FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2026
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AG Kaul Gives Keynote Address to Group Pushing to Abolish Prisons, “Liberate” Inmates
FOND DU LAC, WI – A new report out from Wisconsin Right Now details how Josh Kaul gave a keynote address to an activist group working to abolish prisons and “liberate” inmates. The remarks came at a conference on immigration, where attendees railed against local WI sheriffs holding illegal immigrants in their jails – many of whom have committed violent offenses. WISDOM has advocated for ending prisons in Wisconsin and working to “liberate” inmates.
We know what WISDOM believes – does Josh Kaul agree with them? If not, what is he saying at their conference?
Read the full story from Wisconsin Right Now here, or find excerpts below.
Josh Kaul Listed as Keynote Speaker at ‘Immigration Summit’ Held By Leftist Group That Wants to Close Prisons and ‘Liberate’ Inmates
Jessica McBride
Wisconsin Right Now
August 18, 2026
Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is supposed to be the state’s “top cop,” was listed as the keynote speaker at an “immigration” summit held by a liberal group whose goal is closing prisons and that wants to “liberate” prison inmates.
The group, WISDOM, bills itself as an interfaith network of affiliated groups. However, time and again, it has shown that its agenda is anti-prison and pro-illegal immigrant. One of its affiliate’s officials recently wrote a letter urging Gov. Tony Evers to commute the sentence of a double murderer.
The immigration summit that Kaul was billed as the speaker was held, in part, to male sure “no one is terrorized by law enforcement,” in the words of its co-executive director, in a video posted to WISDOM’s Facebook page..
In the video clip from the event posted to Facebook, other organizers and people involved expressed concern about sheriffs holding illegal immigrants in jails and expressed passion to get “driver’s licenses for all.” Many of those illegal immigrants, of course, committed violent crimes.
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We call upon Governor Evers, Department of Corrections Secretary and lawmakers in Wisconsin to immediately commit closing the prisons,” the group says on its website. The group works to, in its own words:
- Advance racial and economic justice
- Liberate people from Wisconsin’s carceral system
- End perpetual punishment of directly impacted people
- Shift narratives that dehumanize people with conviction records
“Together, we work to end mass incarceration, expand funding to community-based alternatives to crimeless revocations and treatment alternatives and diversions. We will close prisons and re-invest money in programs that will rebuild communities that have been devastated by mass incarceration,” the group says.
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WISDOM even held a rally calling on Evers to cut the prison population in half and start doing commutations. Mark Rice, Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign Coordinator with WISDOM Wisconsin, outlined a “demand” of “halting the construction of new prisons, cutting the prison population in half through decarceration policies>”
Rice told WKOW: “We’re calling on Governor Evers to start utilizing that power before he leaves office. It’s time for him to follow through.”
In April, Evers did just that, reigniting the commutation process. More than 800 inmates have applied, included the murderer of a Milwaukee police officer, William Robertson, who was ambushed while riding in a police van.
Read the full story here.
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