Management Services Division, Corporation Council and MCSO to collaborate with “relevant stakeholders” including privacy and free speech advocates, in developing that policy framework. Out of this collaborative effort will eventually emerge recommendations to the county board as to whether facial recognition technology:
The resolution passed by the county board calls for a final recommendation to be established no later than May 2026. By December 2025 the county board expects a status update, according to the resolution.
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Like the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), the sheriff's office is considering acquiring facial recognition applications from the company Biometrica, but civil liberties advocates are raising concerns about the technology. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin is calling on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to reconsider plans to adopt the use of facial recognition technology. Like the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), the sheriff’s office is considering acquiring facial recognition technology from the company Biometrica. The company has offered MPD free access in exchange for 2.5 million images, jail records, and other related data of people who have passed through Milwaukee’s criminal justice system, including many who presumably haven’t been convicted of a crime.
“Given all the public opposition we’ve seen to the Milwaukee Police Department’s push to expand their use of facial recognition, the news of the Sheriffs office’s interest in acquiring this technology is deeply concerning,” Amanda Merkwae, advocacy director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, wrote in a statement for an ACLU press release. “Law enforcement’s use of facial recognition software poses a number of serious threats to civil rights and civil liberties, making it dangerous both when it fails and when it functions.”
Just days ago, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball revealed that her office was looking into adopting facial recognition software. Ball told county supervisors during a June 17 meeting of the Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and General Services Committee Urban Milwaukee reported, that she was assessing a data-sharing agreement for the technology. MCSO did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Like MPD, the sheriff’s office is exploring an agreement with Biometrica, a company which has pushed back against concerns about privacy and the use of its surveillance tools. Biometrica offers a third-party facial recognition algorithm to agencies like the Milwaukee police and the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office states that rather than using the technology for untargeted surveillance, it aims to use facial recognition software to identify people once investigators have an image of a criminal suspect. Ball says that facial recognition would never be the sole basis for an arrest or charges, Urban Milwaukee reported.
On Thursday, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors will vote on a resolution requiring the creation of a regulatory process for adopting facial recognition technology. Both at the county and city government meetings, however, law enforcement agencies have been met with public skepticism about their exploration of facial recognition technologies.
Tension bubbled up during a hearing before the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission last week. Police department Inspector Paul Lough said that facial recognition could provide important leads for investigations similar to those derived from confidential informants and information databases used to run names. During the hearing, MPD officials presented examples of cases in which facial recognition technology helped solve crimes. “Whether or not they would’ve…may or may not have been solved without the use of facial rec., it’s hard to say,” said Lough. “Some probably would have been, some might still be open. But the important part of it is that all of the ones that we’re going to go over are very predatory in nature where there’s exigent circumstances to solve them quickly.”
MPD Capt. James Hutchinson went over two investigations from March 2024 which utilized facial recognition technology. One involved a drive-by shooting, where a passing car opened fire on a pedestrian, who died on the scene. Hutchinson explained that MPD obtained images from surveillance cameras, which were then sent to partner agencies with the ability to run facial recognition requests. Within 16 hours, the police captain told the commission, a potential suspect had been identified.
“We don’t know who they are when we get those pictures back, but we have ways of vetting that information, confirming the identification provided to us,” said Hutchinson. “And that’s what we did in this case.” Unique tattoos helped narrow the search to a man who was wearing a GPS bracelet. When officers went to conduct an arrest, they found two alleged shooters, their guns and the car they are believed to have used. Hutchinson said that a trial is pending for both suspects arrested in that case.
Facial recognition was also used in a sexual assault case, which occurred two days before the shooting. A victim had been followed home in the rain by a man offering her his umbrella, and asking for money. He mentioned that he’d already tried asking for money at a nearby gas station. As they walked, he held a gun to her head and forced her into a garage where he assaulted her. Officers were able to locate the garage with the victim’s help using Google Maps, and later the gas station the man had mentioned before. Surveillance camera photos potentially capturing the man were sent to other agencies for facial recognition assistance, which came back with images of a man who was on probation for sexual assault. He was identified both by the probation agent and the victim, and was sentenced to 20 years of incarceration.
