Wisconsin’s second-oldest prison, built in the 1800s and long targeted for closure, would finally be shuttered under a plan from Gov. Tony Evers that proposes sweeping changes to the state’s troubled correctional system without building a new facility, as some lawmakers have long called for, the Associated Press reports. Evers presented his plan as the only option to address the state’s aging facilities, which have been beset with deaths of inmates, assaults against staff including one that left a juvenile guard dead, lockdowns, lawsuits, federal investigations, criminal charges against prison staff, resignations and rising maintenance costs. The roughly $500 million proposal that includes closing the prison in Green Bay would be subject to approval by the Republican-controlled legislature, which has backed some aspects in the past but also has repeatedly blocked the Democratic governor's initiative Evers cast the proposal as a better option than building a new adult prison that he said would take at least a decade to complete and cost more than $1.3 billion.
“This plan is as good as plans get,” Evers said. “We have to get this done, period.” Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, chair of the Senate judiciary committee, praised Evers for proposing the closure of the 127-year-old prison in Green Bay. He questioned the totality of the plan. “The devil is in the details,” Wanggaard said. “I’m not sure his numbers add up, both in terms of costs and numbers of inmates. Allouez Village President Jim Rafter, who has long called for closing the prison in neighboring Green Bay, said the governor’s plan “is finally a light at the end of the tunnel.” Evers said the state’s current trajectory of maintaining aging, overcrowded and understaffed prisons is not sustainable. The multi-tiered plan starts with finally closing the troubled Lincoln Hills and Cooper Lake juvenile correctional facilities in northern Wisconsin and building a new one near Madison at the site of a current minimum security prison. The Lincoln Hills campus would then be converted into a medium security adult prison. The prison in Green Bay, built in 1898, would be closed. The plan also proposes that the state’s oldest prison in Waupun, built in 1851, be converted from a maximum security prison to a medium security center focused on vocational training. A key part of the plan is expanding options for those convicted of nonviolent offenses to join an earned release program and be set free earlier.
Comments