Earned Release Program Expansion Killed
A bold initiative in Gov. Jim Doyle's budget, the provision to expand te earned release program in the Department of Corrections, was killed by the JFC on a partisan 12-4 vote.
Details in budget paper 226
JFC Co-Chair Dean Kaufert said the committee opted to keep the program as it is for now because it was too early to judge its success. While 114 inmates out of 150 have successfully completed the program, he said he's unwilling to take chances on the two-year-old program. "I for one need more time for the department to show me that it works," he said. "I need more data, I need more facts to show me that I'm not going to get burned by this."
Democrats countered that incarceration isn't appropriate for many crimes, and often nonviolent offenders become hardened criminals due to exposure to prison. "You may not know this, but they call it criminal college," said Sen. Lena Taylor.
