The state of Wisconsin with prison bars superimposed.
Gov. Tony Evers has a serious plan to fix Wisconsin prisons. Unlike most of Evers’ budget proposals, which Republicans declared dead on arrival before the ink is dry, this one received a respectful reception.
At least at first. Speaker Robin Vos didn’t declare it DOA for a full week after the governor introduced his plan as part of the next state budget. Then he did say he would quash it and replace it with his own plan, but that was less about substance than about Vos’ whining that Evers didn’t ask him about it first.
But the lead Republican on prison issues, Sen. Van Wanggaard, said that Evers put “a lot of thought” into his proposal. “I think everybody has an open mind because everybody wants to solve this.” And Republican Rep. David Steffen of Green Bay praised Evers for moving forward on shutting down the prison in his district.
While everybody does want to solve this problem, everybody does not agree on how to get there. There’s bipartisan agreement that prisons are overcrowded and that the Green Bay and Waupun facilities are too old to function safely.
But that’s where the agreement ends. Republicans want to shut down Green Bay to allow the redevelopment of that valuable real estate, but they also want to replace it with a brand new facility. Democrats would be okay with the first part, but they want to reduce prison populations, not build new beds. Meanwhile, the state is faced with throwing good money after bad as it tries to keep the aging buildings limping along.
The main thing that has led to this stalemate is the politics of prisons. Wisconsin’s prison system has about three times more inmates then it had in the early 1990s, even as violent crime has decreased over that period. When he was first elected in 2018, Evers promised to cut the prison population in half. He didn’t do that because he didn’t want to look soft on crime. He knows that if just one of those released inmates commits a murder there would be hell to pay.
The other political consideration is local economies and local jobs. As Steven Walters points out in this recent story in Isthmus, prison politics is mostly local. There is wide bipartisan support for tearing down the Green Bay reformatory because the site is so valuable for other purposes. But in Waupun, where the prison is the leading employer and consumer of products and services, closing down the facility would meet with stiff resistance.
So, Evers has found a way to address the crowding problem and the issue of aging, unsafe buildings while — perhaps — not running into the brick wall of local opposition. His plan would close down Green Bay, where that move is popular, while distributing its population to expanded existing facilities around the state — a move that would be popular in those communities as it would mean more jobs. One of those places would be the long-troubled Lincoln Hills facility for boys and Copper Lake school for girls. Those facilities would be closed as youth prisons, but would re-emerge as an adult prison.
Gone is the idea of slashing prison populations, an idea that might be good public policy — Minnesota has a similar crime rate with a much lower prison population — but is a political nonstarter. Evers’ plan does include some early release of nonviolent inmates but Vos has said that Republicans will oppose that.
Meanwhile, he would convert Waupun to a training center for prisoners so that they would have a viable career path once released. (He’s calling it a “village” which is tone deaf language because it sounds like it’s about coddling prisoners.) It’s too early to know if that idea will be accepted by leaders from Waupun, but it stands a far better chance than simply closing the facility altogether.
So, what Evers is proposing would close one old, dangerous prison and reimagine the other while neither dramatically reducing prison populations nor building an expensive new facility. Vos seems to continue to want to build a new prison anyway.
Evers’ plan is both good public policy and pretty good politics. And it stands a chance in a Republican Legislature, even with Vos’ bruised ego problems. Don’t be surprised if Vos’ plan ends up looking a lot like the governor’s. Evers deserves credit for good behavior.
Before I leave this topic, I have to make one more observation. It’s politically difficult, if not impossible, to close a prison right now. Meanwhile, state and private college campuses are shutting down all over the place. Ashland’s Northland College just announced that it is closing after 133 years. Why is it that shutting down a prison and taking with it those jobs is not politically viable, while closing a college campus and losing those jobs is acceptable?
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
