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Article: Simply building more prisons won't make our streets safer New methods, such as improving supervision of parolees, needed
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist wants the state to build more
prisons, and lots of them. It's an understandable reaction to the
problem of public safety in this state. Though Milwaukee has 19.5%
of the state's population, it produces 45% of its prisoners,
particularly in Milwaukee. The Governor's Task Force on Sentencing
and Corrections considered massive prison building programs, not
because of their obvious political appeal to a public properly
outraged by crime, but precisely because building prisons is the
almost reflexive response to the problem (usually defined as too much
crime and dangerously overcrowded prisons).
Here is why the task force rejected the conventional approach.