MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin’s wrongly convicted prisoners get the nation’s lowest compensation for having years of freedom taken away.
Now, Governor Scott Walker is among those who say the amounts should be raised.
Lawmakers of both parties announced a new bill Thursday to give innocent prisoners up to $50,000 for each year behind bars, with a cap of $1 million.
They could also buy the state government’s health insurance for up to a decade, get transitional services like job training, and have their wrongful convictions expunged from the state’s public online court records.
It would apply to about 40 wrongfully convicted inmates since 1990. Right now, exonerated convicts can apply for $5,000 a year, with a maximum of $25,000.
Keith Findley of Wisconsin Innocence Project says the state used to be a national leader — but the state has since fallen to last among the 30 that require a compensation system.
Thursday in De Pere, Walker called it an “obligation of society” to make sure the wrongfully convicted are adequately compensated.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
