Bill would delay closure of Lincoln Hills and could put a new agency in charge of programming at teen lockups
MADISON - Lawmakers are working on a plan to delay the closing of the problem-plagued Lincoln Hills School for Boys and might put the Department of Children and Families in charge of programming for new, smaller juvenile lockups.
Legislators from both parties said they were willing to push back the closure of Lincoln Hills by six to nine months but not longer, as the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wants.
In addition, Republican Rep. Michael Schraa of Oshkosh and others said they hope to make the Department of Children and Families — instead of the Department of Corrections — responsible for programming at the state facility or facilities that will replace Lincoln Hills. The Department of Corrections would still be responsible for providing security, he said.
Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake School for Girls, which sits on the same campus 30 miles north of Wausau, have been under criminal investigation for four years for prisoner abuse and child neglect. They have been the subject of multiple lawsuits, including one that cost the state nearly $19 million.
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Last year lawmakers agreed to close the prison complex by January 2021 and replace it with smaller lockups around the state. At least one would be run by the state and others would be run by counties.
Schraa and others said they need more time to build the replacement lockups. They are working on legislation to extend the closure of Lincoln Hills to July 2021.
They said the legislation may also include a provision that would allow the administration to delay the closure further if officials show they need more time and win the approval of two legislative committees. The maximum extension would delay the closure until September 2021.
Lawmakers want to move fast and hope to pass the measure as soon as next month. They plan to introduce their legislation soon.
Legislators haven't reached a final agreement on who would be in charge of programming at state-run juvenile facilities, but Schraa said he was committed to having the Department of Children and Families take on that role.
"I am not going to back off on this," he said.
Evers told reporters he was neither backing nor opposing changing who is responsible for programming at juvenile lockups.
"I don't have a position on that," Evers said.
'We are literally starting over'
Democratic Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee has been pushing for giving the Department of Children and Families a role in running such facilities for years.
"We are literally starting over, so what better time to make that transition?" she said of the latest proposal.
Some have questioned whether it can be done by 2021.
"I agree with the policy," Democratic Rep. Evan Goyke of Milwaukee said of putting the Department of Children and Families in charge of programming. But he added that there might not be enough time to make that happen.
Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine agrees with Schraa and Taylor and wants to put the Department of Children and Families in charge of programming.
Schraa, Wanggaard, Taylor and Goyke were among the sponsors of the legislation last year to close Lincoln Hills.
In that bill, lawmakers approved $80 million to build the new facilities to replace Lincoln Hills. Legislators said they likely will need tens of millions of dollars more for those plans but said they would address that issue as part of the state budget rather than the legislation they are working on now.
Administration officials have said they may need as much as two more years before they can shutter Lincoln Hills, which would delay its closure until 2023. Lawmakers said they would not give them that much time.
"That is just absolutely not acceptable," Wanggaard said.
"You've got to have some kind of due date or the thing will never get built."
The push to extend the timeline comes as those seeking to close the prison argue it should be shut down as soon as possible.
An independent review of the prison last month found the rooms at Lincoln Hills were not suicide resistant.
That report also found those held at the prison weren't spending enough time in the classroom, and guards were too often using pepper spray and too often performing hygiene checks by making teens strip down to their underwear and bras. Guards also weren't responding quickly enough to call lights the teens use to alert staff they require assistance or need to use the bathroom.
Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.