incarceration

Milwaukee has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country. Wisconsin’s criminal justice system has an impact on our entire community - both when people enter prison and when they leave. A local organization known as The Community focuses on people who are reentering the greater community after serving time in a correctional institution.

Reporter Champe Barton discusses his article in The Trace that details the story of two friends from Milwaukee who spent most of their lives in and out of our state’s penal system since the early 1980s.

A new report released Wednesday found that many jail administrators have taken small, but important, steps to increase ballot access for incarcerated individuals. However, authors say troubling voting barriers persist for the thousands of people in Wisconsin’s jails.

During a Monday news conference, Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas spoke about two recent deaths at the county jail, while also highlighting the jail's new achievement in health care.

Critics of cash bail say that the system unfairly targets poor people as an individual’s ability to get out of jail before their trial becomes solely based on whether they can afford bail.

Shannon Ross spent 17 years in a Wisconsin prison, and after being released last September, he is continuing his work of expanding resources for currently incarcerated people through his new podcast, All In.

The state’s prison and jail population is now at its lowest point in decades, with less than 30,000 people in custody. The lower number of inmates could translate to big savings for state and local governments.

There's a lot going on in Wisconsin politics — from the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to funding for the businesses and workers who have been hurt by the pandemic. To unpack some of these issues, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes answers your questions.

According to a report released by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the number of inmates in Wisconsin's prisons dropped dramatically last year as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, declining to levels not seen in more than 20 years.

Vanessa Swales says the system itself was not designed to handle the current number of inmates, and especially not during a pandemic. There are nearly 19,500 inmates currently imprisoned in Wisconsin, but the system is only meant to hold just over 17,000 people.