Citizens throughout Wisconsin should be able to expect court-related services that are uniform in nature. In addition, state tax revenue would be a more equalizing funding source for the state court system rather than reliance on local property taxes. Counties will continue to fund brick and mortar capital space needs. Over time, county funding of these programs has outpaced state support. Despite the fact that community programming has been proven to successfully reduce recidivism, the majority of the funding is still being directed into institutional care.
Juvenile crime is a statewide concern and has a direct impact on the adult correctional population.
WCEA supports maintaining the current public policy intent in Wisconsin s juvenile justice system to provide community-based rehabilitative services for juvenile offenders whenever possible while assuring community safety. The contract would ensure services are funded with the outcome to keep juveniles in the community with appropriate community services and supervision when those juveniles do not present a safety risk to the community. Counties would continue to administer and run community intervention programs funded through a shared partnership between state and county governments using both state and local tax revenues. Correspondingly, expenditures at the state level would increase, but would be partially offset by a reduction in Youth Aids to counties and cost effective measures in institutional care that would reduce state costs for institutions. Those services include child protection, services to ensure the frail elderly and people with disabilities or serious and persistent mental illness can live full and productive lives in the community, and services to people with alcohol or other drug abuse problems.