Gov. Evers Announces Comprehensive Corrections Reform Plan, Proposing Some of the Most Significant Facility and Capital Changes in Department of Corrections History

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Jared Hoy, today announced his 2025-27 Executive Budget will propose making sweeping reforms to Wisconsin corrections, including some of the most significant facility and capital changes in DOC history. The governor’s proposal, building upon his recent announcement to reduce crime and prevent violence through his new statewide Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention, aims to improve public safety across Wisconsin, reduce short and long-term costs to taxpayers, lower rates of recidivism, support corrections staff, and stabilize the state’s skyrocketing prison population. The governor’s comprehensive corrections plan proposes a “domino” series of facility changes, improvements, and modernization efforts across Wisconsin’s correctional institutions, including ultimately closing Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) in 2029 and wholly rehabilitating and transforming Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI), facilities that were both built in the 1800s.

“Wisconsin is decades behind in how we think about corrections. This antiquated system will only continue to cost Wisconsin taxpayers more in the long run. And here’s the truth: we can improve public safety by reducing recidivism, improve our facilities, implement evidence-based practices to expand access to treatment and workforce training, and still save Wisconsinites’ taxpayer dollars,” said Gov. Evers. “Today, I am announcing sweeping reforms to improve community safety, reduce costs to taxpayers, stabilize population rates, support corrections staff, and reduce the likelihood that people will reoffend when they are released. We must reduce the likelihood that people will commit another crime when they are out in our communities, and our work to prevent people from reoffending must start long before they ever leave our correctional institutions.

“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. This plan is as good as plans get,” Gov. Evers continued. “I am urging Republicans and Democrats to work together to get this plan—all of it—across the finish line in this next biennial budget so that we can finally make real, meaningful progress on reforms, just like what red, blue, and purple states across the nation have already had the good sense to pass. We have to get this done.”

“The dedicated corrections professionals serving Wisconsin need the support not only of our governor but of our Legislature and our communities. Meaningful corrections reform requires all of us to work together with partners in law enforcement, courts, and social services, among others,” said DOC Secretary Hoy. “As with everything DOC does, safety is at the heart of these proposals. The upgrades to the facilities, reduced populations, and expanded programming will make our facilities safer not only for those we care for but for our staff working in these institutions.”

For years, Wisconsin’s corrections system has put a strain on resources across the state—from local law enforcement to courts to annual corrections costs to taxpayers, coupled with consistent lack of meaningful investment in evidence-based, data-driven programs proven to reduce recidivism, which help improve public safety and keep kids, families, and communities safe.

A Wisconsin Policy Forum report from October 2023 indicated Wisconsin spends more on corrections than most states, including all of its Midwest neighbors, because, unlike red and blue states across the nation, Wisconsin has failed to meaningfully modernize and reform its approach to corrections into the 21st Century. Wisconsin’s skyrocketing prison population has also compounded generational challenges in recruiting and retaining correctional workers—challenges that the Evers Administration has finally been able to make headway on with the Wisconsin State Legislature recently approving efforts to increase wages and focus on staff recruitment and retention in the last state budget.

The governor, in announcing his proposal, called his proposal the “safest, fastest, and cheapest” solution available—the plan is the most cost-effective for taxpayers, the most efficient for alleviating the capacity challenges facing Wisconsin’s correctional institutions, and it is the safest option by improving public safety.

In order to accomplish Gov. Evers’ immediate and long-term corrections modernization goals, the governor is proposing a “domino” series of facility changes, improvements, and investments, as well as commonsense policies to address pressing challenges across Wisconsin’s correctional institutions.

STABILIZING THE STATE’S SKYROCKETING PRISON POPULATION

Currently, Wisconsin has the capacity to house 17,638 individuals at its correctional institutions. As of Feb. 7, 2025, the current population was 23,074, with the population expected to continue to grow to 24,000 by the end of the biennium. The governor is proposing evidence-based, data-driven changes based on policy concepts that Republican lawmakers have supported in the past.

Gov. Evers’ 2025-27 Executive Budget will expand access and bolster workforce training and substance use treatment for individuals who are incarcerated for nonviolent and non-assaultive offenses and are within 48 months of completing their sentences. By expanding Earned Release Program (ERP) capacity and access at the DOC, more individuals will be able to complete vocational readiness programs, which include educational, vocational, treatment, or other qualifying programs that are evidence-based and designed to substantially reduce the likelihood that people will reoffend when they are released. The waitlist for vocational programming was nearly 12,000 individuals at the end of 2024. When using the suitability criteria for the existing ERP, there are likely more than 1,000 individuals who would be eligible for ERP participation.

