RACINE - Racine Police Chief Kurt Wahlen is concerned more prison inmates are going to be released early due to a provision passed as a part of the state budget this week.

In the past judges decided if someone would be released from prison early, but starting Oct. 1 that decision is going to go to a corrections committee headed by a governor appointee, said John Dipko, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Judges, who sentenced the inmates in the first place, are not as inclined to let people out of prison, Wahlen said. With the new system, Wahlen said: "they are just going to put it in the hands of the bureaucrats … the same people who make the budget."

Dipko said it is not fair to say the new committee will release more prisoners. Every prisoner will be looked at on an individual basis and many factors including behavior and treatment will be considered, he said.

He also said the committee will provide consistency of review standards from county to county and that some of the committee's decisions could be appealed by the courts.

Robert Humphreys, warden at the Racine Correctional Institution in Sturtevant, said he does not know yet how exactly the new system is going to work. He did stress that his main concern is community safety and said they are not going to release anyone early who they believe is a risk to society.

Still, Wahlen is concerned that if more people are released, it will mean more crimes.

"We already have trouble with the revolving door," Wahlen said. "My experience is that they will go back to what they are doing and the crime rate is going to go up."

He is also concerned that the state rushed into something during a bad economic time.

With the unemployment rate above 15 percent and no jobs available, if more inmates are released than in the past, it will be a problem, Wahlen believes.

He is especially concerned about burglaries and robberies since people will be looking for ways to get money, he said. Then, he said, that can lead to assaults and potential homicides.