MPD listed 13 additional cases where it used facial recognition, including a string of taco truck robberies on Milwaukee’s South Side involving a group of masked assailants. Although they appeared careful to cover their faces, one suspect let his mask down briefly, which was seen by a camera, and sent to a partner agency for identification. In that case, three to four potential suspects were identified by the technology, each with a certain percentage of certainty such as 97%, 95% and so on. After further investigation, detectives identified those responsible for the taco truck robberies as people flagged by the facial recognition search with the lowest percentage of certainty.
During public testimony, several people expressed concerns about the accuracy of facial recognition technology. Facial recognition software has been shown to have trouble identifying non-white faces, and is prone to errors particularly when identifying people of color. Some feared that defendants might have trouble learning how facial recognition was used in their cases, and felt that police oversight was lacking. Others pointed to the 2.5 million images MPD would give to Biometrica in exchange for the software licenses, and argued that such a move would only further harm community trust in the police. Because the images include mugshots, it’s possible that people whose images were included in that transaction will not be convicted of a crime after being arrested or detained at the jail for a period of time. Other questions included what access federal agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), would have to MPD’s facial recognition system.
“As we recently found, MPD has been using facial recognition technology on the faces of Milwaukeeans for years, without being transparent with the public or the FPC,” Krissie Fung, a member of the Milwaukee Turners and Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission (FPC), said during public testimony. “Because there’s no standard operating procedure to provide guidelines around their process, relying on MPD to follow their own gentlemen’s agreements and internal process is just not how oversight works.”
Fung also said MPD Chief Jeffrey Norman acknowledged when he was reappointed that there is no way to guarantee the safety of the data and faces of Milwaukeeans, and that the data would be going to a third-party company the city does not oversee and which uses algorithms the city will not be able to access. “MPD’s proposal is to trade 2.5 million mugshots in exchange for this license which, by the way, includes my mugshot,” said Fung. “I believe that there are serious legal concerns that have not yet played out in the courts, and that would open us up to significant lawsuits.”
“I cannot help but wonder if the reason Biometrica is so thirsty to trade 2.5 million ‘jail records or mugshots’ in exchange for free access to this technology, is that they assume that those jail records are Black faces, and they clearly need more Black faces to train their inaccurate algorithm,” Fung added. “But we don’t need to let them get those Black faces from Milwaukee.”
“I don’t know a single person in this city that trusts the police,” said Ron Jansen, who has testified about law enforcement at previous city and county meetings. “So the last thing Milwaukee needs to do is hand this department a tool that creates even greater opportunity to harm the people of this city.”
“This is not free,” Jansen added. “… the cost is 2.5 million mugshots of residents, non-residents, whatever. Anybody who’s been through the system here in Milwaukee…2.5 million human beings…Human beings, maybe half of which or more, were never convicted of a crime. This includes people who were wrongfully arrested, or accused, or just anyone who was ever booked into their custody. And while I was writing this, I thought, ‘that also includes people who’ve already been victimized by this department.’ People who have been beaten by the police. People who have been wrongfully accused by the police. This is your biological data, my biological data, everyone’s biological data, and it is being sold to a private company without your consent, all so that they can expand their surveillance network.”
Jansen asserted that the millions of images could include protesters, teachers, even state Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), who was wrongfully arrested by MPD during a curfew. “His arrest record is likely in there,” said Jansen. He also raised the 2025 case of officer Juwon Madlock, who used his access to police databases to pass intelligence about confidential informants and the home addresses of targets to gangs searching out rivals. “If this is already happening, imagine what will happen when their abilities get expanded,” said Jansen.
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U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters at the Capitol as lawmakers work on the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" on June 25, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans appeared deeply divided Wednesday over how to establish a fund for rural hospitals to offset the budget impacts of Medicaid cuts in the “big, beautiful bill.”
