SOMETHING NEW: POLS WANT TO KNOW WHAT WORKS

Crime is down and deficits are up, a combination that may be bringing
Democrats and Republicans together to craft a more cost-effective approach
to public safety.

Corrections Secretary Matt Frank said he knew something had changed when he
started meeting with legislators last year to discuss proposed budget cuts.

"I was very seldom asked the question, 'Is this tough on crime or is this
weak on crime?'. " he said. "The more common question was, 'Is this
effective? Does this work?' And I was getting that from both sides of the
aisle."

In the last session, the GOP- controlled Legislature approved a series of
modest reforms by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, including early release for
certain offenders who complete drug and alcohol treatment.

And Republicans are introducing reform bills that only Democrats would have
sponsored 10 years ago, including one measure by former GOP Sen. Bob Welch
to move eligible offenders to halfway houses six months before their
release from prison to aid in their reintegration to society.

Welch had been one of the strongest supporters during the 1990s for longer
prison terms and abolishing parole.

"As far as I'm concerned, I was on the winning side of that and got my
way," he said. "Now, I'm circling back and saying, 'OK, now that I know
we're going to lock up the bad guys for a sufficient length of time, now
we've got to look at what happens when they get out.'. "

Other factors are making compromise more possible:

. The overall crime rate is at its lowest point in Wisconsin since 1972.
The incidence of violent crime is the lowest since 1988.

. Crime no longer ranks among the public's chief concerns. In 1994 and
1996, crime topped the list of the most pressing state problems, according
to an annual survey conducted for the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
It came in second in five of the other six years between 1990 and 1997.
That has been eclipsed in recent years by concerns about taxes, health-care
costs and the economy.

. Wisconsin's prison population is at an all-time high, and the cost to
house those offenders is soaring - $28,000 each. At the same time, the
governor and Legislature are under pressure to eliminate a projected
deficit in the next two-year budget of $1.6 billion.

Still, most of the legislative changes amount to tinkering around the
edges, say advocates of more sweeping reforms aimed at stopping repeat
offenders from committing crimes by helping them find work, housing and
other support. And not even all of those are getting the green light.

Last spring, the Republican-controlled Senate unanimously approved a GOP
bill to help counties set up programs to provide alternatives to
prosecution or prison for certain nonviolent offenders with drug or alcohol
problems.

Backers said it would reduce the number of people who re-offend, save the
state millions of dollars in prison costs and give judges the power to
order someone to undergo treatment without going to prison.

The measure was also endorsed by a committee in the Republican-led Assembly
before it was scuttled by Assembly Speaker John Gard, R- Peshtigo.

"They came here with platitudes about, 'Oh, if we just would care more for
these people . . . everything will be just fine,'. " Gard said. "These are
people who have been convicted of being drug dealers or other types of
criminals. I don't immediately say we've got to find a way to keep them in
the community."

But Sen. Carol Roessler, R- Oshkosh, the bill's chief sponsor in the
Senate, said she expects the Legislature will take up many more such
measures in the coming years. She said she was hopeful Republicans and
Democrats would work together to change the old political calculus that
held that anything other than more prisons and longer sentences was "soft
on crime."

"If you want results and you want to save taxpayers money and you want to
have fewer victims of crime, this is what you need to do.