MADISON- With a flick of his wrist, Governor Tony Evers could put the multi-year effort to shutter the state’s two youth prisons.
The Wisconsin State Senate Tuesday voting in favor of legislation that clears a pathway to close both Lincoln Hills & its sister facility Copper Lake, and establish a new youth prison in Milwaukee County. In addition to closing both facilities in Irma, it authorizes the state to use $42 million in funding to build a new one. A location for a new facility in Milwaukee County has not been chosen and will be subject to local lawmaker approval.
The State Senate’s actions today signified the first substantive steps to close the youth facilities since lawmakers originally agreed to shutter them in 2018 under former Governor Scott Walker. In recent years the state’s had to pay out more than $25 million to inmates who suffered abuses while housed there.
Resident numbers at both facilities has dwindled in several years. As of last week there were less than 50 boys housed at Lincoln Hills and just a dozen girls at Copper Lake.
The legislation passed Tuesday mandates that both facilities remain standing as they will be used as housing facilities for adult offenders.