The hospitals, which are generally already hurting financially, rely heavily on Medicaid, a state-federal partnership that provides health insurance for low-income households and for some people with disabilities.
GOP senators haven’t yet reached agreement on how to structure the fund, or on dozens of other unresolved provisions in the sweeping package, even though leaders hope to begin voting as soon as Friday. Still up in the air were agreements on major provisions of the measure involving the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food aid program for low-income people and a proposed selloff of certain public lands.
Republican leaders continued to project optimism. “We’re well on our way to getting this bill passed this week,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during a floor speech, continuing to press ahead toward a self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.
Others saw it differently. Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson cast doubt on the short timeframe leaders have set to reach final agreement and move the bill through both chambers.
“We’re still discussing some pretty fundamental issues,” Johnson said. “I’m just laying out the reality of the situation. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Dueling plans to establish the rural hospital fund to ease the threat of Medicaid cuts circulated among senators working to finalize the massive tax and spending cut measure, but an agreement had not surfaced by late afternoon.
Unofficial details showed Senate Republicans eyeing the inclusion of a $15 billion fund — $3 billion a year between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2031 — to help rural hospitals, according to multiple reports.
But Sen. Roger Marshall, who sits on the Senate Committee on Finance, said he wants to increase that fund to $5 billion annually, with “half of that going to rural hospitals, and half of it going to primary care and prescription drugs and throw in physical therapy and occupational therapy, all the others as well.”
The Kansas Republican and physician said “we should probably only do it for four or five years and then regroup and see where we are.”
“I’m the only person up here that’s ever ran a rural hospital — I actually know something about them,” he added.
While Marshall said he loves “90%” of the broader bill, he said not nearly enough is being cut.
“But I can’t get the votes to do that, so it’d still be the largest cut in spending in my lifetime anyway,” he said, noting that “it’s going to be hard for the House to vote against it.”
On a midday call with reporters, Traci Gleason with the Missouri Budget Project said the stabilization fund being batted around by lawmakers “would fall well short of addressing these problems.”
“Forty-three percent of Missouri’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing, and 17% are considered to be at immediate risk,” said Gleason, who spoke during a virtual press briefing organized by the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
“Those figures don’t account for all of the other health care providers in rural communities, like federally qualified health centers and others that operate on these incredibly thin margins. So the massive cuts to Medicaid are what is creating the problem and the only real way to address it is for Congress to not make these massive cuts,” she said.
Sen. Susan Collins was advocating for a much bigger rural hospital stabilization fund, at $100 billion.
“I don’t think that solves the entire problem,” the Maine Republican and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee said.
“The Senate cuts in Medicaid are far deeper than the House cuts, and I think that’s problematic as well.”
Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia said that the $15 billion “is better than zero.”
“You know, naturally, I’d want it to be as high as it possibly can,” he said, adding that rural hospitals are the “lifeblood” of his state.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a loud voice against Medicaid benefit cuts, said a stabilization fund is a “good idea but we’re still going to have to address the longer term effects of this.”
When asked for a dollar figure, Hawley said “it depends on the structure of it.”
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said he keeps hearing the Senate will take a procedural vote on Friday, though that isn’t set in stone.
“Should be a fun weekend for all of us,” Cornyn said. “Can’t wait.”
Once the Senate votes on what is called a motion to proceed, there’s a maximum of 20 hours of floor debate before the chamber must begin its marathon amendment voting session and eventually a passage vote.
Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, said a revised version of his committee’s bill had not yet been reviewed by the parliamentarian.
The updated text alters a section restructuring the cost-share of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, a key food assistance program for low-income people.
The provision would require states for the first time to shoulder some of the cost of the program’s benefits. The amount a state owes would be determined by its error payment rate, with greater error rates requiring a higher state share.
Complex rules govern what can and can’t be included in the measure. The Senate parliamentarian ruled the language in the initial proposal did not comply with the chamber’s reconciliation rules.
