Wisconsin voters greenlight amendment that could raise cash bail, impose stricter conditions

 

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- The majority of Wisconsin voters have approved changing the state constitution regarding court powers and cash bail.

With 'Yes' votes on two referendum questions on Tuesday's ballot, a change to Wisconsin law will make it harder for individuals to get out of jail on bail, before trial.

Increased support for change came Darrell Brooks' attack at the Waukesha Christmas parade in 2021, while he was out on bail at the time.

With the passage of the amendment, judges will now be able to consider past convictions, and set conditions to maintain public safety, when setting bail for violent crimes.

This opens the potential to set much higher bail, which could keep more defendants behind bars until their trial.

"There is concern about public safety, there is concern about at least a perception of rising crime rates," said Adam Stevenson, a clinical professor at University of Wisconsin Law School. "I think it was a natural reaction for many individuals to feel that something needed to change."

In the past, judges were limited by what they could consider when setting bail.

The new law will allow them to consider more broadly how the community could be impacted by the conditions of release.

"The court always had the ability to set conditions to prevent serious bodily harm, but this expands the nature of harm that the court can consider," Stevenson said.

Stevenson believes the most likely outcome is to see courts increase the use of cash bail, and increase the dollar amounts.

"That's likely to mean more people who will be incarcerated pretrial and a significant disruption to their lives," Stevenson said.

Stevenson also believes this could have discriminatory implications on a basis of wealth.

Despite increased amounts, those able to afford the bail can still get out.

"It does create the potential, the very real potential of significant disparities by economic status," Stevenson said.

With broad terms in the legislation like "violent crime" and "serious harm," the republican-backed legislature passed a bill defining those cases is now sitting on the governor's desk.

It lists more than 100 offenses.

"There's definitely a lot of unanswered questions both in terms of how exactly this process will work, and what the outcomes will be," Stevenson said.

On Wednesday, Governor Evers signed the companion amendment clarifying cases of serious harm.

In a release, he noted this bill alone will not solve challenges facing the justice system, and said he hopes the legislature will find common ground for justice reform.