For more than 15 years, Wisconsin courts have operated under the “truth in sentencing” model.

Those in Wisconsin’s legal community who oppose truth-in-sentencing understand their chances for overturning, or at least toning down, the law depend on how well they play the long game.

Previous posts in this series have examined the latest available incarceration data from Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This post considers historical data. I’m particularly interested in the impact of a major change in sentencing law that was adopted in Wisconsin in 1998.

2010AP2948-CR State v. Smith

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted review of a case to decide whether a state prisoner can obtain habeas corpus relief in federal court, after he went to trial because his attorney gave him deficient advice during plea bargaining. In the meantime, the 7th Circuit is assuming the answer is “yes.” On Monday, it held that a Wisconsin man ...