EVERS URGED TO REDUCE PRISON POPULATION

MADISON - Jerome Dillard, Sister Barbara Pfarr and David Liners stood in sleet Tuesday outside the governor’s mansion, blocking the driveway and risking arrest to call attention to the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin prisons and the lack of a response from Gov. Tony Evers.

At least 11 Wisconsin prisoners have died with COVID-19 as a cause of death or a significant contributing factor. Another 8,139 have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic; 2,288 of those cases are still active. Another 1,703 staff have had positive tests.

While governors in other states have used clemency powers to reduce prison populations in response to the spread of COVID-19, Evers has not. Public health leaders have warned that prisons are among most dangerous environments for the virus.

Liners, director of WISDOM, a statewide network of faith communities that supports incarcerated people, said Evers met with him and Dillard,

state director of EX-Incarcerated People Organizing, over the summer. They have not been able to reach him again, Liners said.

They and others have protested daily outside Evers’ home for over a month, escalating their efforts by occupying the driveway at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“The governor has absolutely refused to hear what’s going on in his own state among people who are uniquely his responsibility,” Liners said.

Evers has maintained a policy predating the pandemic, only considering clemency for those who have completed their sentences. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and others have called on Evers to change this policy to save at-risk inmates and allow for more social distancing in crowded prisons.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has asked Evers multiple times since July whether he is considering a change to the policy. Staff in his office did not answer the question but provided a statement in August. On Tuesday, they referred the Journal Sentinel to the same statement.

“Gov. Evers believes that reforming our criminal justice system should be a nonpartisan issue — Republicans and Democrats have been able to come together on this in other states, and we should be able to do it here in Wisconsin, too,” the statement reads. “The governor remains committed to working across

Demonstrators block a car from entering the grounds of the governor’s mansion in Maple Bluff Tuesday following a news conference and protest to draw attention to the large number of COVD-19 cases among inmates and staff in state prisons. PHOTOS BY MARK HOFFMAN/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

David Liners, director of WISDOM, a community advocacy group for criminal justice reform, speaks during a news conference and protest.