The Criminal Justice Reform Team is working to put together a step-by-step bipartisan effort to reduce the size of the state's Corrections Budget. The Reform Team's overall plan is to find common ground in legislation. We are starting from ground zero and asking conservatives and Republicans for their ideas. Our team can determine what we have in common.

Our team has so far met with several conservative think-tanks, The Badger Institute and Americans for Prosperity, for example, to find legislation that both democrats and republicans can support, particularly for this biennial budget cycle.

The next step is to meet with Republican legislators. We are asking them to describe criminal justice legislation they would support. We have already had a friendly and thoughtful meeting with one Republican member of the Joint Finance Committee, and we have agreed to keep talking.