Walker sees ‘no value’ in visiting state prisons

Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he sees “no value” in visiting the Wisconsin prisons that he runs and that cost taxpayers more than $1 billion a year.

He made the comment at a news conference where he took a swipe at Democrats who have proposed cutting the prison population in half. Walker said such a cut would mean releasing about 4,000 violent offenders.

As governor, Walker has not visited any of the correctional facilities he oversees, even as the state’s juvenile lockup became the subject of a longrunning FBI probe into prisoner abuse and child neglect.

In 2016, he said he hadn’t done so because visitors only see what those running the prisons want them to see. He said Tuesday he had no plans to visit any prisons.

“No, to me there’s no value to me visiting,” Walker said. “To me, there’s people that we hire to run the corrections system and, certainly, we’ll allow them to do their jobs.”

Pandora Lobacz, a teacher who was beaten at a juvenile prison last year, said Walker’s approach wasn’t working because she believed he had not put good people in charge of the Department of Corrections. He would learn about understaffing and other problems if he would visit a prison, she said.

“As a governor … you should have the — for lack of a better word — the balls to walk into these institutions and to be able to face these line staff and listen to what needs to be done,” Lobacz said.

Walker’s focus Tuesday was on criticizing the Democrats seeking to challenge him over their support for cutting the population of about 23,500 adult inmates. Reducing the population by half would mean letting free about 4,000 violent offenders because twothirds of the state’s inmates are doing time for violent crimes, Walker said.

“When it comes to violent criminals in prison, I want to keep them in for their full terms,” Walker said at the news conference at the Milwaukee Police Association headquarters. “Many of my opponents — many of the Democrats running for governor — want to let them out. And want to let them out early.”

He called Democrats’ prison proposals “dangerous.”

Democrats have concentrated on releasing drug offenders, but Walker noted just one in 10 inmates are behind bars solely for a drug offense.

Democrats have said cutting the prison population would save taxpayer money and make the state more just.

“We have the highest African-American incarceration rate in the country,” Democrat Mahlon Mitchell said. “If we don’t see it as a problem, then that in itself is another problem.”

Mitchell is one of eight Democrats challenging Walker. An Aug. 14 primary will determine who faces Walker in November.

Walker’s decision to avoid visiting prisons is unusual. Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle made stops at state prisons from time to time to help them understand how the facilities run, boost morale for rank-and-file workers and show the families of inmates they understand their struggles.

Mitchell and the others have called for broad prison reforms, with many championing cutting the inmate population in half. Former state Rep. Kelda Roys of Madison has said she would do so within four years.

In a statement, Roys said: “Scott Walker is lashing out in a desperate attempt to cover up his abysmal record on criminal justice.”

Walker’s administration is studying whether to build a new prison because the state is running out of room for inmates.

Walker hasn’t said whether he would support building a new prison, which is estimated to cost $300 million to construct and millions of dollars more a year to operate. If the state runs out of prison space, it could also house inmates in private facilities in other states — an idea Democrats oppose.