Here & Now

Portage County DA on the Impact of 60 Plus New Prosecutors

Frederica Freyberg:

After literally decades of short staffing in county district attorney offices in Wisconsin, a boost. In tonight’s “Inside Look,” how Wisconsin governor Tony Evers announced this week that 56 counties will receive more than 60 additional assistant DAs. There is some partisan grousing that, for example, Milwaukee got three positions while some counties won’t get as many positions as Republicans proposed in their budget. For more on this, we talk with Portage County District Attorney Louis Molepske, president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys’ Association. And thanks very much for being here.

Louis Molepske:

Good evening.

Frederica Freyberg:

So describe how strapped offices like your own have been over all these years.

Louis Molepske:

Well, the 71 district attorney offices in 72 counties, Menominee and Shawano share a DA, have been overworked, understaffed, and underpaid for decades since we became state employees on January 1, 1990 under Governor Thompson’s signing of Act 89. The legislation that Governor Evers signed is a huge boost to our offices statewide, and it’s, it had awesome effects statewide with the addition of additional ADAS.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, what about the issue that some counties got fewer positions than were proposed in the Republican budget? Are you satisfied with the review and recommendations made?

Louis Molepske:

Absolutely. I helped put together the allocation table, along with the state prosecutors office, district attorneys statewide, and Republican legislators. In fact, we based our proposal on Representative Born’s original proposal. This is a non-partisan proposal, and at the end of the day, helping Milwaukee was important, as their three grant-funded prosecutors were counted against them in the allocation table. So if you remove them, they would be under 100% of staffing.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, having reported on this through the years, we know that there are other issues, and you mentioned one of them, like wages and turnover. Are those still a problem?

Louis Molepske:

Absolutely. Our biggest problem is that a prosecutor who’ll get five years of experience, they could be paid more in the private market, they see that their wages aren’t increasing, so they leave for the private market. That’s been a problem continuously. If the state funds are pay progression plan, there won’t be an issue. But the state just has to, each year, fund it. As private businesses do for their attorneys.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, one lawmaker remarked that DA staffing shortages are one of the biggest barriers to criminal justice reform, because things like diversion courts or programs take more time and more money to implement. Will these new positions help in that regard, or are we just kind of getting back up to even?

Louis Molepske:

Well I’ll tell you, the new positions will help in that regard. If you want to have a adult drug court, you need a prosecutor to sit on that court. A veterans court, same thing. If you need extra diversion in the office, you need an extra set of eyes to review it, to make sure the public is protected, the victim’s needs are met, and that, ultimately, the process runs smoothly. These things don’t work without a prosecutor, so the additonal prosecutors will meet two goals: the governor’s goal of keeping less people out of prison, and two, making sure that justice is done in an efficient and effective manner for victims.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are the more than 60 assistant district attorney positions that have been recommended, is that enough? Or could you always use more?

Louis Molepske:

We could use more. The justice coalition that was originally put together, that the District Attorneys’ Association, state prosecutors, DOJ, the courts, Office of Public Defender, we realized we needed 130 prosecutors. We cut it in half, approximately, to be consistent on the budget, and to not take too much of the budget for our use.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right, we leave it there. Louis Molepske, thanks very much for joining us.

Louis Molepske:

Thank you very much.