Wisconsin moving ahead with prison overhaul plan despite Republican objections

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' sweeping plan to overhaul Wisconsin's aging prison system, which includes closing a prison built in the 1800s, moved forward Tuesday with bipartisan support despite complaints from Republican lawmakers that their concerns weren't being addressed.

A bipartisan subcommittee of the state building commission approved spending $15 million to proceed with planning for the Evers proposal. The full building commission, which Evers chairs, was expected to green-light the spending later Tuesday.

Evers in February presented his plan as the best and only option to address the state’s aging facilities. Problems at the lockups have included inmate deaths, assaults against staff, lockdowns, lawsuits, federal investigations, criminal charges against staff, resignations and rising maintenance costs.

Republicans have opposed parts of the plan that would reduce the overall capacity of the state prison system by 700 beds and increase the number of offenders who could be released on supervision. The GOP-led Legislature called for closing the troubled prison in Green Bay by 2029, but Evers vetoed that provision earlier this year saying it couldn't be done without getting behind his entire plan.

The building commission's approval on Tuesday for spending the $15 million in planning money would start that process.

Republican members of the building commission complained that Evers was plowing ahead without considering other ideas or concerns from GOP lawmakers. Republican state Sen. Andre Jacque objected to reducing the number of beds in the prison system that he said is currently “dangerously unsafe.”

“We’ve all fought for corrections reform and would have been happy to sit down with the governor and work on a very good plan for corrections reform,” said Republican state Sen. Mary Felzkowski. “We could have worked together to get this done but the governor said no.”

After the unanimous vote to move ahead, Jacque said Republicans did not want to stand in the way of moving forward but he hoped Evers would have more discussions about their concerns.

Department of Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy told Jacque that approval of the planning money was needed to keep the momentum going for closing the Green Bay prison, which Republicans support.

The entire plan, once fully enacted, would take six years to complete and likely cost about $1 billion. Evers is not seeking a third term next year, so it would be up to the next governor to either continue with his plan or go in a different direction.

The multitiered proposal 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, which was built in Waupun in 1851, be converted from a maximum-security prison to a medium security center focused on vocational training. The Stanley Correctional Center would be converted from a medium to a maximum-security prison and the prison in Hobart would be expanded to add 200 minimum security beds.