AUSTIN – Marc Levin, Director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Effective Justice, will testify today in Madison, Wis., before the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Transportation, Public Safety, and Veterans and Military Affairs in support of Senate Bill 308. The committee hearing will begin at 11:00 a.m. Central Time in State Capitol Room 330 Southwest, and Wisconsin State Bar President Patrick J. Fiedler will join Levin in testifying in support of the bill.
Current Wisconsin law treats all 17 year-old criminal defendants as adults, requiring them to be processed in the adult criminal justice system instead of the juvenile system. Senate Bill 308, commonly referred to as the “Second Chance Bill,” would allow first-time, nonviolent 17 year-old offenders to be directed to the juvenile courts.
“I am looking forward to briefing Wisconsin policymakers on how they can help ensure that youngsters who are nonviolent, first-time offenders can be put on a path to becoming productive, law-abiding citizens,” said Levin.
The text and bill history for Senate Bill 308 are posted here, and a joint report on the bill from the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the MacIver Institute is available here.