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Panel talks criminal justice in America By Katie Scheidt the daily cardinal
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Despite Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ victory in Wisconsin’s primary last Tuesday, Madison’s chapter of the International Socialists Organization said they are still skeptical of his campaign.
Madison socialists still skeptical of Sanders By Lucas Sczygelski the daily cardinal
Despite enthralling thousands of frustrated Madison progressives living under austerity minded Republican rule and winning 62 percent of Dane County’s democratic vote in the process, a small but persistent band on the liberal fringe remains reserved in their support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president. In an odd twist, the Marxist International Socialist
Organization’s Madison chapter is feeling a much more controlled “bern” than less radical liberals due to their fellow socialist’s embrace of the Democratic Party and his relative moderation. According to Madison-based ISO political organizer Ken Love, a 31 year old father and EMT, a longstanding schism within the movement separates his group from the most successful socialist presidential candidate in U.S. history. “There are two types of socialism,” Love explained. “One is
socialism from above … which is the camp that Bernie Sanders falls into. Economic reform gets handed down from above through the government while keeping the system of capitalism mostly intact.” “The other version is socialism from below,” Love continued. “Workers and students having democratic control over all democratic institutions and workplaces. The ISO falls into socialism from below.”
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The Capital Times held a panel discussion Tuesday evening to discuss inequities and reforms in the criminal justice system on both a national and state level. Held at the High Noon Saloon on East Washington Avenue, the panel featured Dane County Circuit Court Judge-elect Everett Mitchell, former state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and famed “Making a Murderer” defense attorney Dean Strang. The panel began by focusing on juvenile justice. After discussing a stand-out case of a violent 14-year-old repeat offender, Lautenschlager proposed that many of the inequities that plague the juvenile detention system stem from a scarcity in resources, in regards to both finances and labor. “There has been so little offered within the system and the resources have been so sparse,” Lautenschlager said, “and since Act 10, it’s fair to say that those resources are even more sparse with longtime, career public servants who are leaving government service as soon as they can.” Another main topic the panel discussed was systemic racial and class biases within the criminal justice system. Mitchell stated that much of the reform needed in criminal justice should start with learning from past mistakes. He drew upon an example of how the system dealt with the 90s crack cocaine epidemic versus its current handling of the rise of heroin. “I’m noticing that the discus-
sion of heroin is totally different. There is talk about treatment, there is talk about counselors,” Mitchell said. “They’re even proposing legislation about how now we [need] to get more treatment into the hands of these communities that are struggling with heroin.” However, Mitchell also noted a potential bias in the different handlings of the two epidemics. “The pessimist in me says they just see these people differently than they saw my relatives and so they’re able to find these resources because the look is different than it was before,” he said. To wrap up the talk, audience members submitted questions to the panel. Of main interest were DNA evidence and overlyaggressive prosecutors--topics that were of main concern in the Steven Avery case depicted in the Netflix docu-series “Making a Murderer.” Strang pointed out that to fix the problems that exist within the criminal justice system, procedural improvements can only do so much. “What we need to understand is that if we think about justice as a cathedral, procedural protections are just the scaffolding erected around the cathedral.” Strang said. “There is no direct connective tissue between the scaffolding … and the project of justice other than the human beings, the people you hire, the people we elect to the bench, the public defenders, the probation agents, the police officers. Humans are always the connective tissue to fix the cathedral,” he said.
Students apologize to Wunk Sheek for March bias incident By Peter Coutu The daily cardinal
Several students involved in a bias incident at Dejope Residence Hall emailed a letter of apology Wednesday to different members of the UW-Madison campus community. The students involved in the March 9 incident admitted their actions at the time were painful, but said they “never intended for [their] actions to be hurtful.” The students stressed that the act was not “racially motivated or meant to exclude anyone from campus,” as they did not know the ceremony was being held for. The letter did
not include the names of the students involved. “I hope it’s an honest letter,” said UW-Madison junior and coleader of campus Native American organization Wunk Sheek, Kelly Holmes. “I hope that the letter truly reflects their experience.” The bias incident referenced in the letter occurred when students from inside Dejope Residence Hall mocked a Native American healing circle being held outside by chanting stereotypical war cries. The students’ chants interrupted a Ho-Chunk elder as he prayed and leah voskuil/the daily cardinal
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Wunk Sheek co-leader Kelly Holmes said she hopes the apology will educate students about bias.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”