Recently the Tomah Journal ran an editorial defending Governor Doyle and Legislative Democrats, including local representative Mark Radcliffe, who stood in lock-step with his leaders in Madison and voted to release as many as 3,000 convicted felons back into our communities before the end of their prison terms. Unfortunately, the editor was mistaken on several key facts and underestimated the severity of the situation.

The Journal is correct when it mentions that these felons will be headed back to their home communities eventually. Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing the editor got right about the early release program.

Let’s be clear, the Democrats’ early release program will let thousands of criminals out of jail without even consulting the judges and prosecutors who put them there in the first place. This misguided policy rewards bad behavior and has the potential to compromise public safety, and that is why I have joined with 44 members of the Legislature to call on Gov. Doyle to repeal the program.

Despite your paper’s attempt to portray this as a partisan issue, it’s important to note that several prominent Democrats, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Senator Tim Carpenter, have also raised concerns about early release.

Most of these inmates are getting much more than "six months" shaved off their prison time as the paper suggests. Paula Harris, the first inmate let out by DOC was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide when she stabbed a friend with a steak knife; she was sentenced to 11 years, but only served 3 before being released in December. Mr. Editor, that’s eight years off her sentence, a far cry from the six months you suggested. The vast majority of the 3,000 criminals being released early will have their sentences cut by years, not months.

The early release plan represents a step backwards from the state’s Truth-in-Sentencing standards that required criminals to serve their full prison terms. Truth-in-Sentencing was enacted in part because of the public outcry from victims who believed our prison system was becoming a revolving door for felony offenders who on average served less than a 1/4 of their prison term, leading to higher crime rates across the board.

Make no mistake; the criminals being released early are by no means “nonviolent.” The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute did an independent analysis of the criminal backgrounds of the first 22 offenders released early. What they found was startling.

According to their research, these 22 criminals have collectively committed more than 150 crimes, including 74 felonies. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that elected judges had previously denied early release to 15 of the 22 inmates. In most of those cases, the judges kept the criminal in jail because “it was not in the public’s interest.”

Given these facts, it is disturbing that a select group of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats are deciding which repeat offenders are being let back out onto our streets in the hopes they don’t reoffend. The fact that this program does not rely on judges, prosecutors, or law enforcement to determine whether these inmates are safe for release makes it even more likely that new crimes will be committed.

Also, communities and local law enforcement are not being notified when these felons are being released. If a murderer or a drug dealer who used children to peddle their poison was moving into your community, wouldn’t you want to know? I certainly would, and that is why I’ve also asked the Doyle administration to, at the very least, immediately put in place a notification process to provide this critical information to the public.

Proponents of early release often point to the supposed cost savings associated with it. Unfortunately, these estimates were greatly over-exaggerated and will never likely materialize. The estimates take into consideration the total cost to house an inmate and say that if 3,000 are released, you can take this cost, multiply it by the total number and call that the cost savings. But unless prisons are closed or corrections workers are laid off (both options I oppose), little to no cost savings will be seen.

In fact, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau will not confirm any cost savings from releasing felons early. When it comes to matters of the budget, I’ll take the word of the experts at the Fiscal Bureau over that of DOC bureaucrats whose very job it is to let these felons out.

In closing, the greatest responsibility of the governor and the legislature is to keep our citizens safe. The early release program, especially in its current form, fails to uphold that responsibility and is a detriment to the State of Wisconsin and the safety of its citizens. That is why I will continue to pursue a full repeal of the program to prevent another innocent Wisconsin citizen from falling victim to a crime that could have been prevented.

Republican Scott Suder, Abbotsford, represents the 69th Assembly District.