Wisconsin Policy Forum study shows Milwaukee County justice system still lagging from COVID-19 effects
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A new study from the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows the Milwaukee County justice system is still recovering from COVID-19 impacts.
Researchers worked with justice system officials to track each stage of the process. The results show key areas of the system are still not functioning properly.
Some of the issues are slowly getting back to normal, others are still of major concern.
Rob Henken, the president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said, "We are unable, at this point, to determine precisely why some of these things are occurring."
But they are still occurring.
The COVID-19 pandemic threw the criminal justice system into a tailspin, impacting arrests, charges, and cases for years.
The system is still affected several years later.
We asked Henken if we are safer or less safe than before. He said, "I think that's a very difficult question to answer."
For about eight months the Wisconsin Policy Forum worked with the Milwaukee Community Justice Council to dive into the data.
Partners from throughout the pipeline participated: law enforcement, the DA's office, courts, corrections, and social services.
Researchers found nearly every aspect was impacted, starting with low arrest numbers.
Henken said, "Offenses are up, for both more serious part 1 crimes and less serious part 2 crimes. They're up over the five-year period we studied, arrests are down."
Charge rates at the District Attorney's office are also down, especially for misdemeanors.
For the last three years the charge rate has been below 37% after previously hovering around 45% before the pandemic.
The DA's office said that's largely due to a much lower number of domestic violence victims prosecuting cases, adding in a statement "Most domestic violence prosecutions rely upon victim cooperation, and unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, there has been much less victim engagement."
Henken said staffing is also a major factor for nearly every sector. "This was a double whammy. We had both a pandemic and now we have a historically tight labor market."
Once in court, the backlog of misdemeanor cases is starting to resolve.
But the report found the number of pending felony cases remains high.
Henken said, "So the question is: can you accelerate that progress? We have started to see some progress, in terms of reducing the felony backlog, this one might just take a little time."
The report says it is now up to policymakers and justice system officials to explore what resources are needed to get the system back on track.