Wisconsin is known as a beautiful state, filled with bucolic prairies and woodlands, beautiful cities and farms, as well as a diverse population committed to improving our State. However, once again, a national report cites Wisconsin as the most racially disparate in criminal justice. A recent report by the Sentencing Project found that Wisconsin prisons still lead the nation in racial disparity. In 2011, the majority of people held in Wisconsin prisons were people of color. Now, after ten years of investigations, reports, debate, and outrage, Wisconsin retains this dubious, and sad, distinction. If Wisconsin was last in education, or health care, Wisconsin citizens would find it unacceptable, but this outrageous level of criminal injustice continues.
Wisconsin has done better in the past, and, working together, we can change and once again be a national leader in criminal justice reform. Our incarceration system was created years ago by people who believed it would keep us safer. It can now be changed by all of us recognizing that — as it presently works — our system destroys lives and ruptures communities, and does little to keep us safer. Simply put, “Lock ‘em up longer” is not a system based on 21st Century principles, fails to achieve our goals, and is a system we can no longer accept.
While incarceration is necessary at times — for certain individuals and crimes — to protect people and property, all modern research shows that mass incarceration does not reduce crime, and is a system Wisconsin can no longer financially afford. We acknowledge the tragedies that have harmed Wisconsin families. We share that pain. However, that should not stop the State of Wisconsin cities and counties and residents from demanding better justice. Rather, our current realities should serve as a clarion call for increased effort to craft a more rational and demonstrably effective and just system.
We, the Justified Anger Criminal Justice Work Table, support changes that will return sanity to our criminal justice system, reduce the disturbing racial disparity in our prisons, foster stronger communities, all while still protecting people and property. We recommend:

1. Providing an incentive for rehabilitation while incarcerated by reinstating a parole system that recognizes individuals can change.
2. Avoiding costly and needless incarceration by offering — for certain crimes and individuals — alternatives to, and diversions from, criminal convictions and incarceration.