Views clash on treating juvenile offenders
Local juvenile justice advocates opposed to incarceration of youth offenders attended a public meeting Wednesday to criticize Milwaukee County administrators who have recommended building a state-financed 36-bed secure facility here as an alternative to the troubled Lincoln Hills boys prison in northern Wisconsin.
“Reliance on incarceration has failed,” said Sharlen Moore, a representative of the Youth Justice Milwaukee coalition.
“Seventy-five percent of youth in the system are re-arrested within three years,” Moore said at a meeting of the County Board’s Health and Human Needs Committee.
Rather than asking the state to spend millions on a new secure facility in Milwaukee County for non-serious juvenile offenders, Moore suggested investing an equal amount in community-based treatment services to better help rehabilitate youths.
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele last week said he has talked with Gov. Scott Walker about the state paying for construction of a 36-bed juvenile corrections center in the county.
In October, the Youth Justice Milwaukee coalition called for the closing of both youth prisons in northern Wisconsin: Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls. The two prisons are north of Wausau, more than 200 miles from Milwaukee.
Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake have been under investigation for nearly two years for prisoner abuse, child neglect and excessive use of force. The investigation was revealed publicly after a December 2015 law enforcement raid of the two prisons near Irma in Lincoln County.
County Health and Human Services Director Héctor Colón agreed to schedule several neighborhood meetings in Milwaukee to discuss the proposed new local facility and community-based treatment programs.
The county was moving away from imprisonment for some youths before last year’s raid, Colón said. “We have decreased the number of kids going to Lincoln Hills by 35%” since 2011, he said.
While Colón said he agreed with Moore philosophically on the need to expand community treatment, the director of the department that administers the juvenile detention center in Wauwatosa reminded everyone at the committee meeting that he can’t make decisions on his own.
In addition to the state Department of Corrections, other participants involved in sending youths to prisons include county circuit judges, the district attorney’s office and law enforcement agencies, Colón said.
“From a practical perspective, other partners believe some kids belong in secure facilities,” he said. “We’re trying to balance all of that.”
Youth Justice Milwaukee describes itself as a coalition of local residents who were incarcerated as youths, families of incarcerated youths and youth justice advocates. The group campaigns for community-based alternatives to youth prisons.
In February, the County Board declared a “state of emergency” and agreed to remove all county teenagers from the two secure facilities.
A 36-bed secure facility for less serious offenders that would be built in the county would help achieve the board’s goal, Colón said.
As of Nov. 2, there were 71 non-serious juvenile offenders and 37 serious offenders at the two prisons. While the 36-bed facility could not accommodate all less serious offenders, Colón said alternative treatment programs being planned could serve the remainder in the future.
A serious juvenile offender is a youth 14 years of age or older who has committed a series of serious offenses, such as armed robbery, armed burglary and sexual assault, according to county Delinquency and Court Services Administrator Mark Mertens. Non-serious offenders now going to the prisons generally have committed a series of less serious offenses, not involving weapons.