Lincoln Hills: Scott Walker to close troubled teen prison and open five regional centers for juvenile offenders

MADISON - Shifting his approach to the state's long-troubled juvenile prison, Gov. Scott Walker detailed an $80 million plan Thursday to turn Lincoln Hills School for Boys into an adult facility and open five smaller teen lockups around the state.

The GOP governor developed the plan — to include up to three facilities in southeastern Wisconsin — three weeks after prosecutors said they could charge two former guards and as he heads into his re-election bid.

His plan, modeled in large part on a proposal by a Milwaukee Democrat, would be enacted in 2019 or later, after lawmakers adopt the next state budget.

With his proposal, Walker is trying to address a host of problems at the prison 30 miles north of Wausau while also finding a way to deal with a growing population in Wisconsin's crowded adult prisons.

"Republicans and Democrats alike agree this is the way forward to reform juvenile corrections, and I thank state and local elected officials and interested organizations for partnering with us to develop this plan," Walker said in a statement.

Some Democrats said they welcomed Walker's changed approach to corrections but viewed the proposal as an election-year ploy to deflect an issue that could be used against him in his re-election campaign. Some of his fiercest past critics embraced his proposal.

"Under this approach, we will be able to reduce recidivism, improve public safety and better focus our resources on providing evidence-based and trauma-informed interventions for those youth with serious mental health concerns and high-risk behaviors," said Milwaukee County Chief Judge Maxine White, who last year said the treatment of inmates at Lincoln Hills was "inhumane."

Walker's move comes six years after his office was first notified by a judge of problems at the facility, three years after a sweeping criminal investigation of the prison began, six months after a federal judge put restrictions on how it operates and less than a month after federal prosecutors notified two former guards they could be charged with crimes.

In a series of reports over the past two years, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found teen inmates had been injured at the prison, including one who had to have parts of two toes partially amputated after a guard slammed a door on his foot. Officials at Lincoln Hills trained staff improperly; failed to preserve video evidence; didn't document serious incidents; and often ignored their duty to report matters to parents and police. The facility for years was plagued by lax management, confusion over policies and chronic staff shortages.

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Under Walker's plan, the state would borrow $80 million to build five regional lockups that could hold three dozen teen inmates each.

Likely three of the new facilities would be in southeastern Wisconsin, where most inmates come from. The other two would be in northern, western or central Wisconsin, according to the governor's office.

Separately, the state would expand Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Madison, which houses 29 male inmates with the most significant mental health needs.

A dozen or more beds would be added to that facility this fall, and housing for female inmates would be added after the 2019-'21 state budget is approved. At that point, all female juvenile inmates in the state would be held at Mendota. There are far fewer female inmates — as of last week there were 17 girls and 149 boys at the prison complex — and the girls tend to have significant mental health problems.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Hills would be turned into a medium-security adult prison that could provide treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. Lincoln Hills was built to hold more than 500 juvenile inmates, but parts of the prison have not been used in recent years and it is not clear how many adults it could hold.

Workers at Lincoln Hills would have the option to continue working there after it becomes an adult prison or transfer to one of the new juvenile facilities, according to the governor's office.

In all, the state would need to find hundreds of new workers to staff the new facilities. That would also mean millions of dollars in added annual costs for taxpayers.

"I wonder what my future holds," said Rita Lokemoen, a Lincoln Hills guard who was home sick on Thursday and reading media reports on the plan.

She said she's worried the announcement will trigger a staff exodus at the already-understaffed institution, as workers move elsewhere rather than work in an adult institution or relocate to one of the newly created juvenile facilities.

"It's going to add more stress to an already stressful environment and that's what concerns me for myself, my coworkers and the kids," she said.

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Counties are responsible for paying for many of the juveniles kept at Lincoln Hills. The rate they pay jumped last year from $292 per inmate per day to $390 — or more than $142,000 a year.

Aides to the governor expect those costs to stay about the same when they transition from Lincoln Hills to the regional facilities.

Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) said he was glad to see the governor embrace a plan similar to one he has long touted and introduced as Assembly Bill 791 last month.

“I’m excited about meaningful justice reform coming to Wisconsin, but it shouldn’t wait for the next governor,” said Goyke, a former public defender.

