In a recent column in the Wisconsin State Journal, Falk twists the statistic that about 50 percent of inmates sentenced to the Dane County Jail have one or more offenses for operating under the influence of intoxicants into a rationale for coddling violent offenders. She believes their addiction to alcohol and drugs are the reasons they commit crime and that rapists and thieves who brutalize their victims don’t deserve justice, they need help.

Kathy Falk, in her column and in numerous appearances across the state, skillfully avoids the pertinent facts regarding her mismanagement of the Dane County Jail. Her only solutions to jail over crowding are shipment and treatment. This attitude is neither fiscally prudent nor in the best interest of public safety.

A recent State Department of Corrections inspection report of the Dane County jails system describes conditions that should concern us all. It shows that the jail population has continued to increase in 2005. The report also reveals that “the facility operates at maximum rated capacity on a continual basis. As mentioned in previous inspection letters it is imperative that the new facility include modern maximum security cells to address that current deficiency in the existing jail.”

Because of Falk’s liberal ideology and faulty management, the Dane County Sheriff’s Department had to ship 1,130 prisoners to nearly a dozen other counties in 2005. Five hundred and seventy four times,

Dane County Deputies had to visit other county facilities. These trips covered nearly 55,000 miles and required 1160 hours of Deputies’ normal time and a whopping 1612 hours in overtime. All this comes at a whopping price of just under $2 million a year with no relief in sight.

Falk talks about creating 300 new beds for criminal justice. But the vast majority of those beds are for alcohol/drug treatment or work-release. She may as well create 3,000 spaces — if they are pup tents they are not sufficient to house the dangerous, maximum security inmates causing the problem.

Falk argues the jail is crowded because of alcoholics. The facts clearly refute her claim. The DOC report states, “The increasing number of maximum-security inmates housed at the facility is the major reason for housing inmates at other county jails.”

While Falk hasn’t yet figured it out, my experience proves that you can be tough on criminals and fiscally responsible at the same time. As the former United States Attorney for Western Wisconsin, the number of criminal cases I filed increased by 15% in 2002, 7% in 2003 and 23% in 2004. Yet, I under spent my budget all three years.

Falk argues taxpayers can’t afford to build a new jail. I’d argue we can’t afford not to. We can’t allow public safety and criminal justice policy to be dictated by the sheer number of individuals who break the law. And because of her record of fiscal mismanagement and embrace of soft, liberal criminal justice philosophies, Wisconsin’s citizens can’t afford to place Kathy Falk at the helm of the Department of Justice.

JB Van Hollen is the former United States Attorney for Western Wisconsin and a Republican Candidate for Wisconsin Attorney General. He also formerly served as the District Attorney is both Ashland and Bayfield Counties.