The Sconi

The Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance has unanimously passed a bill to increase the salaries of public defenders and prosecutors to $36 per hour from about $27 per hour.

“Thrilled to see leaders in #Wisconsin step up to properly support their hardworking prosecutors and public defenders,”Jeremiah Mosteller, deputy policy director for Americans for Prosperity and visiting fellow at The Badger Institute, wrote in a May 17 Twitter post. “It is time to reverse the growing delays in #justice being faced by citizens across the state.”

FOX 6 reports the 32% salary increase to approximately $75,000 per year was forwarded in an effort to address the challenges of criminal case backlogs, caused by lower pay, excessive workloads and insufficient attorney recruitment. 

State Public Defender Kelli Thompson noted in April that there was a 35,000-case backlog and predicted it would take public defenders years to go through, according to FOX 6. The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to the backlog as court rooms had to shut down for a period of time.

According to the The Badger Institute, Thompson called the increase a “historic investment in the criminal justice system.” 

The organization commended lawmakers for approving the pay raise as it had been advocating for raises for nearly a year. 

In a study titled "Toward swifter justice: Overburdened prosecutors and public defenders linked to Wisconsin court backlogs," released in September 2022, Mosteller highlighted the connection between Wisconsin's lower-than-average pay for prosecutors and public defenders and the increasing backlog of criminal prosecutions in the state, according to The Badger Institute.

“It is encouraging to see Wisconsin’s leaders step up to address the problem of delayed justice in the Badger State,” said Mosteller, according to The Badger Institute. 

“It should not take longer than a year to resolve criminal cases involving grave violent crimes," he added. "The $37 million approved by the Joint Committee on Finance this week is a vital down payment toward more effective and swift justice.”