Reflecting on Criminal Justice reform on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I was honored that the Capital City Hues asked me to participate in their Martin Luther King holiday tribute. The topic was "What Is The Most Pressing Civil Rights Issue of 2023?" and I focused on critical Criminal Justice reforms at the state and local level. Here is my opinion piece that was published in the January 9th issue:

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day in 2023, it is important to reflect on the progress we have made towards Dr. King’s vision but also to emphasize the work we still need to do to create a more equitable and inclusive society where all of our neighbors can achieve the American Dream.

Wisconsin and Dane County have really struggled with racial disparities in education and economic opportunities but most glaringly in our Criminal Justice system. Dane County over incarcerates black and brown people and we are lagging many reforms that have already been implemented on the state and local level in other jurisdictions.

We are seeing a strong push towards expungement reform in the United States in red, blue purple states.  When a criminal record is expunged, it is destroyed or sealed and this helps people attain employment, housing and pursue a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

An estimated 1.4 million people in Wisconsin have criminal records. Wisconsin has some of the most restrictive expungement laws which means if it is very difficult to seal cases from public view. This hinders a person's reintegration into society Currently expungement is limited by age (25 years old) and charge classification and an expungement determination has to be made at sentencing. In addition, there is no provision to expunge non-convictions.

We have seen bi-partisan support for expungement reform in Wisconsin at the state level but even though these reforms would likely have the support of lawmakers, they have not been brought forward for votes. It is time to stop playing politics with people’s lives and join the dozens of states who have enacted expungement reform.

We also must work hard to limit the number of people who are entering the criminal justice system and work towards to reduce the harm this has towards their lives. On the local level, we can work towards night and weekend court so people don’t sit in jail and wait before they can see a judge. We can towards bail reform so people are not in jail because they can’t afford to be released while awaiting trial. We should continue the systems change we saw during covid to cite and release people rather than bringing them to jail for non-violent offenses.

We must also not repeat the mistakes of the past and spend hundreds of millions on building new jails until we have fully invested ourselves in the criminal justice reforms which will work to keep people out of those jails.

Most importantly, we should examine the root causes that have caused them to have contact with the Criminal Justice system in the first place and invest in all communities so all of our neighbors have opportunity.

Dr. King said “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”. We need to re-examine all of our systems that lead to over incarceration and untangle the structures and institutions that have caused this to become the status quo. Dr. King would not stand for the staggering racial disparities we have in our community and to honor his legacy, neither should we.