Prison Reforms Impact Many Legislators

Green Bay Correctional Institution. Photo from the Department of Corrections.

The sweeping plan of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to tear down the Green Bay prison built in 1898, turn the Waupun prison built in 1858 into a vocational training center, and move prisoners to several other upgraded facilities will be closely watched by almost one-third of legislators.

Although Evers used take-it-or-leave-it language — “This plan is as good as it gets” —when he announced the $500-million package, legislators in both parties may not agree. The historic changes proposed by the governor involve institutions in the districts of dozens of Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Questions those legislators will ask: Does the change mean more or less jobs for my district? How will public safety be protected? Will it be good for local businesses now providing goods and services to these institutions? How do local elected officials feel about these changes?

Wisconsin is decades past the era when local residents didn’t want prisons in their communities.

Now, the state’s 20 adult prisons are seen as economic anchors of their communities and new prisons are heralded as economic development. That explains why state prisons were built in rural areas like Boscobel, Redgranite and Fox Lake.

In his two-year budget, Evers proposed what he called “domino” changes — suggesting they must all be approved to achieve real reform — to a prison system plagued by overcrowding and understaffing.

The Green Bay prison has been called a “gladiator school” because of the violence there, for example. Federal officials have investigated drugs and other contraband at the Waupun prison, where nine former workers, including the warden, were charged with felonies last year.

“My plan is the most cost-effective for taxpayers, it is the most efficient for alleviating the challenges facing our correctional institutions, and it is the safest option,” Evers announced. “I am urging Republicans and Democrats to work together to get this plan — all of it — across the finish line.”

Republicans, who control the Legislature, said they welcome a chance to negotiate comprehensive changes with Evers and Jared Hoy, the new — and not yet confirmed by the state Senate — secretary of the Department of Corrections.

But that doesn’t mean that those Republicans, who have killed or rewritten dozens of other Evers priorities over the last eight years, will enact the governor’s prison-reform package intact.

Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and a retired police officer, praised the Evers administration for putting “a lot of thought” into the changes.

Wanggaard predicted a “lot of discussion on all the details” and added, “But I think everybody has an open mind because everybody wants to solve this.”

Any final prison-reform package must be approved by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, 12 Republicans and four Democrats who will forward the next two-year state budget to the full Legislature. That committee’s co-chairs are Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born.

Legislative committees will also play roles in the final package. Wanggaard’s equal in the Assembly is Rep. Dean Kaufert, chair of the Assembly Corrections Committee and a former co-chair of the Finance Committee.

Some legislators and the regional prison issues they will be watching:

-Green Bay-area changes. Evers wants to close the Green Bay prison by 2029, and add 200 medium-security beds to a facility in Hobart, also in Brown County. First-term Democratic Sen. Jamie Wall and Republican Sen. Andre Jacque will follow those regional developments. Assembly members from that area are veteran Republican Rep. David Steffen and two first-term Assembly members, Democrat Amaad Rivera-Wagner and Republican Ben Franklin.

-Converting Waupun prison into a vocational training center and adding 300 beds for women prisoners to the Burke facility. Three senators — Republican John Jagler and first-term Democrats Sarah Keyeski and Kristin Dassler-Alfheim — have constituents who could be affected by this change. Nine Assembly members represent those Senate districts.

-Turning youth prisons in Irma into a 500-bed medium-security facility. Senate President Mary Felzkowski and Rep. Calvin Callahan, both Republicans, will monitor this proposal.

-Converting the Stanley prison to a maximum-security facility. Republican Sen. Jesse James, a former Altoona police chief, and Republican Rep. Rob Summerfield will ask residents of Chippewa and Clark counties about that upgrade.

-A $130-million Dane County youth prison. Dane County’s Democratic legislators may have to defend its Madison-area location. Will Milwaukee-area legislators push for the facility to be built there?

So far, no one has mentioned another possibility: The state purchase of prison facilities in Oxford in Marquette County — in Jagler’s Senate district — being closed by the federal government.

In short there a lot of issues here that will get discussion. The prison-reform chess game is just beginning.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.