Look to Missouri to fix Lincoln Hills

For years, state officials and others knew or ignored the warning signs that the Lincoln Hills School for Boys was descending into chaos. As the Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley made clear in his detailed article Sunday, many people knew — from the guards to the governor. And yet nothing was done.

In the months since the scandal broke into the public eye, some steps have been taken to improve conditions at the facility for youthful offenders north of Wausau. But much more needs to be done, and a close look at the lessons from other states should provide some clues.

Forty-five years ago, dirty, dangerous conditions at a youth prison in Missouri prompted changes in that state that now provides a model.

Missouri changed the structure of its juvenile corrections system, replacing large institutions with smaller facilities that were located closer to the homes of the prisoners. Teenagers live in pods with two counselors, wear their own clothes, sleep in dormitory-style rooms and use first names to address staff, writes the Journal Sentinel’s John Diedrich.

The facility is locked but it is a therapeutic setting more than a prison. And that seems to be a key, one of the people who designed the Missouri model told Diedrich. The doors are locked for the high-risk offenders, but no matter the setting, the focus is on therapy instead of controlling the youth,

“It is done with dignity and respect both for the youth and the staff and that makes all the difference in the world,” said Mark Steward, who retired as head of Missouri’s Division of Youth Services. “It is how you deal with them rather than the kind of youth they are.”

Missouri is reporting a higher rate of success than is Wisconsin. Diedrich reports that a group from Wisconsin studied the Missouri model 20 years ago and offered a plan but it was not adopted.

It would be wise to dust off that plan and see if it could be adapted for use now.

There is no doubt that making the sort of changes that may be required will be expensive and perhaps a hard sell in the Legislature.

But it’s simply unacceptable to look the other way again. The problems that have festered for too long at Lincoln Hills need to be corrected permanently. And Lincoln Hills needs to be shut down.