In the year since we published “The Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Justice in Wisconsin: What Does It Tell Us About the Future?,” a variety of articles and reports have been released affirming the findings and recommendations presented in that 2021 report. The publications frame the pandemic as a way to examine factors related to racial disparities,3 strategies to reduce youth incarceration, 4 opportunities to transform youth justice, 5 and recommendations for system partners to convert lessons learned into formal policy and practice.6 They also highlight the negative impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on youth and families who are involved in the justice system. These writings present a sense of readiness that needs to be operationalized in order to create better outcomes for youth in the future.
Our Take: The Wisconsin 2023-25 Biennial Budget
We appreciate Governor Evers being a stop gap for some of the most egregious proposals from the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee (JFC). But, if we want to actually address Wisconsin’s racial disparities, we have a lot more work to do.