WCCF Unveils First Round of Quarterly Detention Reports

WCCF, with help from the Office of Justice Assistance, is analyzing data from all secure juvenile detention facilities throughout Wisconsin. Our quarterly reports will provide a brief overview of the underlying offenses, racial classifications and numbers of admissions statewide for each time frame. Additional information about average length of stay, age and gender are also included.

The reports also highlight a few key measures for specific facilities. For example, we examine which facilities held the highest percentage of status offenses, person offenses, and minority populations. We also present specifics about length of stay, property crimes percentages, and percentages of girls.

For more information on our methodology, see the Detention Report Methodology and Explanation sheet.

Currently available reports summarize the first and second halves of 2008, as well as the full year 2008. The first quarter of 2009 will be available soon, and subsequent reports will be based on quarterly time periods.

Joint Finance Action This Week

The Joint Finance Committee (JFC) is now in week 3 of Executive Session. When a committee is in executive session, the committee is voting on proposals to recommend passage or no passage to the entire legislature. During the next 5 weeks or so, JFC will be voting on items in the state budget. JFC usually schedules votes on items in one state department at a time, or a portion of a state department, depending on the size of the department.

On Wed. April 29, JFC will vote on state budget items in the Higher Educational Aids Board, Wisconsin Technical College System, Medical College of Wisconsin and a portion of the Department of Public Instruction. On Thursday, April 30, JFC will vote on portions of the Department of Transportation, the Department of Children and Families, Department of Commerce and the Department of Health Services. JFC will also take up the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board and the Department of Regulation and Licensing.

Following JFC is easy. You can watch all the meetings live on Wisconsin Eye. You can review all the documents with more detailed information on the items the committee will be voting on at http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/LFBPublications_ButtonPages/Budget_Papers.htm. That page contains a list of JFC executive session dates for JFC. Click on a date and you will get a list of topics that will be covered in that session. From there, you can get a detailed paper by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau on most of the topics to be discussed. We'll try to keep you up to date on what JFC is doing each week via this blog.

New Report Highlights Needed Changes in the use of Seclusion and Restraints in Wisconsin Schools and Treatment Programs

On April 20, Disability Rights Wisconsin released of a report, completed in partnership with Wisconsin Family Ties and Wisconsin FACETS, titled "Out of Darkness…Into the Light: New Approaches to Reducing the Use of Seclusion and Restraint with Wisconsin Children." The report highlights the ways in which Wisconsin children have been harmed by excessive use of restraints in schools and treatment settings, provides information about what other states have done to reduce the use of seclusion and restraints, and makes recommendations about safer and more effective ways to manage and treat children with disabilities. Information about the press event and the reports is at http://www.disabilityrightswi.org/archives/296.

Recommendations of the Joint Legislative Council on High Risk Juvenile Offenders Move Forward

Following up on the vote of the nearly unanimous vote of the Committee on High Risk Juvenile Offenders, a number of bills have been introduced in the Legislature, including:

SB 149 relating to an examination of the juvenile in a proceeding for waiver of juvenile court jurisdiction;

SB 150 relating to the criteria for waiver of adult criminal court jurisdiction over a juvenile and “reverse waiver” of the case to juvenile court;

SB 151 relating to funding to counties to cover increase in juvenile corrections costs;

SB 152 creating a rebuttable presumption of retaining juvenile court jurisdiction in waiver proceedings involving a first offender; and

SB 153 relating to waiver to adult court, outlining more specific criteria for the court to consider in making a waiver decision

For more information about the Committee and its final report, see http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lc/committees/study/2008/JUVE/index.htm.

The Future of the Adam Walsh Act – Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA)

With approximately one year to go, none of the 20 states that have submitted compliance plans to the federal government have yet been certified as compliant, and there is a growing consensus at the federal level that the deadline for compliance should be extended to allow federal and state legislators to work together to resolve some of the problems anticipated by implementation. While the cost of compliance is one of the major challenges facing states, there are also concerns about the “one size fits all” nature of some of the regulations proposed, particularly as it relates to juvenile sex offenders. And, as it relates to juveniles, there are increasing concerns that this type of registration will, in the long run, do more harm than good. The Justice Policy Institute has issued a report called “Registering Harm: How Sex Offense Registries Fail Youth and Communities.”

That report is available at
http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/08-11_RPT_WalshActRegisteringHarm_JJ-PS.pdf

On the other hand, proponents of the kind of registration contemplated in the SORNA guidelines maintain that some form of nationwide registration system based on convictions/adjudications is an important component of protecting vulnerable children.

So, while immediate implementation of SORNA may be further delayed and perhaps some components modified, this discussion will continue in the months ahead.

Wisconsin Social Workers Support Raising the Age of Adult Court Jurisdiction

The Wisconsin Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers has taken on the cause of raising the age of adult court jurisdiction to 18, including this as one of their key points of advocacy in meeting with Wisconsin legislators for their advocacy day on April 1. For a brief story about their advocacy, visit http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/8469-1.

FoodShare Gets a Boost from Federal Stimulus Package

Effective yesterday (April 1), Wisconsin is receiving a significant increase in federal funds for the FoodShare program. The boost stems from passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), otherwise known federal stimulus package. Program participants will see an increase in their benefits, and more families will be eligible as well. For Wisconsinites who are already enrolled in the program, the increase will appear automatically in their benefits beginning April 1. For example, a family of four in the Wisconsin FoodShare program will receive an additional $80 per month in assistance. Economists have long known that investing resources into assistance for low-income households is one of the fastest and most effective ways to stimulate the economy. For example, Moody's Economy.com reported last year that each dollar invested in the program yielded a return of $1.73.

Here are newspaper coverage of the FoodShare increase and a USDA handout about the impact on benefits.