A pair of Wisconsin Republicans has introduced legislation to ensure violent criminal offenders remain behind bars.
The Securing Our Streets (SOS) Act, inspired by President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, is being introduced by Reps. Tony Wied (R., Wis.) and Tom Tiffany (R., Wis.); the legislation would require states to ensure that violent repeat offenders serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, among several other provisions. The bill eliminates loopholes that have previously allowed early release for repeat violent criminals, which “undermine justice and public trust,” Wied noted.
“Violent repeat offenders deserve to be behind bars, not roaming our streets,” Wied told the Reporter. “For far too long, soft-on-crime policies have allowed criminals to use our prison system as a revolving door and return to the streets only to commit the same violent crimes again and again. During last night’s State of the Union address, President Trump called for Congress to ensure these offenders are finally held accountable, and I am proud to introduce the SOS Act to do just that.”
The bill would strengthen pretrial detention statutes, which the lawmakers said would ensure that “individuals charged with violent crimes are detained when they pose a clear threat to public safety, preventing further harm while awaiting trial.”
Tiffany compared the bill to what Trump spoke about during his record-breaking speech, the murder of Iryna Zarutska, and high-profile murders in his home state of Wisconsin.
“Soft-on-crime policies have repeatedly let career criminals cycle in and out of the justice system, and innocent people have paid the price,” Tiffany said. “We saw it in North Carolina with the horrific murder of Iryna Zarutska, whose killer had been arrested at least 14 times, and we saw it in Wisconsin, when Darrell Brooks, a career criminal with a long record of violence, killed six people and injured more than 60 others. The SOS Act finally puts an end to this cycle by keeping violent repeat offenders behind bars where they belong.”
Another provision, which would likely score points with tough-on-crime advocates across the Capitol like Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), would require states to enact “three strikes, and you’re out” bills, which, the lawmakers said, “mandat[e] life imprisonment for individuals convicted of three separate violent felonies. This ensures that repeat violent offenders are permanently removed from society.”
