We’ve accomplished great things in the past few years in our Smart Justice campaign, and now, we’re switching gears and refocusing on our new goal — ending the harmful practice of crimeless revocation.

Crimeless revocation sends thousands of Wisconsinites to prison each year for breaking exclusively technical rules of community supervision, minor violations like missing an appointment, borrowing money, or getting a job without prior approval from the state. 

Revocation is the most significant driver of new prison admission in Wisconsin. The Department of Corrections (DOC) does not track crimeless revocations individually but includes crimeless revocation in its classification of revocation-only admissions. 

Since 2000, revocations accounted for 34% of all new prison admissions. In 2020, that number jumped to 38.8%. Crimeless revocation is a misguided, expensive, and cruel policy that needlessly disrupts the lives of thousands while not making Wisconsin any safer.

As we move our work seeking to end crimeless revocation in the state forward, we need your help. Here are a few things you can do to support us in this work:

Attend an event. We’ll be hosting ‘Ending Crimeless Revocation’ Mobilization Events. At these events, we will overview why crimeless revocation negatively impacts the community and provide you with information on how we will end crimeless revocation together. 

These virtual gatherings will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the following Wednesdays:  September 29, October 27, November 17, and December 15 at 6:30 p.m. 

More details and registration info is available here. 

Sign our petition. Tell your legislators that you support the end of crimeless revocation in Wisconsin by joining others and signing our petition. Add your name here.

Send a message to your elected officials. If you want to tell your elected officials that you stand with us and wish to end crimeless revocation, we’ve made it easy for you to do that. Use this form to message your elected official and ask them to stop crimeless revocation in Wisconsin. 

Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans are being denied their full voting rights simply because they live in D.C. A lot of us grew up thinking this was normal or simply the way it has to be. It's not. In fact, Washington, D.C. is the only national capital in the democratic world whose citizens do not have equal voting and representation rights. 

Even more troubling is the deeply racist history and impact of denying statehood to D.C. residents. Congress took away D.C.’s local autonomy just after the Civil War when a growing population of Black people was moving to the region and exercising their political rights. Today, the majority of the 700,000 people who live in the D.C. region are Black and Brown. When D.C. becomes a state, it will be the first state with a plurality of Black people in the country. 

The great news is that we have a path forward and more momentum than ever to correct this historic wrong. The Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which already passed the House of Representatives this spring, is now pending in the Senate with more Senate co-sponsors than ever before.

The Washington, D.C. Admission Act would carve out the residential and business areas of the District and turn those areas into the 51st state, called Washington, Douglas Commonwealth. The White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, and other federal buildings and monuments would remain exactly where they are now and become the new, smaller Capital.

This is the same way that every state has entered the union since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788, through legislation passed by Congress. We know for certain Congress has the constitutional power to change and reduce the size of the Capital because it has already done so twice in our country's history.

The residents of D.C. can't pass this legislation on their own. They don't even have any voting representation in Congress at all. 

In addition to D.C. residents paying federal taxes yet have no voting representation in Congress, D.C's government can't even pass its own local legislation and or budget without congressional review. Congress regularly interjects itself into D.C. in ways that harm policies for public health, LGTBQ rights, and criminal justice reform. 

Providing the citizens of D.C. with the political representation they deserve will have effects that reverberate across the country. Necessary legislative priorities like national voting and democracy reform -- along with long overdue protections such as the Equality Act -- will help push every state, including Wisconsin, forward.

The people of D.C. have fought for generations for their rights. Let's show up and remind Congress that believing in equality and full and equal rights means passing the Washington Admission Act. Send a message to Congress today urging support of  DC Statehood at https://action.aclu.org/send-message/congress-support-dc-statehood-now