News & Commentary

For the past few weeks, our ACLU of Wisconsin team has traveled around the state, raising our voices to demand that Wisconsin’s 2021-23 biennial budget reflects the will of the people -- one that is grounded in justice, equity and investment in communities—and especially in marginalized communities.

Waupun and Oshkosh Correctional Institutions are emblematic of the enduring inhumane nature of criminal justice and incarceration. They were founded more than a century apart; one established well before the abolishment of slavery in the United States. The other, founded on the front end of the War on Drugs era. 

State representatives concerned about reducing government spending should take a hard look at Wisconsin’s prison system. The size of our criminal legal system has grown exponentially thanks to decades of gross fiscal irresponsibility, and it’s time that we, as taxpayers, do something about it.

By: Tomás Clasen, Community Engagement Manager

Those who took part in the rampage at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 attacked more than a building that belongs to us all. They attacked an ideal that belongs to us all: government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Right now, Wisconsin state prisons are a public health catastrophe. The meteoric spike in COVID-19 statewide has set off a severe outbreak in Wisconsin prisons. There have now been more than 9,000 positive tests overall, and more than 1,200 active cases throughout the system. Nineteen people have lost their lives.

By David Carlson, Smart Justice Campaign Regional Organizer

By: Somil Trivedi, Senior Staff Attorney of ACLU

As the Democratic National Convention concludes, the nation’s focus came to not only the City of Milwaukee, but also Wisconsin, a place where racial segregation, economic inequality and police brutality against people of color has long since been a problem.