Youth Justice Milwaukee: Wisconsin is at a Turning Point in Youth Justice

Milwaukee, WI – The vote by the Joint Finance Committee yesterday to not fund the two proposed Type 1 youth prisons in Milwaukee and Outagamie Counties will almost certainly mean that the state will not meet its own deadline to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake by July 1, 2021, just two years after the legislature voted unanimously to close this abusive facility.

This decision comes on the heels of a “Tougher on Crime” bill that would dramatically increase the number of offenses that would allow judges to order youth into prison as Serious Juvenile Offenders (SJO), an intentional strategy to justify continued use of the large youth prison. There are currently fewer than 120 youth in the two facilities combined, 31 Milwaukee youth, of which are considered SJOs, and some youth who have been sentenced as adults.

Wisconsin is at a turning point in Youth Justice.

The cost for counties to utilize these facilities continues to increase as the number of youth continues to decrease: Wisconsin taxpayers on average are spending $233,000 per year for each young person.

Now that secure residential care settings will be available in key counties, most of the youth currently at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake will remain close to home, leaving only the youth who are classified as SJOs in a correctional setting. Wisconsin is one of only nine states that still places youth in correctional settings. Most states have safely put in place smaller, care-focused placement settings, and have reduced the number of youth who go into the justice system through a mix of effective prevention and diversion resources.

Sharlen Moore, the Director of Youth Justice Milwaukee, said:

“YJM calls on Wisconsin lawmakers to stop using young people as a political football to promote a fear-based agenda that continues to waste money a system that has an astonishingly high 75% failure rate. It is time for Wisconsin to abolish the SJO status and allow all youth to be placed in their own counties to heal, repair harm, increase skills, strengthen family and community connections, and receive treatment if needed. Instead of spending $73 million dollars on two new buildings, and millions more each year to operate these facilities, we need to invest these resources in youth, families, and communities.”

“Counties around the state are developing and scaling effective community-based resources to a continuum of care that will make their communities safer. We see this happening in Milwaukee County where assessment and improved case planning has contributed to a significant decline in the number of youth being sent to prison. The State of Wisconsin should support these efforts and close this chapter of Wisconsin’s turbulent youth justice history.”

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. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.