Judges & Judicial Process – Page 27 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Truth in Sentencing, Early Release Options Both Have Appeal, O’Hear Says

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:November 17, 2013
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Judges & Judicial Process Public Speakers at Marquette

While truth in sentencing is highly popular with Wisconsin voters, some options that could allow prisoners to be released before serving their full sentences also have majority support, Marquette Law School Professor Michael O’Hear told an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” audience last week. Wisconsin may want to give renewed attention to such ideas in the pursuit of prison policies that are both morally appealing and fiscally wise.

O’Hear, who is associate dean for research at the Law School, summarized Wisconsin’s trends in incarceration in the last four decades, including increased prison populations, abolition of the parole board, and adoption of “truth in sentencing,” which makes a judge’s sentence close to the final word on how long a prisoner will serve. Changes that eased the truth in sentencing practices, including creation in 2009 of an Earned Release Commission, were largely reversed under Gov. Scott Walker in recent years.

The number of people in the Wisconsin prisons went from about 2,000 in 1973 to about 23,000 in 2004, O’Hear said. The total has leveled off since then. Strong political momentum to get tough on crime, including not letting prisoners out before they served their full sentences, underlay the trends, and Wisconsin’s boom in prison population was in line with what occurred in much of the nation, O’Hear said.

Earned Release From Prison: Judges Not Necessarily the Best Deciders

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:August 12, 2013
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Judges & Judicial Process Marquette Law School Public Wisconsin Criminal Law & Process

In 2009, Wisconsin expanded release opportunities for prisoners and established a new Earned Release Review Commission to handle the petitions. Just two years later, however, the legislature reversed course, largely repealing the 2009 reforms and abolishing the ERRC. The 2011 revisions effectively returned authority over “early” release to judges. Critics of the ERRC, an appointed body, maintained that it was more appropriate to give release authority to elected judges.

However, last month’s Marquette Law School Poll indicates that Wisconsin voters would actually prefer to put early release into the hands of a statewide commission of experts rather than the original sentencing judge.

Among the 713 randomly selected Wisconsin voters who participated, a 52% majority stated that release decisions should be made by a commission of experts, as opposed to only about 31% who favored judges. An additional 13% stated that both options were equally good. The Poll’s margin of error was 3.7%.

We asked several questions to try to identify more specifically the perceived strengths and weaknesses of both options.

Oldfather Triangulating

Post author:Matthew J. Parlow
Post published:July 22, 2013
Post category:Judges & Judicial Process Legal Scholarship Marquette Law School Public

Professor Chad Oldfather’s recent article, Triangulating Judicial Responsiveness: Automated Content Analysis, Judicial Opinions, and the Methodology of Legal Scholarship (co-authored with Joseph P. Bockhorst and Brian P. Dimmer) – published in the Florida Law Review – has received a lot of recent scholarly attention. Professor Robin Effron of Brooklyn Law School and Professor Scott Bauries of the University of Kentucky College of Law each wrote responses (here and here) in the Florida Law Review Forum (the Florida Law Review’s online companion). In addition, Professor Corey Yung of the Kansas University School of Law also wrote an essay about the article. Congratulations, Professor Oldfather!