Wisconsin Prisons Fill With OWI Offenders Even As Arrests Decline

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s “Choose Your Ride” vehicle, a retired State Patrol cruiser, has won numerous awards while warning of the cost of driving under the influence. (Photo: WI DOT)

In 2025, the number of adults in Wisconsin prisons for drunk driving and other Operating While Intoxicated offenses was four times higher than it was in 2000, according to a report published Thursday by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

The report describes Wisconsin’s penalties for initial OWI convictions as generally less severe than those in neighboring states, but says Wisconsin has among the most severe penalties for the most serious convictions.

A record number of 1,313 adults entered the Wisconsin prison system in 2023 for OWI offenses, though declining admissions over the next two years suggest that “they may now be trending downward,” the forum said in its press release.

In December 2025, 2,750 adults were incarcerated in Wisconsin prisons for OWI offenses, which doesn’t include people incarcerated in local jails for lower-level offenses. People incarcerated for OWIs make up a larger share of people in Wisconsin prisons than they used to, the report found, from about 3% in 2000 to about 12% in 2025. These numbers declined from 2024 to 2025 but remain higher than they once were. Black Wisconsinites and American Indian/Alaska Native Wisconsinites are overrepresented in Wisconsin prisons for OWIs.

Graph courtesy of the Wisconsin Policy Forum

From 2020 to 2024, incarceration for OWI offenses rose sharply, the report states. A backlog of OWI cases in the court system, changes in behavior and policies that increased penalties for people who have committed four or more OWI offenses may have contributed to this trend.

OWI arrest data suggests that Wisconsin may be making fewer arrests for less severe drunk driving and more arrests for severe or repeat offenses, with less arrests overall, the report states.

The state is facing prison overcrowding and increasing financial and human costs of the prison system and a “relationship with alcohol use that many public health leaders view as problematic,” the report states.

It lists a series of measures that policymakers could consider to address the problem without increasing incarceration for OWIs. It says these are strategies being used in other states that have been shown to reduce consumption of alcohol or drunk driving.

Some of these ideas involve more programming:

• State funding for alcohol age compliance check programs
• More Wisconsin communities implementing a Place of Last Drink program, in which police can identify bars and restaurants where people last consumed alcohol before committing an OWI, aiding local data to address drunk driving
• Creating OWI or hybrid courts that help connect people charged with OWIs to programs or resources that may be more likely to prevent another OWI than a regular sentence, especially in areas where these courts are less common, such as northern Wisconsin.
• Improving access to substance use programs in Wisconsin prisons by increasing funding
• Giving people better options for alternative transportation after they have consumed alcohol, particularly in rural areas

Other ideas involve new restrictions:

• Imposing higher taxes on one or more types of alcohol
• Limiting alcohol licenses for retailers, or reduce alcohol permits (Wisconsin has one alcohol outlet per 345 people, the report states,  citing the Medical College of Wisconsin, far above the national average)
• Reducing the legal BAC limit to 0.05% as recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board
• Decreasing the days and hours during which retailers can sell alcohol

More Wisconsinites are behind bars for intoxicated driving  was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.