Goyke said Republicans began coming around to his idea when they saw that turning Lincoln Hills into an adult prison would cost less than building a new facility to deal with overcrowding.

“It changed overnight,” he said of those talks. “The reception changed.”

Timeline: How the Lincoln Hills crisis unfolded

Republicans who control the Legislature said they supported Walker's plan. Democratic legislative leaders said they would push for faster action and seek to make changes this spring instead of more than a year from now.

Democrats criticized Walker for not addressing the issue sooner and said they thought he was doing so now because of his re-election run and plans by his former corrections secretary, Ed Wall, to publish a book this summer critical of his time working for Walker.

"However the governor got there, great. We're just saying that when we've been highlighting this in the past, we were met with resistance and he was the No. 1 obstacle," said Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh).

Those suing over conditions at Lincoln Hills praised the development.

“The closing of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake today is fantastic news,” said Jessica Feierman, associate director of Juvenile Law Center. “We are relieved that the state is moving away from a model that just doesn’t work — large youth prisons that violate the Constitution and are dangerous to youth."

The plan would shift Wisconsin to a system similar to Missouri’s that has long been held up as a model by advocates of prison reform. There, young people are kept in smaller facilities close to their homes that focus on therapy and counseling instead of controlling inmates.

Jeffery Roman and Sharlen Moore, co-founders of the group Youth Justice Milwaukee, said Walker was doing the right thing but should have done it long ago.

“Replacing these prisons with smaller facilities is a step in the right direction — but it must be done carefully so we don’t end up with five smaller versions of Lincoln Hills and repeat past mistakes,” they said in a statement.

Unknowns remain about Walker’s plan. Lincoln Hills inmates attend classes at a large high school on the prison’s grounds, but it’s unclear how inmates at the new facilities would get their education. Aides to Walker said the Department of Corrections might partner with local school districts to do that.

Problems at Lincoln Hills came into public view after Walker and Republican lawmakers closed Ethan Allen School in Waukesha County in 2011 and transferred its inmates to Lincoln Hills. At the same time, they closed Southern Oaks School in Racine County and established Copper Lake School for Girls on the grounds of Lincoln Hills.

Ethan Allen and Southern Oaks were closed because of a declining inmate population. But critics argued it made little sense to house inmates in northern Wisconsin when most of them came from southeastern Wisconsin and their families would have trouble traveling hundreds of miles to visit them.

Within a year, there were reports of abuses at the prison complex. The state Department of Justice began an investigation in January 2015 that looked into prisoner abuse, child neglect and other allegations.

About 50 agents and investigators raided the prison at the end of that year. Soon afterward, they turned the investigation over to the FBI. The probe — now three years old — is ongoing.

Separately, the state faces lawsuits over the way the facility has been run. One — brought on behalf of inmates by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and Juvenile Law Center — resulted in a federal judge's order in July that required officials to curb their use of pepper spray and solitary confinement.

Guards have said they fear for their safety because they believe inmates have been more willing to act out since the court order limited the sanctions that can be placed on them. In one incident this summer, four inmates scaled the roof of a prison dorm, threw debris at staff and brandished metal pipes at them before they were apprehended. In October, an inmate knocked out a teacher with a single punch.

Walker for years has resisted efforts to shutter Lincoln Hills, saying he believed he could turn the facility around. In recent years, his administration has greatly expanded worker training, installed more cameras in the facility, equipped guards with body cameras and increased their pay to help retain them.

In November 2016, Walker initially showed openness to having the state help pay for a juvenile lockup in Milwaukee County but three weeks later cast doubt on the idea. He said then that he didn't want to take a piecemeal approach to addressing the issue.

Walker has never visited Lincoln Hills as governor, saying he trusted his aides to run the prison and make it safe.

Problems at the facility are costing taxpayers. In 2016, the state paid $300,000 to the inmate who had two toes partially amputated. In addition, taxpayers have spent more than $240,000 to a private law firm to defend itself against lawsuits over conditions at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake.

Costs could grow significantly. One former inmate who is suing the state was severely brain damaged after she attempted suicide at Copper Lake. Providing her care for the rest of her life is expected to cost millions of dollars and she is seeking to recover at least some of that.

Ashley Luthern of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Milwaukee.