|
|||||||||||||||||
RELATED LINKSInternal LinksGrants to:
Profiles:
Related stories:
External LinksWisconsin Public Research Institute website Cursor.orgMediaTransparency.org sponsor More stories by Phil Wilayto Institute for Justice Media Transparency writersAndrew J. Weaver FundometerEvaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement. |
ORIGINAL RESEARCHPhil Wilayto Wisconsin's Exploding Prison Population: The Bradley ConnectionMILWAUKEE Wisconsin, which has emerged as a national leader in the areas of reactionary welfare and education "reform," can now claim a new area for innovative social policy: incarceration. In the last five years, the number of people being held in the Wisconsin state prison system has doubled, from 10,551 to 20,555. 1 Last year, the increase was the highest of any state in the country. These figures came out before "Truth in Sentencing" laws (elimination of parole) were enacted, and don't include the thousands of prisoners in local jails. Also in the last five years, the number of people under probation, parole or electronic monitoring ("intensive sanctions") has doubled, from 31,706 to 63,840. 1 As with every other social issue, race and gender have played central roles. African Americans make up only 5% of the state population, but 48% of state prisoners. 2 That means Wisconsin is now imprisoning Blacks at over twice the national average. Latinos, with 1.9% of the population, make up over 6% of the prisoners. 2 As of June 1999, there were 1,271 women in the state system, making up 6% of inmates. 3 This is also a sharp increase over past years. [Note: As of Sept. 22, 2000, the total number of state prisoners had dropped to 20,294, but the number of women had shot up 12% to 1,425 or 7% of the total, according to the State Department of Corrections.] Drastic changes in social policy don't happen without planning. Interested parties sit down, conduct analysis, write reports, develop programs and promote the changes they favor. This was certainly true for welfare and education reform, and it's true for prisons as well. The Wisconsin Policy Research InstituteThe Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) is located in a professional office park on Port Washington Road, a few miles north of Milwaukee. From the outside it doesn't look like one of the best-funded conservative think tanks in the country, but it is. In 1997, the Washington, D.C.-based National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy published a list of 100 conservative organizations, think tanks, institutes and publications that had received the most funding from the 12 largest right wing foundations for the years 1992 to 1994. The first five were well known: the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Number Six - out of 100 - was the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Between '92 and '94, the WPRI received nine grants totaling $3,372,500.00. That was the largest amount given any state conservative think tank, and indicates how important Wisconsin is to the national conservative movement. 4 From its beginning in 1987 through 1998, the Institute received 36 grants totaling $5,158,890 from the John M. Olin and Lynde and Harry Bradley foundations, most of it from Bradley. 5 According to its web site (www.wpri.org), the WPRI is "a not-for-profit institute established to study public-policy issues affecting the state of Wisconsin... The Institute's agenda encompasses the following issues: Education, welfare and social services, criminal justice, taxes and spending, and economic development." The Institute also conducts regular public-opinion polls that are "disseminated through the media and are made available to the general public and the legislative and executive branches of state government." For a flavor of the Institute's politics, here's a sample of some recent reports and articles: "Why College Is Too Cheap," by J. Issac Brannon; "Turning Back the Tide of Political Correctness," by Thomas W. Still; "Another Look at Tolling Wisconsin Interstates," by Robert W. Poole, Jr.; "Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: A Critical Look at Smaller Class Sizes," by Thomas Hruz; and "Political Manipulation of Wisconsin's Students: Environmental Education in Action," by Michael Sanera. Besides being well funded, the Institute is well connected. In 1995, its nine-member board of directors included Michael Grebe, chairman and CEO of the state's largest law firm, Foley and Lardner. Grebe is a member of the Republican National Committee and a former president of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. He's also a member of the Bradley board of directors. Sheldon Lubar is a Milwaukee venture capitalist, former member of the UW Board of Regents and a former member of the Bradley board. Sam Orr, Jr, listed as a 1995 Institute board member, is the current president of the UW board of regents. In fact, the last six presidents of the UW board have all been board members of the WPRI. Wisconsin as a Social LaboratoryThe Institute's principle sponsor, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, is the largest, richest and most influential of the rightwing foundations in the U.S. With $700 million in assets, Bradley has helped overturn statewide affirmative action programs in Texas, California and Washington. A million dollars of Bradley money funded the notoriously racist book The Bell Curve. Bradley helps to underwrite a staggering number of right-wing organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute. In Wisconsin, Bradley is by far the largest foundation of any kind, with close ties to the governor and the Republican Party. With its deep pockets and influential political ties, it has been able to use the state as a kind of laboratory for developing prototypes for conservative public policy initiatives. In the area of welfare reform, Bradley funded the Hudson Institute of Indianapolis to open an office in Madison, an effort that resulted in the development of W-2. Bell Curve co-author Charles Murray was actually brought in as a consultant by the W-2 development task force. In education, Bradley has bankrolled the