Wisconsin's rising prison population poses budget challenges
MADISON – Wisconsin’s prison population is on the rise, prompting politicians from both parties to look for ways to save money.
Gov. Scott Walker is banking on the inmate population growing more slowly than earlier anticipated. If his assumption is wrong, the state will have to scramble to come up with an extra $22.7 million next year.
To control the expected influx of inmates, lawmakers are looking at expanding drug and alcohol treatment programs.
“This is what we need, thinking outside of the box,” said Rep. Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh), the chairman of the Assembly Corrections Committee.
Schraa said he wants to create a new alcohol treatment program and open a geriatric inmate facility to house the increasing prison population. And Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) said he wants to convert the state’s troubled juvenile prison, Lincoln Hills School for Boys, to a drug and alcohol treatment facility for adult inmates.
The Republican governor is seeking to keep costs down by making an early-release program available to 250 more inmates a year. Inmates are eligible for the program if approved by judges when they are sentenced, but some face long waits to get into the program.
One of the main causes of the increased population is a law passed last year making all fourth drunken-driving offenses felonies and stiffening penalties for subsequent offenses.
Wisconsin’s prisons held 22,959 adults, according to the state's most recent count. Walker’s budget assumes the state will have an average population of 23,233 by 2019.
In September, the Department of Corrections estimated the population would be even higher by then — 25,135 inmates, an increase of more than 2,000 compared to today.
If the department’s initial estimates are correct, the state would need to house about 1,200 more inmates than expected in county jails in 2019 to relieve overcrowding in state prisons. That would add $22.7 million to the state’s costs, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
“I think the governor is ignoring 1,200 future inmates because he doesn’t want to include the $20 million tab for them,” said Goyke.
Walker determined the prison population would not grow as fast as the Department of Corrections estimated after reviewing how other changes to criminal laws played out, said Steven Michels, a spokesman for the governor’s budget office.
Whatever the case, the state is nearing its limits on how many inmates it can hold. Wisconsin's prisons were designed to hold about 16,300 adults but are now housing nearly 7,000 more inmates than that.
They have been able to do that by putting more bunks in cells and making other modifications. If the population continues to rise, the state will eventually need to build a new prison or keep some of its inmates in prisons run by other states or private companies.
Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said the agency does not see a need now to house state inmates anywhere besides state prisons or county jails.
But the situation has prompted talk among lawmakers about how to limit the population growth or find new places to keep inmates.
Schraa wants to refurbish and reopen an unused building on the grounds of Winnebago Mental Health Institute in his district to hold inmates for a new program he wants to start.
The facility would provide intensive alcohol treatment to inmates, who would get prison sentences of 12 to 18 months instead of five years if they were able to complete the program, Schraa said.
“The sweet part of it is instead of being warehoused for five years … they’re going to actually get to the root issue,” he said.
Schraa wants to house the program at Kempster Hall on the grounds of Winnebago. Kempster Hall housed a similar program until 2012, when it moved to the nearby Drug Abuse Correctional Center.
Schraa also wants to find a new home for 200 to 300 geriatric inmates. Walker is planning to study how to take care of those inmates over the coming years, but Schraa said he wants to move more quickly.