Walker Campaign: Governor Doyle flip flops his position on Truth in Sentencing

“Author of Truth in Sentencing says law is about certainty for victims.”

[Wauwatosa, WI] County Executive Scott Walker voiced serious concerns with a plan approved Thursday night by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to allow the early release of convicted criminals. Governor Jim Doyle included the plan in his 2010-11 budget proposal.

In 2002, then candidate for Governor Jim Doyle said “The governor is not the judge of this state, and the governor doesn’t have the ability to say, ‘Sorry the judge sent you to prison and I’m going to let you out.’” Now he’s willing to let criminals out to save money.

“The Governor letting convicted criminals out early is a needless endangerment of public safety,” said Walker, “We passed Truth-in-Sentencing to provide certainty for every victim and this plan undoes the promise we made to them.”

Walker was the co-author of the legislation that ended parole and early release in the 1990s when he served in the Assembly as chair of the Committee on Corrections and the Courts. The law was designed to create trust between the criminal justice system and victims that perpetrators would serve their full sentence given by a judge.

The budget writing committee also approved Governor Doyle’s plans to reduce supervision of convicted sex offenders.