State Representative Tammy Baldwin
The Legislature Wraps Up its 1995-1996 Session
The State Senate decided to call it quits for the session on May
8th, leaving the State Assembly to tie up the loose
ends. As I write his column, the State Assembly is scheduled to
be in session one or two additional days during the week of May
13th.
The theme of this last floor period seems o have been getting
though on crime (again). The legislature gave final approval on
40 million dollars of bonding authority for additional prison
beds, which could take the form of a "supermax" prison.
Final approval was also given to a greatly modified chain gang
proposal. The 12 inmate chain gangs will not be chained to one
another, but will have separate leg irons and will wear stun belts.
They will be assigned to hard labor on lands owned by the Department
of Corrections (DOC). Lastly, the legislature endorsed a plan
permitting the Wisconsin DOC to contract with other states and
counties for confinement of Wisconsin prisoners. This proposal
relates to the Governor's pledge earlier this year to ship Wisconsin
inmates to Texas, which has a surplus of prison and jail beds.
I tried my best to urge my colleagues to spend a little more time
thinking and a little less time posturing on these corrections
issues. Supermax, chain gangs, and shipping inmates to Texas may
all sound like good ideas to some, but criminologists and social
scientists have produced a wealth of research indicating that
these measures are at best, a waste of money at worst, actually
do harm by producing angrier and more dysfunctional inmates.
Despite the criminal justice setbacks in this last floor period,
a few bills that I authored did advance. On May 2, 1996, the Governor
signed into law a bill to give collective bargaining rights to
the state public defenders. The public defenders were the only
major group of state-employed attorneys who were not permitted
to bargain. Their counterparts in court, the assistant district
attorneys, and the assistant attorneys general had secured collective
bargaining rights several years ago. Advocates for public defender
collective bargaining had been working on the issue for seventeen
years.
On May 9, 1996, a bill I authored relating to viatical settlements
cleared its last legislative hurdle and is awaiting the Governor's
signature. A viatical settlement is the sale, by the owner of
a life insurance policy, of the life insurance death benefit in
exchange for cash. The purchaser of the death benefit profits
because he or she pays the seller only a fraction of what he or
she will collect when the seller dies. Viatical settlements are
typically utilized by individuals living with a terminal illness
to secure needed cash for medical care and living expenses. The
viatical settlement industry is not regulated in the state of
Wisconsin and my bill provides a minimum standard of consumer
protection and regulatory oversight for the industry. This is
especially important because one party to the transaction is typically
in a vulnerable or crisis circumstance.
As the final floor period comes to a close, the legislature goes
into a transition period. Many of my colleagues will return home
to begin their re-election campaigns. In my office, we will say
good bye to our spring semester volunteer interns and welcome
in our summer semester interns. Keep an eye out for my legislative
newsletter which will provide more detail on the session.
As always, I invite you to keep in touch with me on issues of
concern to you. You can reach me by phone at 266-8570 (w) or 241-6675
(h); by FAX at 266-8463; at my new e-mail address tammy.baldwin@legis.state.wi.us;
and now on the internet at http://www.state.wi.us/agencies/wilis/assembly/asm78/
or drop by my office in Room 412 - North at the State Capitol.
--State Representative Tammy Baldwin
Return to Tammy Baldwin's Homepage