Cross examination: A comprehensive look at Wisconsin’s criminal justice system
In the last two decades, Wisconsin’s prison population has come to include growing numbers of older adults, those whose most serious offense was a violent crime, and those convicted of […]
Black News 
In the last two decades, Wisconsin’s prison population has come to include growing numbers of older adults, those whose most serious offense was a violent crime, and those convicted of intoxicated driving.
Some of the largest racial disparities in Wisconsin’s criminal justice system have narrowed in the 21stCentury. But others have widened, and overall these disparities remain among the nation’s largest, and among the state system’s most persistent realities.
Wisconsin’s prison system also carries significant costs, as state and local spending on corrections outpaced nearly all other Midwestern states in 2022.
Overcrowding, understaffing, and aging prison facilities have contributed to multiple deaths and prolonged lockdowns in recent years. Meanwhile, the cost per individual of operating the state’s youth correctional facilities have soared. These findings come from a new, in-depth Wisconsin Policy Forum report that surveys the landscape of Wisconsin’s criminal justice system.
People aged 60 and older comprise a minority of those arrested or incarcerated in Wisconsin, but their numbers have grown considerably. We find the state’s prison population is growing older both due to incarcerated individuals aging in place, as well as increased admissions of older adults into the system. This poses budgetary and policy challenges for the state, in part because older adults are more likely to require medical care and special accommodations in prison.
Black Wisconsinites are overrepresented throughout our state’s criminal justice system, and Wisconsin has the second-largest disparity of any state between its Black and white incarceration rates. That said, in a notable shift, the per capita rate for Black adults entering prison has fallen from 13.2 per 1,000 residents in 2000 to 8.9 in 2024. This same metric shows prison admissions for American Indian adults grew from 6.8 per 1,000 to 11.6 over the last quarter-century.
The total size of Wisconsin’s prison population has remained relatively constant over the past two decades – except for a drop during the pandemic that later reversed– but its composition has changed. The number of incarcerated adults whose most serious offense was a violent crime rose between 2000 and 2023. During that period, the number of adults incarcerated for intoxicated driving more than quadrupled, a trend driven by both increased penalties for these offenses.
Wisconsin ranked 12th among the states, and second among 12 Midwest states, in per capita correctional spending in 2022. Due to some of the trends cited above, these costs are likely to increase in future years. In 2021, Wisconsin also had the highest per capita cost to reincarcerate people for violations of community supervision conditions.
In recent years, multiple deaths and prolonged prison lockdowns have resulted from issues including prison overcrowding, understaffing, and outdated facilities such as the Green Bay and Waupun prisons. Replacement or renovation of these facilities has been debated but remain unresolved.
Meanwhile, a sharp decline in the number of youths being sent to the state’s youth prison at Lincoln Hills has spread its fixed costs over a much smaller population, pushing per resident costs up dramatically. The Lincoln Hills facility also remains open nearly five years after the date that lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers originally targeted for its closure.
This information is provided to Wisconsin Newspaper Association members as a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.
