Issue of the Week: Deferred Prosecutions—The ‘Journal Sentinel’ Gets It Wrong Again
Well, that’s what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’sfront-page article on Sunday would like you to believe.
But the reality is much different than the JS’s view of the world.
The Milwaukee County district attorney’s deferred prosecution program holds nonviolent offenders accountable in a much praised, efficient manner. Note that drunken drivers, offenders who had been convicted of a felony sex offense and offenders with a criminal history of firearm offenses are not eligible for the program.
Here’s how it works. An offender is screened to see if he or she is eligible using evidence-based criteria. Then the offender pleads guilty to a criminal charge and enters into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement that includes some conditions—he or she is ordered to pay restitution, perform community service, or go to drug treatment or anger management courses, for example. Offenders are rigorously monitored, usually by Justice 2000, a private nonprofit organization in Milwaukee. After the offenders complete the conditions of their agreement, they go back to court. Sometimes the charges are dismissed, sometimes they’re reduced.
But if an offender doesn’t complete the terms of his or her agreement, the original guilty plea stands. About 70% of the offenders in the program complete their agreement successfully; about 30% don’t and the conviction remains on their record. Oftentimes, the offender is incarcerated.
The upside is that offenders get treatment for their problems without clogging up the heavily burdened court system. In fact, the program is so successful that the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs has recommended that it be expanded because it saves taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year, increases employment and reduces jail overcrowding. And that’s the reality that the Journal Sentinel failed to include in its reporting.
Hero of the Week
Claudia Romero
Taking the selfless
spirit of the holidays to heart, MATC nursing student Claudia Romero enlisted
friends, co-workers and neighbors to help raise money for gifts for children in
foster or kinship care. Through these efforts, Romero hopes to be able to
purchase and distribute nearly 300 gifts to area children.
Romero is one of many
individuals, organizations and businesses involved with Kids Matter Inc., which
advocates for children in the foster care system. To learn about ways to get
involved, visit www.kidsmatterinc.org.
Jerks of the Week
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC)
Why would a pro-business
chamber of commerce sit on the sidelines when the federal government offered to
invest $810 million in the region and spur economic development throughout the Midwest? It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what the
MMAC did during the debate over high-speed rail. Although the group and its
regional offshoot, the Milwaukee 7, helped to woo the Spanish train-maker Talgo
to the city, in anticipation of the high-speed rail line, MMAC did nothing to
persuade its ally, Gov.-elect Scott Walker, to accept the federal rail funds,
nor did it try to convince Talgo to remain in the city. (In contrast, the business
community in Madison
enthusiastically supported the high-speed rail project.) Now both high-speed
rail and Talgo are history. Even a Talgo spokeswoman is baffled by MMAC’s
passivity, saying that even if the state had to kick in $7.5 million a year to
operate the line it would be worth it to leverage the $810 million and
increased business development. “Talgo was encouraged by the business community
to move to Wisconsin,
and they were silent about the very same facts that made this project the only
one in the nation that qualified to be fully funded by the federal government,”
a spokeswoman said.
1) --- Hey, the JS, like all newpapers, needs to sell papers, to the people that respond to the ads within! If the conservative republicans are the only ones buying according to ads (like good little economic pawns), then the paper won't piss off those who pay the bills, direct or indirect.
A deferred prosecution that keeps 70% (of those who got caught) out of the courts and prisons sounds like a good idea to me as a taxpayer. What I do not know is what political focus a group like Justice 2000 has, is it pro Tea Party or not? That's probably the real issue there.
2) ---Jerks of the Week - MMAC. Really? The $810 million dollars was the only fully funded plan in the country? Wow, we really are nuts! But, that's nothing new. There's a bigger plan going on here, as seen by the "Republican Sweep".
For over 50 years, the established status quo has been trying to undo the civil rights gains that finally took invasive root in our segregated neighborhood schools. Presidents like Catholic JFK and Texas turn-coat Johnson took it further with the hated welfare redistribution of wealth. Oh, it wasn't hated when it was helping out white women and children, but when it was revealed that non-whites also tapped in... opinion changed!
This down economy was seen as the wedge needed to turn things back to the good old days of white over black, rich over poor, maybe even men over women and god-fearing over godless again. Life was just easier when you knew where you ranked in society, and were assured that everyone around you knew too.
If Talgo had decided to locate midway between Madison and Milwaukee, there would not be this issue. Never mind that Talgo was "recycling" a major factory building that was already built, it's just that the surrounding neighborhood was too dark for the targeted workers tastes, so MMAC did not fight for it. If this down economy could re-bound with whites getting all the jobs instead of blacks, Wisconsin would want this.
Don't give me BS about money not race, I know that race issues are hidden in the hearts of those who speak about the money. I hear it every day from co-workers off the record comments in the suburbs.
So we got HUGE unemployment among black men in Milwaukee, what are you going to do about it, if you also want to cut-off all spending, even on the prisons? Will you Wisconsinites also admit that you simply want them ALL to go to another state? Or sit back and let them shoot each other dead? Have you forgotten that when they have jobs, they do not bother you, and they still come into your businesses to shop?
Or look at it this way. If blacks have good jobs, even temporary, then the rest of you white flight wannabes will be able to sell your northside houses to them and you can then afford to move to your safe, majority white rule suburbs?
I don't get it!
First of all, good work with keeping those out that can be rehabilitated and use the money for other things. Good work for that volunteer, Ms, Romero. As for the MMAC, I wasn't really surprised when they were let down by the governor elect. He was planning to get rid of the high speed rail the whole campaign since before the primaries. Talgo will be leaving in 2012 after they've finished with modifying existing Amtrak lines. So, I wasn't really thrilled to hear they attempted to sway Mr. Walker because from the looks of things, he was determined to see the high speed leave for good. He thought it was a waste of money and he was thinking of other things.