On May 4, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up two Florida-based cases to determine if sentencing a person who commits an offense while under the age of 18 to live without the parole (LWOP) is cruel and unusual punishment. In Roper v. Simmons (2005) the Supreme Court banned imposing the death penalty on youth who committed an...
WCCF invites you to honor your mother this year by making a contribution in her name. Your contribution will help ensure that children continue to have a strong voice in Wisconsin so they can reach their full potential. In many ways, the Council is like the grand matriarch for our state’s children. Our work mirrors what all mothers want...
In an op-ed column published on May 3 in the Green Bay Press Gazette, Green Bay Police Chief Jim Arts supported early childhood investments, including the Governor's Quality Rating System proposal. Arts indicated that "one of the most effective ways to reduce crime is to make sure young people get a great start." WCCF is strongly...
Yesterday, WCCF and its Vision 2020 partners, WISCAP and the WI Head Start Association, released the second edition of our Vision 2020 Report Card. The report card grades the state's progress in four key areas related to poverty: early care and education, access to family-supporting wages, healthy children, and safe and affordable...
The Joint Finance Committee will be voting on many important items this week. On Tuesday, May 5, the Committee will take action on the Department of Public Instruction, including Student Achievement Guarantee in Education Program and Four-Year-Old Kindergarten Grants. Also on Tuesday, the committee will be voting on FoodShare benefits...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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