Wisconsin's children. >> We leave it there.
Superintendent Jeff Wright, thanks very much.
>> Thank you. >> Governor Tony Evers $500
million plan to revamp the state prison system is
underway, but only in the most modest fashion.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan group at the
State Building Commission released $15 million to
start the years long process to eventually close
down green Bay Correctional. Tonight, as we continue our
look at some of the biggest issues in the race for
governor "Here& Now", senior political reporter
Zac Schultz asks the leading candidates for
governor if they would carry through Governor
Evers corrections overhaul. >> Green Bay Correctional
and Waupan Correctional are two of the oldest prisons
in the country still holding inmates, and
studies have shown time and again the buildings are not
safe for staff or prisoners. But building new prisons is
expensive, and closing down prisons is not politically
expedient. When every election cycle can quickly
shift focus to law and order. So we asked nine of
the leading candidates if they would continue.
Governor Evers plans to reform Wisconsin's prison
system. >> I watched that plan be
developed. I have great, great respect for the team
at the Department of Corrections who has put
that plan together, along with Governor Evers
administration, and we need to get moving on that. You
know, it might not be perfect, but nothing ever
is when it comes to corrections. It's a very
difficult situation. And but we need to make
improvements on that. We need to modernize that
system. It is costing us more now to keep the old
system in place than it would be to build a new
system and get that rolling. >> Yeah. So with green Bay,
I know that there are a number of safety concerns.
Structural concerns, of course. I mean, we can't
have people or even whether you're a person who's
housed at that facility or a person who's working at
that facility, we can't people have people in
substandard conditions. So the overhaul of smaller
facilities, more regional facilities, I think that
might get us to a place where we can more
effectively rehabilitate people. And that has to be
our baseline as well, ensuring that
rehabilitation actually happens.
>> I think it's important to look at reducing our
prison population, while also ensuring that those
who are at the Department of Corrections have
opportunities to be able to transition and be safe in
their work environments. And so I will certainly
look at some of the plans that the governor has now.
But overall, it's important that we look at transition
programs and ways that we can keep those who are
incarcerated and those who are working in our prisons
safe. >> Absolutely. We have to
absolutely have to make sure that we are doing
what's best for people within our prison system
and corrections system, and it needs an overhaul.
>> And I think we need to continually try to to
create that balance where where there is need for
secure detention and where there is need for employees
of the corrections system to have the right tools at
their disposal. We need to create those, because we
have these 150 year old prisons and things that we
need to do to make investments on. But at the
same time, I think we also need and I think the
governor has done this too. We need to look at the
alternatives to incarceration. We need to
work with our partners at the local level to ensure
that there is a pathway that doesn't just ensure
that what we have is the last resort, which is where
we're putting people in prison and locking them up.
>> We have to reform the Department of Corrections.
Governor Evers, when he ran against Governor Walker, he
said, I am going to take care of that, including
Lincoln Hills, and he has not followed through on it.
And when you look at the debacle over in Waupan with,
I think there's been a couple deaths over there, I
mean, that's unacceptable. We need reform in the
Department of Corrections, and I will I don't know
that I'll go in the same direction as Governor Evers,
but clearly we have to reform our correctional
system. revisit how we do
corrections here in the state of Wisconsin. When I
served in the state legislature years ago, you
know, Grover Norquist came to Wisconsin to talk about
how we needed to do criminal justice reform.
And there's not many times where I can say I agree
with Grover Norquist. And so we should be looking at
how do we make sure that those, those, those, those
less violent offenders aren't just spending as
much time in our care, which costs us a lot more
money to have them in prison?
rightsize the corrections system, and we have to get
serious about safety in this state. We have pursued
policies that are not only not evidence based, but
that really undermine public safety. It is how we
incarcerate people. It is how long, and it is the
lack of services and training to help people
succeed when they actually reenter society. We spend
an ocean of money on this, and we are not getting the
safety return that we safety return that we