The Joint Legislative Committee on Finance welcomed March with a roar of support for the state's new Crime Lab Bill.
Wednesday evening the committee voted unanimously to pass a bill endorsing 31 new positions at the State Crime Lab with a goal of eliminating the DNA backlog.
Strong bi-partisan support in favor of the legislation has led to an optimistic outlook, although the bill has yet to receive official approval from the state Assembly, state Senate and Gov. Jim Doyle.
While the bill can be seen as a step in the right direction according to Byron Lichstein, a representative for the Wisconsin Criminal Justice Study Commission, the prospect of outsourcing still needs to be addressed.
""I think we need to do more in terms of outsourcing in order to solve the backlog quickly,"" Lichstein said. ""But I definitely think that approving the 31 new positions is a good step.""
Lichstein said he feels outsourcing was left out of the proposal ""because [it's] more expensive.""
In the long-term, however, the refusal to outsource could be a ""costly"" mistake.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a recent statement that he expects the DNA backlog to be eradicated by 2010. This means the crime lab's testing problems will persist another four years, or possibly more if outsourcing is not instituted.
""It's going to take time to hire and train these 31 new positions and in that period of time ... the backlog's going to keep growing and getting bigger and bigger,"" Lichstein said.
Fortunately, it is not too late to further remedy the situation, according to Lichstein.
""As part of the rest of the budget process, I hope they will consider putting in more provisions for outsourcing,"" he said. ""I think the 31 positions is the right thing to do. It's a good start, but I hope they'll go further so that we can solve this problem as fast as possible.""
