>> A major overhaul of Wisconsin's prison system
got off the starting blocks this week, when the State
Building Commission voted to approve $15 million to
start the planning phase, as Here and Now, reporter
Steven Potter tells us. Governor Tony Evers six
year, $500 million plan is wide ranging and touches
multiple institutions across the state.
>> We need to ensure that folks that are currently
incarcerated need to have adequate conditions. At
least that's the bare minimum.
>> In a proposal from Governor Tony Evers. That's
supported by his fellow Democrats in the state
legislature. Several significant upgrades and
changes would be made to the state prison system.
>> We're the only path forward, and I certainly
hope that we can still find a way forward is through
bipartisan consensus. >> Recently, Evers again
urged the State Building Commission, which met
earlier this week, to approve spending $15
million to set in motion what he calls a
comprehensive correctional facilities plan. The
governor first unveiled this plan, which he calls a,
quote, Domino series of projects across six dock
facilities during the state budget process earlier this
year. >> These steps are each a
critical part, a crucial part of this comprehensive
plan. And they have to happen together.
>> Primary among these changes is closing the
green Bay Correctional Institution 125 year old
facility, which has seen severe understaffing and
overcrowding issues, as well as inmate violence and
lengthy prisoner lockdowns. Another change would be to
transform the Waupan Correctional Institution
into a, quote, vocational village that would create
skills training and workforce readiness
programs for inmates to help them land jobs after
their release. Other changes include converting
the Stanley Correctional Institution into a larger
capacity maximum security facility, and converting
the John Burke Correctional Center, also in Waupan,
into a female institution and adding hundreds of more
beds there. The Evers Plan also calls for adding more
minimum security beds to the Sanger B. Powers
Correctional Center in Outagamie County, and to
convert the long troubled youth prisons of Lincoln
Hills and Copper Lake in far northern Wisconsin into
adult facilities. >> There's not an
alternative to my plan that is safer, faster and
cheaper. Period. Except for doing nothing.
>> State Senator Dora Drake, who represents parts of and
some suburbs of northern Milwaukee, wants to see the
funding for the plan move forward.
>> Put funding where it needs to go so we can close
down some of our facilities that we know are severely
for folks that are incarcerated, and the
workers provide a different system where we are
providing vocational opportunities.
>> Separate. And aside from this push for Governor
Evers new prison plans, there is already major
change underway for where the state houses minors
convicted of serious crimes. And that's through the
construction of a brand new youth prison for boys in
Milwaukee, being built in Senator Drake's district
with money already allocated. The new youth
prison in Milwaukee is expected to cost $78
million. It will include educational, vocational,
counseling and recreational programs aimed at lowering
the recidivism rate for young people in the
juvenile justice system. >> It's needed is because
our children need to be closer to home. If we're
serious about uplifting our young people, then all of
us have a part to play in that. Point blank period.
>> Drake points out that the state corrections
system needs all of these changes, and even more
adjustments to better help the majority of prisoners
who will ultimately be released.
>> Whether you're a child or an adult, you are coming
home. And so what are we doing to ensure that you
get the wraparound services to not only come back home
and have a fair shot at being successful, but what
can we be doing as a state can we be doing as a state