Evers vetoes Tougher on Crime bills, approves OWI sentencing changes.

Byline: Michaela Paukner, mpaukner@wislawjournal.com

Gov. Tony Evers vetoed four bills in the Republican-backed "Tougher on Crime" bill package on Friday. The measures aimed to impose tougher sanctions and sentences on criminals, including making it easier to revoke extended supervision, parole or probation for people charged with a crime.

Everssaid the bills"revert to antiquated policies which resulted in mass incarceration" in his veto message on AB805, the bill asking to revoke extended supervision, parole and probation. He said the$200 million fiscal estimate to build new prisons to handle the influx of inmatesdoesn't include ongoing incarceration costs and burdens taxpayers.

"We should be coming up with ways to reduce prison populations and incentivize rehabilitation, not the other way around," Evers wrote in the veto message for AB 809, the bill tolimiteligibility for early release from prisonand parole.

The governor also signed 11 bills into law on Friday, including:

Senate Bill 50, which creates requirements for the use of body cameras by law enforcement officers and establishes requirements for releasing video, training and data retention.

Senate Bill 6, which increases the minimum sentence a sentencing court is required to impose for a person convicted of a fifth or sixth OWI offense, with some judicial discretion, from six months to a minimum sentence of 18 months in prison.

Assembly Bill 222, which provides a technical fix to 2017 Wisconsin Act 172 to allow that act's "four strikes and you're out" policy revoking the license of an individual...