By Gene Kemmeter

Wisconsin faces a dilemma. The state is under orders to close its only secured juvenile correctional facilities at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake Girls School near Merrill.

The state wanted to close the facilities by 2021 and earlier this year named two prime sites in Milwaukee and Outagamie counties for the new state facilities. However, neighbors and local officials are offering their critiques that the new locations are unsuitable.

The situation has its roots in the election of Scott Walker as governor and his efforts to balance a budget. Taking office in 2011, Walker and Republican legislators closed Ethan Allen School in Waukesha County and transferred its inmates to Lincoln Hills. They also closed Southern Oaks School in Racine County and moved the inmates to Copper Lake School for Girls which was then established on the grounds of Lincoln Hills. One large facility was cheaper to operate, they said.

Those actions moved children from their hometown areas in southeastern Wisconsin to north-central Wisconsin, away from their families. The changes also increased the amount of employees needed to staff the facilities, which then became plagued by lax management, confusion over policies and chronic staff shortages.

At the same time, public workers at Lincoln Hills point out, Gov. Scott Walker and the legislators passed Act 10, taking away collective bargaining rights and the ability to negotiate for certain working conditions. That forced some employees to work 16-hour shifts and created a dangerous working environment, workers said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Juvenile Law Center (JLC) filed a federal lawsuit in January 2017 asking a judge to limit solitary confinement, the use of mechanical restraints and pepper spray, saying the continued use amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment at Lincoln Hills.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections agreed to end the use of pepper spray and significantly reduce, then end the use of solitary confinement because a federal judge said the disciplinary practices at the facilities were out of touch with national norms.
Subsequent investigations reported multiple incidents about assaults and injuries suffered by residents of the facilities as well as staff members.

Gov. Scott Walker, who was first made aware of problems at the Lincoln Hills facilities in 2012 but never visited them in his eight years as governor, then announced plans in January 2018 to close Lincoln Hills and convert it to a men’s prison.

The Legislature subsequently approved a plan that March to close the Lincoln Hills facilities and replace them with smaller regional facilities built by local communities closer to the inmates’ homes.

Evers has asked the state Legislature to delay the 2021 closing of Lincoln Hills until the state can provide suitable replacement facilities for the inmates. The state needs to quickly improve its facilities and improve its programming for juveniles. Rehabilitation, education and job-skills training are needed to give them a future when they return to their communities.