According to DOC, nearly 60 percent of Wisconsin prison admissions occur, at least initially, through a community supervision revocation, the primary reason for which is often related to substance misuse for individuals working to overcome alcohol and drug dependency. The governor also proposes increasing capacity for substance use disorder treatment by investing in compensation to recruit and retain the needed treatment providers and eliminate long waitlists for treatment. To support these efforts, the governor’s proposal also provides $3.7 million for pay progression to social workers and treatment specialists, ensuring that DOC has the appropriate staff to meaningfully support individuals through substance use disorder treatment. These changes to expand access to basic services would help support more than 2,500 additional individuals over the biennium while saving taxpayers about $40,000 per person every year once those individuals are released.

The governor also proposes providing eligible individuals who have followed the rules, have not reoffended, and have complied with the terms of their sentence to earn compliance credits toward their supervision, as well as expanding access to job training and workforce readiness programming to ensure folks have the skills and resources necessary to be successful after they have completed their sentence. Additionally, the governor also prioritizes significantly increasing support for community supervision efforts, including proposing $9.6 million for pay progression and parity for probation and parole agents and correctional field supervisors.

The governor’s 2025-27 Executive Budget also:

Expands community-based options for the Alternatives to Revocation Program ($8.9 million over the biennium);
Contracts for community supervision regional recovery coaches to help address the high number of individuals on supervision with substance use recovery needs ($1 million over the biennium);
Expands community corrections supportive housing services beds to support individuals experiencing hardships, such as housing instability or substance use recovery ($3.1 million over the biennium);
Provides increased funding for the cost of services for the Division of Community Corrections and Reentry Unit ($10.7 million over the biennium);
Provides ongoing funding for mobile lab instruction ($2.5 million over the biennium); and
Adequately staffs DOC institutional-based job labs with 13 new full-time positions ($1.9 million over the biennium).

MODERNIZING WISCONSIN’S AGING CORRECTIONS INFRASTRUCTURE

While conversations in recent years have suggested building a brand-new correctional institution in Wisconsin, current projections estimate such a proposal would require taxpayers to invest over $1.2 billion upfront to do so, and a new facility would not be completed for another decade-plus. The governor’s proposal, which aims to reduce both short and long-term costs to taxpayers by rehabilitating and modernizing the state’s existing facilities, will cost taxpayers just a fraction of what it would take to build a new correctional facility while realizing the benefits sooner.

The governor proposes investing $325 million for a “domino” series of projects to improve and rehabilitate adult facilities across the state’s aging correctional institution infrastructure that will ultimately enable Wisconsin to safely and responsibly close GBCI in 2029 and wholly transform and rehabilitate WCI, facilities that were both built in the 1800s. These statewide facility rehabilitation and modernization projects, coupled with the above changes and investments to continue our work on juvenile facilities, will lower costs to taxpayers, support safer working conditions for staff, and help reduce recidivism to improve community safety.

The governor’s “domino” series of capital projects for adult facilities, in addition to continuing progress on juvenile facility projects, includes:

Completing construction on the planned Dane County Type 1 facility for youth in order to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools (LHS/CLS) ($130.7 million);

Converting LHS/CLS to a 500-bed medium-custody institution for men ($9 million);

Converting Stanley Correctional Institution to a maximum-security institution with ability to “flex” as a medium-custody institution ($8.8 million);

Converting John Burke Correctional Center (JBCC) in Waupun to a female institution, adding 300 women’s beds (No cost); and

Expanding capacity at Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center (SPCC) in Hobart to increase bed space by 200 minimum-security beds and complete a kitchen remodel ($56.3 million).

Additionally, Gov. Evers’ investment will convert WCI into a state-of-the-art, medium-security institution that would be designated as the state’s first “vocational village.” Based on models from other states like Louisiana and Missouri, vocational villages emphasize vocational training and workforce readiness to ensure that individuals who have completed their time in Wisconsin’s correctional institutions have the resources, training, and skills to join our workforce and be contributing members of society to help reduce the risk of reoffending and improve public safety. WCI would close temporarily while major renovations were conducted, including demolishing the existing cell halls and replacing them with modern housing for 600 at medium security and establishing space for the “vocational village.” The project at WCI is estimated to cost $245.3 million and be ready to open in 2031.

Under Gov. Evers’ plan, GBCI would be slated to close Spring 2029 at a cost of $6.3 million. In anticipation of GBCI closure, DOC would increase bed capacity and workforce opportunity in Brown County with the expansion of Sanger Powers by 200 minimum-custody beds. Gov. Evers’ budget will also ensure GBCI staff can transfer to different correctional facilities or to appropriate positions in their field without having to be rehired.

“It is our hope that many of the talented staff members at Green Bay Correctional Institution would continue to work for DOC as these changes will create new opportunities for staff and those in our care at a number of institutions,” said DOC Secretary Hoy.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.