{"id":5273,"date":"2023-08-30T02:44:18","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T02:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5273"},"modified":"2023-08-30T15:06:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T15:06:27","slug":"criminal-enforcement-of-marijuana-laws-uncommon-in-many-wisconsin-counties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5273","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Enforcement of Marijuana Laws Uncommon in Many Wisconsin Counties"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/criminal-enforcement-of-marijuana-laws-uncommon-in-wisconsin\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Incarceration for cannabis-only crimes becomes still rarer, prison almost nonexistent<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\"Judge's<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Many counties in Wisconsin have essentially decriminalized the possession or sale of marijuana, and relatively few people who are charged criminally in other counties are ever incarcerated.\u00a0More than half of Wisconsin\u2019s counties \u2014 including some with more than 100,000 residents \u2014 had no more than 20 marijuana-only criminal charges in 2022. Some counties had none at all.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are approximately 5.8 million people in Wisconsin and more than 830,000 use\u00a0marijuana, also known as\u00a0cannabis, each year.1<\/sup> But in 2022, only 2,289 individuals were charged with a cannabis offense and had committed no more serious crimes.<\/p>\n

It is increasingly rare for such a charge to result in incarceration. Only 16 Wisconsinites were sentenced to prison \u2014 by definition more than a year in jail \u2014 for a cannabis-only criminal offense in 2022. Another 294 were sentenced to less than a year in jail. That means only 13.5% of all cannabis charges and 11.3% of possession offenses resulted in time in a prison or jail cell.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin is seriously considering proposals that would allow the medical use of cannabis \u2014 a step that has preceded adult-use legalization in other states.2<\/sup> A few years ago, a Badger Institute report explored how frequently Wisconsin was enforcing its law prohibiting marijuana.3<\/sup> In this report, we wanted to provide Wisconsin\u2019s leaders and citizens with a more comprehensive analysis conducted after the pandemic and legalization in more neighboring states.<\/p>\n

The Badger Institute worked with Court Data Technologies \u2014 a Madison firm that analyzes Wisconsin court data \u2014 to compile data on the number of charges being brought for cannabis-only offenses and their sentencing outcomes.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

Criminal charges are rare in most parts of Wisconsin<\/h4>\n

More than half of the state\u2019s counties \u2014 37 out of 72, including some large counties \u2014 had no more than 20 cannabis-only criminal charges in 2022. Twenty of those 37 counties had fewer than 10 cannabis-only criminal charges.5<\/sup> And in two \u2014 Crawford and Florence \u2014 no charges were brought at all.<\/p>\n

Washington County, for example, home to almost 140,000 people, had only 12 cannabis-only criminal charges in 2022, eight for possession and four for possession with intent to deliver. La Crosse County, with more than 120,000 residents, had only 16 cannabis-only criminal charges, 14 for possession and two for possession with intent to deliver.<\/p>\n

Even Milwaukee County, which has more than 918,000 residents, had only 43 cannabis-only criminal charges in 2022.<\/p>\n

As we discuss below, enforcement of Wisconsin\u2019s cannabis laws is down across the state, but this charging data shows that the severity of this reduction is not consistent across counties.<\/p>\n

Incarceration for cannabis offenses<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\"Charts<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In Wisconsin in 2022, 2,289 individuals were charged with a cannabis offense and had committed no more serious crimes. It is increasingly rare for such a charge to result in incarceration. Only 13.5% of all cannabis charges and 11.3% of possession offenses resulted in that type of punishment. Among those who are incarcerated, a short jail sentence is significantly more likely, with 294 individuals receiving a jail sentence compared to only 16 being admitted to a state prison.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Zooming into the county data again we see a similar story with incarceration as we do with charging. In 21 of Wisconsin\u2019s counties, not a single person was sentenced to incarceration for a cannabis offense, and another 13 counties sent only one person to prison or jail. Wisconsin prosecutors and judges throughout a large swath of the state have effectively ended incarceration for the possession, distribution, and manufacture of marijuana even without a formal legal or policy change. In 34 counties, or almost 50% of them, citizens can expect to receive no more than a fine or probation for violating existing cannabis laws \u2014 because only 13 people in those 34 counties were sentenced to any form of incarceration.6<\/sup><\/p>\n

Analyzing the county data for the most serious punishment only \u2014 a prison sentence \u2014 reveals that 83% of counties in the state did not impose that form of punishment on anyone during 2022. Only Brown, Sauk and Manitowoc counties imprisoned more than one person for a cannabis offense. Brown County not only is an outlier for 2022, but our historical data shows that it has sent the most individuals to state prison for cannabis offenses since 2017.<\/p>\n

What has changed since 2019?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Since the Badger Institute\u2019s last report on cannabis enforcement, we were able to secure three new years of data, and we wanted to explore how things might or might not have changed. Readers should remember that there were severe and unprecedented events \u2014 a pandemic, an economic shutdown, and a near- total end to criminal case processing \u2014 that will surely have affected all three years of this more recent data.7<\/sup> An in-depth analysis of this and data from other sources reveals five conclusions:<\/p>\n