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“The bipartisan Wisconsin Building Commission on Tuesday unanimously signed off on spending $15 million to start a design process that would overhaul the state’s corrections system.
“What they’re saying: In February, Gov. Tony Evers, who chairs the commission, unveiled his six-year, $500 million plan that would ultimately close Green Bay Correctional Institution and modernize many of the state’s other aging prisons while shrinking the number of available beds. …
“The backstory: Evers 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.
“The multitiered proposal starts with 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 with a “vocational village” focused on workforce 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. …
“Dig deeper: The $15 million approved on Tuesday would begin the design phase at six facilities. Waupun Correctional Institution is atop the list. …
“Eight inmates have died at the Waupun prison since 2023. Reform advocates Wisdom Wisconsin have long called for the facility’s closure and say the governor’s plan does not do enough quickly enough.
“‘It’s an important start when both Democrats and Republicans are agreeing that GBCI should be closed down, and it should’ve been closed down 20 years ago,’ said Mark Rice [Leading with Conviction™ 2017]. ‘The timeline is just too slow.’”
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