Number
170091
Version
SUBSTITUTE 1
Reference
Sponsor
ALD. KOVAC, STAMPER, PEREZ, HAMILTON, JOHNSON, LEWIS AND BAUMAN
Title
Substitute resolution relating to the City of Milwaukee’s position on County, State and Federal legislation intended to reduce incarceration and violence.
Analysis
This resolution seeks introduction and passage of legislation at County, State and Federal levels to both reduce the incarceration of Milwaukee residents and to reduce violence in Milwaukee. The City also supports a set of guiding policies as a means of both reducing the incarceration of Milwaukee residents and reducing violence in Milwaukee.
Body
Whereas, The number of adults incarcerated in Wisconsin State correctional facilities increased from 6,967 in 1990 to 22,729 in 2016, a 226% increase, while the overall population of Wisconsin increased during the same period by only 17%; and
Whereas, African-Americans comprise 6.6% of Wisconsin’s population but 42% of the men and 24% of the women incarcerated in Wisconsin State correctional facilities; and
Whereas, As of the 2010 U.S. Census, 12.6%, or one in 8, African-American working-age men in Wisconsin were incarcerated, nearly double the 6.7% average rate in the United States, while at the same time the rate of incarceration of working-age Caucasian men in Wisconsin was virtually identical to the average rate across the United States, at 1.2%; and
Whereas, 69% of the African-American residents of Wisconsin reside in Milwaukee County; and
Whereas, According to a report by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, between 1990 and 2012, 26,222 African-American men from Milwaukee County were incarcerated in Wisconsin State correctional facilities; and
Whereas, Incarceration disrupts families and communities, and a record of incarceration is a significant barrier to subsequent employment; and
Whereas, County, State and Federal funds would be better invested in crime and violence prevention than in incarceration and pun...
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