- Frederica Freyburg: After literally decades
of short staffing in county district attorney offices
in Wisconsin, a boost.
In tonight's "Inside Look," how Wisconsin governor
Tony Evers announced this week that 56 counties
will receive more than 60 additional assitant DAs.
There is some partisan grousing that, for example,
Milwaukee got three positions while some counties
won't get as many positions
as Republicans proposed in their budget.
For more on this, we talk with
Portage County District Attorney Louis Molepske,
president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys' Association.
And thanks very much for being here.
- Good evening.
- So describe how strapped offices like your own
have been over all these years.
- Well, the 71 district attorney offices in 72 counties,
Menominee and Shawano share a DA,
have been overworked, understaffed, and underpaid
for decades since we became state employees
on January 1, 1990 under Governor Thompson's
signing of Act 89.
The legislation that Governor Evers signed
is a huge boost to our offices statewide,
and it's, it had-- awesome effects statewide
with the addition of additional ADAS.
- Well, what about the issue
that some counties got fewer positions
than were proposed in the Republican budget?
Are you satisfied with the review
and recommendations made?
- Absolutely.
I helped put together the allocation table,
along with the state prosecutors office,
district attorneys statewide,
and Republican legislators.
In fact, we based our proposal
on Representative Born's original proposal.
This is a non-partisan proposal,
and at the end of the day,
helping Milwaukee was important,
as their three grant-funded prosecutors
were counted against them in the allocation table.
So if you remove them,
they would be under 100% of staffing.
- Now, having reported on this through the years,
we know that there are other issues,
and you mentioned one of them, like wages and turnover.
Are those still a problem?
- Absolutely.
Our biggest problem is that
a prosecutor who'll get five years of experience,
they could be paid more in the private market,
they see that their wages aren't increasing,
so they leave for the private market.
That's been a problem continuously.
If the state funds are pay progression plan,
there won't be an issue.
But the state just has to,
each year, fund it.
As private businesses do for their attorneys.
- Now, one lawmaker remarked that DA staffing shortages
are one of the biggest barriers
to criminal justice reform, because things like
diversion courts or programs take more time
and more money to implement.
Will these new positions help in that regard,
or are we just kind of getting back up to even?
- Well I'll tell you, the new positions
will help in that regard.
If you want to have a adult drug court,
you need a prosecutor to sit on that court.
A veterans court, same thing.
If you need extra diversion in the office,
you need an extra set of eyes to review it,
to make sure the public is protected,
the victim's needs are met,
and that, ultimately, the process runs smoothly.
These things don't work without a prosecutor,
so the additonal prosecutors will meet two goals:
the governor's goal of keeping less people out of prison,
and two, making sure that justice is done
in an efficient and effective manner for victims.
- Are the more than 60 assistant district attorney positions
that have been recommended, is that enough?
Or could you always use more?
- We could use more.
The justice coalition that was originally put together,
that the District Attorneys' Association,
state prosecutors, DOJ, the courts,
Office of Public Defender,
we realized we needed 130 prosecutors.
We cut it in half, approximately,
to be consistent on the budget,
and to not take too much of the budget for our use.
- All right, we leave it there.
Louis Molepske, thanks very much for joining us.
- Thank you very much.