Wisconsin corrections secretary: Juvenile prison safe despite assault of teacher

MADISON - Wisconsin Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher declared the state's juvenile prison complex safe Thursday, a week after a teacher there was knocked out by an inmate and days after another assault occurred. 

"I think Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake, with the training that’s involved and the type of the activities that we do with working with our youth, that it is a safe place for staff and offenders and we will continue to do the best in programming that will allow these young people to come back to their communities in a respectful and responsible manner," Litscher told reporters. 

Such claims have sparked anger from current and former workers at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. 

“Anyone who makes a statement that Lincoln Hills is a safe place for students and staff is either lying through their teeth or completely ignorant. And I think it’s combination of both," former Lincoln Hills guard Doug Curtis said this week after a Department of Corrections spokesman made a similar remark. 

The prison complex has been under a criminal investigation for nearly three years for prisoner abuse and child neglect. Separately, U.S. District Judge James Peterson this summer ordered the state to curb the use of solitary confinement, pepper spray and restraints there in response to a lawsuit brought by teen inmates. 

Attorneys for the state have said they've had trouble implementing that order because of "significant unrest" at the prison complex. Last week, a teen inmate who had beaten at least one other Lincoln Hills worker punched a teacher, giving her a black eye and knocking her out.

The teacher — who has a form of dwarfism and is smaller than the inmate — had to get a heart monitor after her hospitalization as a result of the attack. 

On Monday, another worker was injured and sent to a hospital after being assaulted by an inmate, according to the Department of Corrections. The department has not released other information about that incident.

“(Gov. Scott) Walker has created an environment that is unsafe for workers and the youth at these facilities alike,” said Rick Badger, executive director of the union that represents prison workers.

Litscher declined to discuss the assaults or other incidents at Lincoln Hills.

He spoke to reporters for a few minutes after telling the Senate Committee on Government Operations the state was "at its maximum" for the total number of inmates it could hold in its prisons.

The state has about 23,000 inmates. The state is forming a new committee to study the state's prison needs. 

"We will need some relief and we will need it sooner than 2020," Litscher said. 

He said temporary measures could include setting up new dormitories on prison grounds while new prisons are built. 

One idea heard by the Senate committee Thursday — from Rep. Dave Steffen (R-Green Bay) — would have the state sell Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez and have a private developer build a new prison in the area. The existing prison would close when the new one opened in November 2022.

The Department of Corrections has estimated building a new 1,300-bed prison would cost $309 million. Green Bay Correctional Institution was designed to hold 750, but like most Wisconsin prisons holds far more than that — about 1,100. 

The new prison would be managed and staffed by state employees, just like state-built prisons. The state would lease the facility and have the option to buy it under Senate Bill 228, which was introduced by Steffen and Sen. Frank Lasee (R-De Pere).

Steffen argued the bill would save more than $150 million over a decade because it would operate more efficiently and require fewer workers. The existing prison is over 100 years old and requires maintenance. 

He said using a private developer made sense because Republicans who control the Legislature are loath to rack up debt for building projects.

"I don’t know if there’s political will in this building for that level of bonding," he told the committee in a Capitol hearing room. 

The existing prison is on prime real estate. Local officials believe closing the prison would spur a wave of development.