Speaker Robin Vos keeps Assembly Democrats off Wisconsin prison planning task force

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – Wisconsin officials will study the state’s prison needs — but the Assembly speaker is making sure they’ll do it without the input of Democrats.

Sidestepping standard legislative practice, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) declined to put a Democrat on a task force looking at whether the state needs to build a new prison as its inmate population rises.

His approach differs from the one taken by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), who last week named two Republicans and one Democrat to the panel.

Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) said he thought Vos slighted Democrats because he wanted to avoid having them point out the cost of GOP prison policies and the problems plaguing Wisconsin’s teen prison, Lincoln Hills School for Boys.

“I think he would prefer less attention, less scrutiny, more rubber stamps,” Hintz said of Vos.

Vos spokeswoman Kit Beyer said the speaker didn’t put a Democrat on the committee because none had “stepped forward” to specifically ask to be put on it. Hintz called that a “little insulting,” saying one of his aides had asked the speaker's office if a Democrat would get an appointment and was told no.

“You would think if we’re going to have a legitimate committee to look at our state’s prison needs, you’d want not only a bipartisan makeup, but you’d want some members of color,” Hintz said, noting all three of Vos' appointees are white men.

Republicans who control the Legislature included a provision in the state budget forming the panel to develop a master plan for the state’s prison needs. Wisconsin’s adult prison population stood at more than 23,100 as of Friday and officials have said they are running out of room.

Vos appointed to the task force Rep. Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh), the chairman of the Assembly Corrections Committee; Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), who sits on the Legislature’s budget committee; and Rep. David Steffen (R-Green Bay), who is pushing legislation to have the state lease a new prison from a private developer to replace Green Bay Correctional Institution.

Fitzgerald appointed Sens. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee; Sen. Dan Feyen (R-Fond du Lac), whose district — like Schraa’s and Born’s — includes a large number of prisons and correctional employees; and Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee), who has called for prison reform and highlighted the racial disparities in Wisconsin's justice system.

Gov. Scott Walker also gets to appoint members, but he has not yet said who he is putting on the panel. The task force has a budget of $600,000.

Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) said he had hoped to sit on the committee and Vos knows he is passionate about prison issues. Keeping Assembly Democrats off the committee shows Vos wants to steer its findings in a particular direction, he said.

"It's like they're teeing up their chance to implement private prisons in Wisconsin," he said.

Legislative leaders typically appoint members from both parties to committees, with the majority party getting more seats than the minority party.

The budget provision creating the prison task force did not include a requirement that anyone from the minority party be on it. Fitzgerald decided to follow the usual practice for his appointments to the panel, while Vos did not.

In other instances, Vos has worked in a bipartisan way. For instance, he made Democrat Steve Doyle of Onalaska co-chairman of a task force on foster care, putting him on equal footing with the Republican co-chairman, Rep. Patrick Snyder of Schofield.

Vos also named Rep. Jason Fields (D-Milwaukee) the vice chairman of the Assembly Committee on Urban Revitalization. That's a post that would normally go to a Republican.