Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Senate candidate, supported cutting prison population in half

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Democrat operating towards incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, has repeatedly advocated for reducing the state’s jail inhabitants in half, eliminating money bail and different progressive legal justice reforms.

Earlier than getting into public workplace, Barnes beforehand labored as an organizer for Milwaukee Interior Metropolis Congregations Allied for Hope, a Milwaukee-based social justice group, when he teamed up with one other group, Knowledge, to launch a 2012 initiative aimed toward reducing Wisconsin’s jail inhabitants in half.

The 11×15 marketing campaign sought to cut back the state’s jail inhabitants to 11,000 inmates by 2015, Barnes informed native media on the time.

Barnes later served two phrases within the Wisconsin State Meeting earlier than he was chosen because the operating mate to now-Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. 

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Throughout their marketing campaign in 2018, Evers signed onto Barnes’ thought of halving the state’s jail inhabitants. Evers, who on the time was the state colleges superintendent, stated he needed to do this by permitting inmates to be launched for good conduct, creating or increasing courtroom diversion packages and treating 17-year-old offenders as juveniles as a substitute of adults, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the time.

Evers didn’t put a time-frame on halving the jail inhabitants, however he referred to as it a “purpose” and stated he wouldn’t launch violent offenders. 

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes speaks to the group through the forty eighth Annual Juneteenth Day Competition on June 19, 2019, in Milwaukee.
(Dylan Buell/Getty Photographs for VIBE)

Months earlier than the election in July 2018, Barnes celebrated Evers and different Democratic gubernatorial candidates for supporting his initiative.

“6 years in the past once we kicked off the 11×15 marketing campaign to chop the jail inhabitants in half, we might hardly discover elected leaders or candidates to get onboard,” Barnes tweeted. “To see it embraced at a gubernatorial candidate discussion board makes me proud to have labored with such visionary organizers/activists.”

After Evers and Barnes gained the election in November 2018, narrowly defeating incumbent Republicans Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch, Barnes continued supporting the jail initiative, tweeting in October 2019, “Cool, let’s lower our jail inhabitants in half.”

Since Evers and Barnes entered workplace, Wisconsin’s jail inhabitants has been lowered by about 15%. In 2019, the inhabitants was 23,777, in comparison with 20,123 immediately, in accordance with 2022 statistics from the state Division of Corrections.

The overwhelming majority of these presently incarcerated – 68% – are categorized as “violent” offenders, that means it might be unimaginable to chop the inhabitants in “half” with out releasing at the very least a few of these violent offenders.

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In 2016, when he was nonetheless a state legislator, Barnes sponsored a invoice to finish money bail in Wisconsin. The measure, which didn’t make it out of committee, would have required a defendant to be launched except there was “clear and convincing proof” that she or he was a flight danger or a hazard to society, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Throughout a September 2018 podcast, Barnes additionally stated he supported permitting inmates to vote.

“I’ve lengthy championed restoration of voting rights instantly as soon as somebody has served their sentence, and I imply, truthfully, even when somebody is locked up,” he stated.

Barnes has additionally made statements on-line with a comfortable tone on the defund the police motion, and his marketing campaign has acquired funding from 5 teams that advocate for defunding cops.

“Defunding the police solely goals of being as radical as a Donald Trump pardon,” Barnes tweeted in July 2020.

On Sept. 3, 2020, Barnes blasted the legal justice system after the cops concerned within the taking pictures dying of Breonna Taylor didn’t face prices.

“You possibly can really feel the way you need about to calls to reform, defund, or abolish however the query is, how can a system that permits this to occur proceed to be upheld?” he wrote.

The lieutenant governor additionally spoke at a significant assembly for the Middle for Fashionable Democracy — a far-left group that helps defunding the police and claims Israel targets Palestinians with “violent assaults.”

“Defund police. Defund police states,” the group tweeted in Might of final 12 months. “Defund militarized occupation. Defund state-sanctioned violence.”

Barnes has said within the press that he doesn’t help the defund the police motion, regardless of his previous statements. 

Johnson’s marketing campaign slammed Barnes as “harmful” in an announcement to Fox Information Digital.

“Lt. Gov. Barnes is a socialist liberal who cares extra about catering to his ‘woke’ base than preserving Wisconsin households protected,” Johnson marketing campaign spokesman Alec Zimmerman stated.

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“Crime is out-of-control in Wisconsin, and we are able to’t afford to elect a radical who cares extra about criminals than their victims. Mandela Barnes is harmful for Wisconsin,” he stated.

Barnes’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.

Fox Information’ Houston Keene contributed to this report.