PMT: What's shaking in Wisconsin?

For some reason, I seem to be considered an expert mostly in Wisconsin and Canada. And that is ok with me-- I love both of those places.

Yesterday, I got up at 6 to do an early-morning show (not surprisingly, "The Morning Show") on Wisconsin Public Radio. The topic was incarceration, and you can hear the whole thing here (I appear in the 6:30-7 slot).

Wisconsin is fascinating because it is transitioning from a retributivist governor (Scott Walker) to one who seems fairly progressive on criminal law issues. Gov. Evers seems committed to doing some decent things, including:

-- increasing pay for correctional officers in order to raise hiring standards and fill vacancies
-- close an ancient prison in Green Bay without replacing it (hopefully, making this work through reduced incarceration throughout the state)
-- Move away from one giant (and very troubled) youth facility in a remote area to several that are closer to population centers
-- Reconstituting the clemency process that Walker destroyed

All these are difficult things to do. But it is great that there is hope...