Debate: Ron Johnson Slams Wisconsin Democrats, Mandela Barnes for Calls to Release Inmates, End Cash Bail

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, during Thursday night’s debate with Democrat Mandela Barnes, slammed the state’s current leadership for wanting to reduce the prison population by 50 percent and pushing to end cash bail.

During the debate, when Johnson was asked about the possible ways to reduce gun violence, he talked about the macro solution while also hitting the state’s current leadership — which includes Barnes, who is the current lieutenant governor — for wanting to cut the inmate population in half and the push to end cash bail:

I would talk about the overall macro solution, which is renewed faith, stronger families, and more support of communities. But then you start drilling down. One thing, you have to keep violent criminals in jail, and you have to support law enforcement.

Unfortunately, we have an administration in Wisconsin right now that their goal is to reduce the prison population by 50 percent. They’ve reduced it by 15 percent, including parole, and 884 criminals. 784 were violent, including 44 child rapist, 270 criminals that were either committed or at least attempted murder.

So, keep violent criminals in jail. You know, one of the things they use is cash bail and there’s an effort here to eliminate cash bail. But also we have to support law enforcement. You don’t go on Russian Today TV and denounce law enforcement.

Johnson explained that he is for giving people a second chance to turn their lives around, like when he supported the First Step Act.

The Republican went even further by explaining he wanted released inmates to be monitored to ensure they do not commit more significant crimes while noting that Democrat Gov. Tony Evers and the Barnes administration let inmates who committed “horrific” crimes out.

In 2018, when Barnes was campaigning for lieutenant governor, he said that he “absolutely” wanted to release half of Wisconsin’s inmate population.

“That’s not something that happens overnight,” he said at the time. “If you stop sending people back to prison, we can reduce our recidivism rate if we drop the way, you know, sentence nonviolent offenders. Over time, the prison population will be half of what it is.”

Additionally, during his time in the state legislature, he wrote a bill to eliminate cash bail.

The 2016 measure, which did not make it out of committee, would have barred judges from using the “nature, number and gravity” of the charges as the sole reason to hold a defendant before trial, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The judges would have instead been required to release a defendant unless there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the person would have been a flight risk or a danger to an individual or a witness.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.