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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, has supported reducing Wisconsin’s prison population through crime prevention and reducing recidivism.

Crowley has supported rehabilitative services for nonviolent offenders and commutations; decriminalizing cannabis; and expanding drug courts. He has backed education programs aimed at diverting youths from committing crimes.

Crowley also has backed job training and other efforts aimed at reducing recidivism and prevention measures such as “violence interruption programs.” 

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers set a goal of eventually reducing the prison population by half, though it recently hit a new record.

The campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany cited Crowley’s 2019 support for Evers’ goal as support for Tiffany’s claim that Crowley “wants to let half the prison population out in Wisconsin.”

Tiffany said he’s open to adding prison capacity to address the record number of inmates without releasing those in custody.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.