Tough sentences not answer

In the last two years, Milwaukee and its suburbs have witnessed a significant increase in carjackings, and the perpetrators are all too often teenagers. On the east side, I have consoled residents who were forced at gunpoint to hand over car keys out of alley garages or off front porches. Elsewhere in the city, a car was stolen from a mother while her baby was still in the car.

Most recently and most tragically, a city employee, Greg “Ziggy” Zyszkiewicz, was brutally murdered while on duty in an apparent attempt to steal his car.

So what should we do to stop this? Some of my colleagues have suggested that we must increase mandatory minimum sentences to “send a message” to these teenagers.

The problem with this so-called solution is that we’ve tried it before, and not only has it failed to solve the intended problem but it has exacerbated other problems: namely the crisis of black male incarceration in this country, and especially in this state.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a crime bill that most famously featured a “three strikes” provision for federal crimes but also included $8.7 billion in funding for state prison construction if those states enacted “truth in sentencing” reforms.

Wisconsin was an early and eager “truth in sentencing” state, effectively doubling or tripling prison sentences for many. The result? Wisconsin is now the only state in our union with more than 12% of our black men in prison. No other state imprisons as much as 10%.

In 1980, Wisconsin had fewer than 5,000 prisoners. We now have more than 22,000, and 42% of the men in Wisconsin prisons are black. For reference, fewer than 7% of our total state population is black.

As a state, we are the leading of-

fender in a phenomenon author Michelle Alexander has dubbed “The New Jim Crow” and an Oscarnominated documentary “The 13th Amendment” has argued is a new version of slavery.

Many will claim such analogies are extreme, but in response I would simply repeat the ugly facts: About half of black Wisconsin men in their 30s have been incarcerated.

The teenager who stole the car

with the baby in it was sentenced this January to 15 years. I expect that those who murdered Ziggy will receive even longer sentences. We elect judges to make those tough decisions, and we expect long sentences for kidnapping and murder.

But eliminating judicial discretion — which is what mandatory minimums do — means that judges are no longer free to exercise the judgment we elected them to use. It paints all offenders with a broad brush — and effectively forces the criminal justice system into glaring racial disparities that should offend and embarrass all of us.

My colleagues and I on the Milwaukee Common Council are committed to reducing violence and incarceration. In the coming days, expect to hear from us on how we can intervene in the lives of our children — before they become victims or perpetrators.

Nic Kovac is a Milwaukee alderman representing the third district.