Youth Justice Milwaukee: Department of Corrections Should Meet with Stakeholders in Milwaukee on Lincoln Hills

Lincoln Hills School and Copper Lake School. Photo from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

MILWAUKEE, WI – The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) recently announced they will host a stakeholder meetings on Lincoln Hills in Green Bay, Waukesha, and Eau Claire, but has yet to announce a meeting in Milwaukee, ignoring pleas from community members to include Milwaukee in discussions given that many young people sent to Lincoln Hills are from Milwaukee County.

Youth Justice Milwaukee cofounders Sharlen Moore and Jeffery Roman released the following statement in response:

“It is essential that the Department of Corrections visit Milwaukee to discuss the next steps after closing Lincoln Hills because involving the communities most impacted is the right and fair thing to do. The stakes are too high for our community to be left out of the decision making process. We’ve seen firsthand the devastating effects of the trauma and abuse at Lincoln Hills. We’ve seen the racial injustice at work in our juvenile justice system, and we know change won’t come unless we are part of the discussion. We want real reform, but we can’t create a truly just system if we are left out of the conversation and refused a seat at the table. The DOC should schedule a meeting in Milwaukee without delay, because no one knows how to fix our broken system better than the young people and families who have been through it.”

Youth Justice Milwaukee is a broad-based campaign advocating for community-based, family-centered, restorative programs as an alternative to locking up children in Wisconsin’s youth prisons. Youth Justice Milwaukee represents a coalition of persons who were incarcerated as youth, families of youth who are or were incarcerated, service providers, and local and national youth justice advocates.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

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Youth Justice Milwaukee Calls for Transformation of the Wisconsin Youth Justice System as the State Acknowledges it Will Not Meet the July 2021 Deadline to Close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Prisons

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