school voucher movement in Milwaukee, funding voucher schools, pro-voucher "community" groups, and public spokespersons; defending the program in court; and promoting the program nationally. Bradley's role in the area of prison policy has been less well known. But working through the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, it has sponsored research, articles and reports that have been used to justify major changes in state prison policy, including building more prisons. Recent WPRI articles and reports dealing with the criminal justice system include: "Outstanding Warrants in Milwaukee County: Fugitives From The Justice System," by Jean M. White; "Private Prison-Industry Enterprises: Is it an Idea Whose Time Has Come (Again)?," by Sammis White; "The Truth About Sentencing in Wisconsin: Plea Bargaining, Punishment, and the Public Interest," by George A. Mitchell and David Dodenhoff; and "Privatizing Parole and Probation in Wisconsin: The Path to Fewer Prisons," by George Mitchell. The last article, written by George Mitchell, appeared in April of 1999. Back in 1995, when there were only half as many state prisoners as there are today, Mitchell had another concern: that there weren't enough prisons. A longtime literary advocate for the Bradley Foundation, Mitchell ran a management firm that helped build the Milwaukee County Jail. 6 In 1990 he directed a team of prison and architectural consultants that produced a 10-year master plan for the state's prison system. 7 He's also a member of the Governor's Task Force on Sentencing and Corrections, a committee charged with coming up with new proposals. In 1996 he wrote a report for the WPRI that called for having private companies design, build and operate new prisons for the state. 8 A False Argument to Justify IncarcerationIn August of '95 the Institute published Mitchell's report "Prison Works," which argued that Wisconsin had to start building a lot more prisons or face the prospect of turning loose thousands of dangerous criminals. Looks like somebody read his report. Mitchell argued that (1) the rise in the crime rate from 1960 to 1979 was a result of not sending enough people to prison; (2) the crime rate fell after 1980 in part because of changing demographics, but more because a lot more people were sent to prison; (3) due to an expected rise in the number of 18-24 year olds, we could expect another rise in crime; and (4) unless the state embarked on a huge prison building project, large numbers of violent criminals would have to be turned loose on the public. Concerning the rise in crime in the 60's and 70's, Mitchell never mentions the long-term effects of the Vietnam War, or subsequent U.S. wars. (At one point after Vietnam, one-third of all prisoners were Vietnam-era veterans.) He doesn't mention the large-scale introduction of hard drugs into communities of color after the urban rebellions of 1968, or the effect of the massive factory shutdowns and layoffs that began in the mid 70's. Mitchell also mixes up crime categories so it sounds like everyone in prison is a violent repeat offender. There's no analysis of drug or alcohol addiction as a factor in crime, or how a phony "war on drugs" was selectively targeted against communities of color, in particular the youth. In fact, he never mentions race at all, neither as a factor in arrests, convictions, nor incarceration. And he never mentions class, either as a factor in economic crimes of survival, or as a factor in being able to avoid arrest, conviction and imprisonment. Expanding Prisons Mean Exploding ProfitsAnother thing never mentioned by Mitchell, the WPRI or the governor, is that there are individuals, towns and corporations who stand to gain handsomely from an exploding prison population: construction and supply companies; rural areas hungry for jobs; private corporations anxious to exploit prison labor and privatize parole, probation and the prisons themselves. And there is the need of the economic system itself to imprison large numbers of young workers, particularly people of color, whom it no longer needs for industrial production - at least on the outside. The role of the Bradley Foundation and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute is to promote the interests of these individuals, companies and corporations. The result is the massive incarceration of our young people and a strengthening of the repressive apparatus of government. Sorry, Pogo, but we have seen the enemy, and it aint us. (c) 2000 by Phil Wilayto This article first appeared in the August 2000 issue of Money, Education and Prisons, publication of The Task Force on Money, Education and Prisons, Madison, WI. Phil Wilayto can be contacted c/o A Job is a Right Campaign, PO Box 06053, Milwaukee, WI 53206. Ph: 414.374.1034; Fax: 414.372.7624; email: ajrc@execpc.com. For more information on the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute or the Bradley Foundation, contact: Wisconsin Policy Research Institute The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation 1 1995 figure from "Offenders Under Control on April 21, 1995", The Wisconsin Department of Corrections. June 30, 2000 figure from Sister Ester Heffernan, PhD, professor of criminal justice at Edgewood College, Madison, WI. Of the 20,555 state prisoners on June 30, 5,649 were contracted out to private prisons 2 U.S. Census figures from 1990. 3 From Pam Oliver, PhD, professor of sociology, University of Wisconsin at Madison. Figure does not include prisoners being held in state mental institutions. 4 "Moving a Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations"; National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Washington, D.C., 1997. 5 Media Transparency web site: www.mediatransparency.org 6 Milwaukee Business Journal, April 10, 1989. 7 Introduction to "Prison Works" by George Mitchell, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, August, 1995. 8 Milwaukee Business Journal, , January 6, 1997. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
|
MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
|
|||||||||||||||
Don't look to Wisconsin as model for welfare reform
Printer friendly
