Lawmakers to spend $430M on lockups
Bills address Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake
MADISON – Wisconsin would set aside $350 million for a new adult prison, shift offenders from a troubled juvenile prison to new $80 million lockups, toughen penalties on violent crimes and hire dozens more prosecutors, under sweeping law-and-order bills the Assembly is passing this week.
On Wednesday the Assembly unanimously advanced the youth prison proposal, leaving it to an unknown fate in the Senate, and sent the tougher penalties bills to Gov. Scott Walker.
The adult prison and prosecutors proposals won’t come before the Assembly until Thursday, but the total cost of the entire package is already turning heads, hitting nearly $430 million in one-time expenses and more than $60 million in annual costs.
The focus on criminal justice comes a day after the Assembly approved Assembly Bill 606 to give Milwaukee police officers and firefighters seats on the city’s Fire and Police Commission.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (RRochester) acknowledged Wednesday that tougher penalties passed by lawmakers would mean the state would have to build an additional adult prison at a cost of up to $350 million.
That could come on top of converting the closing youth prison to house adults.
“There is no doubt that we know we need an additional facility,” Vos said.
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) said building a prison would mean work on roads or other state facilities would be put off. He said lawmakers should focus on rehabilitating criminals and adopting policies that would reduce the likelihood they would commit more crimes.
“Fiscally, this is completely reckless,” Hintz said. “Taxpayers should be furious.”
In a surge of late-session spending, Assembly GOP leaders are also reviving a related bill to put more repeat criminals behind bars by pairing it with a plan to add dozens more prosecutors to chronically understaffed district attorneys’ offices.
The more than $60 million a year plan coming up for a Thursday vote would help Brown and Waukesha counties but provide no additional help to Democrat-heavy Milwaukee or Dane counties.
The youth prison bill — approved by the Assembly 95-0 — would delay until 2021 the closure of Lincoln Hills School for Boys, the state’s troubled facility north of Wausau.
That proposal won backing Wednesday from the Wisconsin Counties Association, giving it at least a chance to make it through the Senate to Walker’s desk.
GOP lawmakers said the bill also appeared to have the votes to pass the Senate Corrections Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), however, has made no promises to pass the bill in the Senate’s final floor day next month.
The Walker administration first learned of problems at Lincoln Hills six years ago but in recent months has made a push to shut it down.
The prison complex is the subject of multiple lawsuits and a criminal investigation into prisoner abuse that has been going on for three years.
Under Assembly Bill 953, the state would establish one or more new, smaller teen prisons for the most serious offenders and would add 29 beds at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Madison, which houses inmates with mental health problems.
In addition, Wisconsin would pay for counties to build or refurbish facilities to hold teens who committed less serious crimes.
The state would spend $40 million on the state facilities and $40 million for the county facilities.
Counties in some cases would have to pay 5% of the cost of establishing their facilities.
In November, GOP senators passed Senate Bill 54, which would require state officials to initiate proceedings to revoke probation, parole or extended supervision for offenders charged with a felony or violent misdemeanor.
The Department of Corrections estimates the proposal would send nearly 1,800 more people to prison a year at a cost of more than $57 million a year, leading Vos to hold up an Assembly vote because of cost concerns.
But GOP Reps. John Nygren of Marinette and Mark Born of Beaver Dam said Wednesday they have a deal to pass the bills in the Assembly by adding $3.9 million more to hire 54 prosecutors in 40 counties around the state.
The Assembly is planning to rewrite the bill and pass it on Thursday to include funding for the additional prosecutors and building a new prison. The move would send it to the Senate and an uncertain future.
On voice votes Wednesday, the Assembly sent Walker several other bills to toughen criminal penalties:
❚ Senate Bill 58 would create a specific felony for carjacking with fines of up to $50,000 and prison sentences of up to 15 years. The proposal would increase penalties for repeated auto theft to up to $25,000 in fines or up to 12 years and 6 months in prison.
❚ Senate Bill 55 would increase the mandatory penalty for murder, second-degree homicide and certain other repeat violent offenses to five years in prison, up from the current minimum of three years and six months.
❚ Senate Bill 56 would toughen penalties on certain violent offenders who are banned from keeping a gun and do so anyway.