Spending on Wisconsin correctional facilities increased by 251 percent between 1987 and 2007, while spending on higher education went up by a fraction of that growth, according to a report released Wednesday.
According to the report from the Economic Policy Institute, spending on prisons increased at six times the rate of spending on higher education nationally.
State funding toward the Department of Corrections increased by 14.6 percent in the 2007 fiscal year alone, while funding for the UW-System and Wisconsin Technical College System increased by 3.5 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, according to budget documents.
Liana Fox, the author of the EPI report, said the increase in prison spending resulted from population growth, an increase in the number of imprisonments and a higher cost of health care for prisoners.
According to a February report by the non-profit advocacy group Pew Center on the States, over one in 100 U.S. adults are serving time, which puts a strain on state budgets across the country.
The influx of prisoners resulted partially from parole violators returning to prison for their violations, as well as criminals being sent to prison for non-violent crimes, according to Fox.
Pamela Oliver, a UW-Madison professor of sociology, also said she believes non-violent crimes such as drug offenses have contributed to the increased prison population.
If you examine why people go to prison, a lot of the reasons, especially for African Americans, are drug convictions, so we're urging that they revisit the whole drug war issue,"" Oliver said.
Fox said parole violators should not be automatically sent back to prison, but rather should have to experience alternate of punishment.
""[We need] intermediate steps to decrease the prison population without coming across as being soft on crime,"" Fox said.
Oliver said the Governor's Commission has proposed several suggestions to fixing the problem, including avoiding sentencing those who have committed less serious offenses and not pulling parole violators directly back into prison.
State Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, said in an e-mail she recognizes the need for the state to improve its imprisonment policies.
""[I'm] saddened because we aren't providing services before sentencing or while people are incarcerated, and we aren't planning their re-entry to society,"" Taylor said. ""Although we're being tough on crime, we're not being smart on crime.
