Vos ‘shocked’ to hear governor won’t visit prisons
MADISON - Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is “shocked” to hear Gov. Scott Walker sees “no value” in visiting state prisons and has no plans to do so.
Days after Walker told reporters he sees no value in visiting the prisons he runs and that cost taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, Vos appeared on a radio show hosted by a former Democratic lawmaker and said he hopes Walker “changes his mind.”
“Weren’t you kind of shocked when you heard that?” asked former Rep. Andy Jorgensen, who hosts a liberal talk radio show on 940 WFAW in Jefferson County.
“I was,” Vos responded during the Aug. 10 appearance. “I represent a prison in Sturtevant. I toured it. Just like I go tour businesses and schools and, you know, facilities all around the state. I want to see what’s happening everywhere.
“I want to listen to prison guards who tell me their concerns. I listen to teachers who tell me what they worry about in schools ... the business people who own a company. So I want to go everywhere and listen to everyone, so I hope he changes his mind. I hope he goes and does that tour of different facilities but that’s a choice he has to make.”
Walker said he wouldn’t visit a state prison at a news conference ahead of the Aug. 14 primary election during which state schools Superintendent Tony Evers prevailed as the Democratic nominee for governor.
At the Aug. 8 conference, Walker took a swipe at Democratic candidates who had 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 long-running 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.
A spokeswoman for Walker did not immediately have a reaction to Vos’ comments, and a spokeswoman for Vos did not immediately say whether Vos has expressed his concerns directly to Walker.
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.
His decision also comes as he faces scrutiny for widespread problems at the state’s youth prison in Irma — conditions that have been the subject of a number of federal lawsuits resulting in millions of dollars spent in taxpayer-funded settlements.
Meanwhile, Walker’s administration is studying whether to build a new prison because the state is running out of room for inmates and how to implement a sweeping plan to close the state’s youth prison in Irma and open smaller facilities around the state.