MILWAUKEE (AP) - Gov. Tony Evers vetoed Republican lawmakers’ tough-on-crime legislation Friday.
The vetoes were hardly a surprise. The governor campaigned on cutting the state’s prison population in half.
The bills would have required the Department of Corrections to recommend revoking a person’s extended supervision, parole or probation if he or she is charged with a crime; expanded the list the violations that could land a child in a youth prison to include any act that would be an adult felony; forbid prosecutors from amending charges of illegally possessing a gun against a person convicted of a violent felony or attempting to commit a violent felony; and and block violent criminals from participating in early release programs.
Evers said in his veto messages that the revocation recommendation bill would have cost the state $200 million in just the first two years. The DOC has projected the bill would force the agency to build two new prisons to handle the influx of new inmates.
Evers went on to say that he objects to putting more children in prison, doesn’t want to restrict prosecutors handling gun cases and doesn’t want to restrict DOC’s discretion to decide who’s eligible for early release.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called the veto a mistake, and said Evers had “over promised” when he talked of cutting the prison population in half.
“We can’t put a price tag on keeping communities safe from the types of repeat, violent offenders who we see in the news all too often,” Fitzgerald said.
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