Prison reform advocates are demanding a meeting with the secretary of Department of Corrections to discuss measures to reduce Wisconsin’s prison population.
The demand from the group WISDOM comes just a week after the state Legislature’s budget committee approved spending $5 million to cover the costs of a predicted increase of at least 500 new inmates over the next two years.
At a rally on the steps of the state Capitol Wednesday, Reverend Joseph Ellwanger of Milwaukee said that money could be better spent on shrinking the prison population.
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“You could spend that money on treatment alternatives and diversion programs and keep a thousand people from going to prison in the first place,” Ellwanger said.
WISDOM delivered a letter to Secretary Ed Wall calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners eligible for parole.
An email from the DOC says the increased population is only a trend and could change depending on actual arrests and convictions.
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