It came from other legislators. And so we're
hoping for that to happen going forward.
>> State Senate President Mary Felzkowski is a
Republican member of the Building Commission and,
along with other Republicans, voted with
reservations to fund the planning phase. We sat down
with Senator Felzkowski at the Capitol following the
vote. Thanks so much for doing this.
>> So the $15 million that the commission unanimously
approved is meant to start the planning process. And
Governor Evers said, quote, state to know we are
serious about this project. How serious are lawmakers
taking this prison revamp project?
lawmakers have been very serious about this since, I
think it was 2018 when we passed the closure of
Lincoln Hills and moving forward with the Sgaus. And
if you look at it, we've had numerous council
studies around revamping corrections. We've had
legislators from the green Bay area trying to close
the green Bay Correctional Institute for years and do
other types of reforms. So this has been a forefront
for a lot of us for a lot of years.
>> But what concerns do you have even ahead of this
planning process? corrections has been in
disarray under many governors. And Governor
Evers when he first ran against Governor Walker.
What is that eight years ago now? Ran on corrections
reform and has done really nothing. He's pushed for
the closure of Lincoln Hills, but we've all been
working towards a closure of Lincoln Hills, so that's
not something special that he's been doing. And now
all of a sudden, in 2025 budgetary cycle, he comes
out with a proposal and he's kind of like shoving
it down our throats. And he didn't include anybody in
this proposal, not his own legislative Democrats. And
he's kind of given us a take it or leave it
proposal. I don't I don't think that's how this
should work. Now he wants $15 million to move forward
with that plan. There was a press release that
doesn't even didn't even seem like he remembered
putting out two weeks ago. That said, you have to
release this money. Don't hold it up.
>> Whatever. You took objection to that.
>> How is that a bipartisan move forward and under his
proposal? Because right now we have over 1100 medium
security inmates that are housed in a maximum
security institutions. And because of that, they're
not receiving any programing to help them.
They're not where they need to be. Under this proposal,
he's releasing them into society in order to move
forward with the building modifications that he wants
to do. So you're going to take 700 people that have
had no programing and release them under a
program earned release that normally they would go
through programing, mental health programing and other
things and just release them into society. How is
that good for the safety of constituents to release
people out into society? And if you look at some of
the crimes that have been committed by these people,
it's not safe. It's not well thought out. And the
sad part about it, we don't have to do that. We gave
them alternatives yesterday where we could expand
Jackson. We could expand to Chita, move people into
those programs. Lincoln Hills can be converted. We
can take over 500 inmates there. Close green Bay and
expand on other areas. It's just not what he's doing is
not well thought out. >> In the meantime, though,
he said to you that you have my promise. This is
one step of many, and the next step will include all
legislators that want to be involved. Are you confident
in that promise? >> I'm not going to use the
term confident, cautiously optimistic. Cautiously
optimistic. >> Is there danger of
partisan politics kind of derailing this whole effort
to redo the correctional system in Wisconsin?
>> That's what's been happening so far. I'm
hoping that with the governor's words yesterday,
we get away from partisan politics and move towards
doing what's right for the citizens for once.
>> In terms of those 700 inmates and their release.
Does does that skirt in your mind toward kind of
prison reform policy, or do you think it's simply just
to make the dominoes, as they're called, work in
this project? >> There was things in the
governor's proposal that I think every one of us could
have gotten behind, because I think a lot some of his
ideas were positive. That's why I think it would have
been nice to include this doesn't have to be a
Democrat or a Republican idea. Prison reform across
the United States has been very nonpartisan. We can
all work towards the same ideas. But when you when
you give somebody a proposal and say, take it
or leave it, here it is. This is what we're moving
forward with. And even a good proposal. How
do you think the other sides are going to react?
>> Reiterate for me what the prongs of a good
proposal would be in your mind.
policy change where we need to look at the programing
as it it's out there. Former Assemblyman Mike
Schram had the idea around. I'll use Waupan, for
example, of making that into more of an academy
where medium and minimum security inmates could get
programing education so that when they are entry
into society, they are ready to go and they're
educated and more into a work environment so they
can become productive members of society. One of
the things that we see around prisoner reentry, if
they can have a home, have a job, and become
productive, they are much less likely to re-offend.
They become productive. Self esteem can take care
of their families. That's a winning message in the
corrections reform. Those are ideas that have worked
in other states. Those are some ideas that could have
been brought to the table. I hope we can count on the
governor being true to his word, and that he brings
all people together, and that we can put a plan