The updated proposal would allow states more flexibility during the policy’s phase-in in fiscal 2028, allowing them to choose either the error rate in fiscal 2025 or fiscal 2026.
Boozman told reporters that change sought to respond to the parliamentarian’s ruling.
The parliamentarian “asked us to allow them (states) to use a different time frame — essentially gave them more time to understand what their error rate would be and to plan for it,” Boozman said. “And so we adjusted for that and I think we satisfied it.”
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee of Utah reportedly narrowed a provision that would mandate the sale of Bureau of Land Management lands. He has not publicly said where it stands with the parliamentarian.
A committee spokesman did not return messages seeking clarification Tuesday and Wednesday, but a version of the changes obtained by news media shows changes consistent with what Lee proposed Monday.
Those changes include limiting the mandated sales to only the BLM — and not U.S. Forest Service lands, as Lee had initially proposed — and lowering the percentage of the agency’s lands that must be sold to between .25% and .5%. The initial proposal required between .5% and .75%.
The updated provision would also only require lands located within 5 miles of a population center to be sold and exempts lands that are currently used for grazing or another “valid existing right that is incompatible with the development of housing,” according to a copy of the changes obtained by hunting and angling publication Outdoor Life.
The provision has sparked opposition from Western lawmakers, including a handful of conservatives.
But it also has its share of supporters. Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan told reporters he had not seen the updated text but remained supportive of the idea.
“I’ve been supportive of what Sen. Lee is trying to do,” he said. “We have a lot of public lands in Alaska that the federal government abuses. But we’re in a good discussion on that, so I need to see the update.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court says state corrections officers should be granted class action status as they continue to pursue a lawsuit over pay.
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The Wisconsin Department of Corrections Madison offices. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state’s correctional officers can sue the Department of Corrections as a class in an effort to get compensation for the time it takes the officers to be screened by security when coming to and leaving from work.
In 2020, an officer filed a class action lawsuit against DOC arguing that the pre and post shift activities should be compensated. A Milwaukee County judge divided the case into two parts, separating the certification of correctional officers as a class from the evaluation of their argument on the merits.
The circuit court judge granted the motion for class certification but that decision was reversed by the court of appeals, which ruled that the officers couldn’t be certified as a class because their argument was unlikely to be successful.
In a majority opinion written by Justice Janet Protasiewicz, the Court reversed the appeals court’s decision, stating that to certify a class action lawsuit a judge must determine if the group at issue has a common question without evaluating the answer to that question.
DOC-ClassAction“There is a difference between identifying whether a common question exists and deciding its answer,” Protasiewicz wrote. “A court ‘must walk a balance between evaluating evidence to determine whether a common question exists and predominates, without weighing that evidence to determine whether the plaintiff class will ultimately prevail on the merits.’”
Protasiewicz’s opinion was joined by Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet, Brian Hagedorn and Jill Karofsky. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote a partial concurrence, which was joined by Justice Rebecca Bradley.
The attorney for the DOC officers who brought the case said in a statement that his clients appreciate the Court’s decision.
“Our clients appreciate the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s well-reasoned decision reversing the Court of Appeals and reinstating the Circuit Court’s decision to certify a class of Wisconsin corrections officers,” the attorney, Michael Flannery, said in the statement. “Corrections officers are the largest officer force in the State of Wisconsin, and do a vital and incredibly difficult job. It is simply unfair that, for years, Wisconsin has forced them to do unpaid work before and after their shifts. We look forward to litigating this case through trial and getting some of Wisconsin’s hardest workers the economic justice they so deserve.”
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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.”
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.
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.
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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A Wisconsin lawmaker is renewing her push to create a state task force on missing and murdered Black women after the high-profile murder of a Milwaukee woman.
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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.
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.
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.’”
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.
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.
A high-profile medical malpractice trial in Appleton came to a conclusion this week as jurors found health care workers and a hospital not liable in the October 2021 death of 19-year-old Grace Schara.
The post Jury clears Wisconsin hospital of malpractice charges in death of Grace Schara appeared first on WPR.
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