Kids, corrections, money and care
This week’s ARTICLE from the Beloit News focuses on the status of our State Juvenile Prison. WI Governor Scott Walker’s budget came out last week and includes the budget for Lincoln Hills Juvenile School (I’ve been there, it’s a juvenile prison). Anyway, it seems that the budget proposal for Lincoln Hills is a 1.7 million short of the WI Department of Corrections request. Hmm, interesting…yes, I said 1.7 million dollars short of the requested amount.
This is not the first time (or probably the last) Lincoln Hills has been in the news. You may recall in 2015 that the WI Department of Justice was called in to investigate serious inmate (kids) abuses at Lincoln Hills. The investigation was ultimately turned over to the FBI and is still pending. That said the WI Corrections Secretary Ed Wall resigned as a result of the investigation and was ultimately fired from the DOC (see story HERE).
So no matter your political orientation, a couple of things seem true. First, Lincoln Hills School is a mess. This is WI’s only state prison (I know it’s called a school) for juveniles and the State needs to get things fixed (one might ask what I mean by “fixed”). Second, it is sad that our government seems to be playing politics with the budget for kids who are locked up in a juvenile prison.
Thoughts?
This article is very sad and surprising to me.
Foremost, I cannot believe Governor Scott Walker’s budget does not order for any systematic changes in regards to inmate abuse and jail conditions.
Secondly, and most importantly, what is most absurd about the proposal is the fact that the budget will leave the prison so severely understaffed and underfunded that they will not meet federal standards.
If this article doesn’t lay out many of the issues between politics and corrections, I don’t know what will.
First of all I do not understand how he can even pass this proposal when it doesn’t meet federal standards, doesn’t make sense. Having an understaffed prison is just asking for more problems. And then having potential bills be passed that could put more kids in prison when they already do not have enough staff, also doesn’t make sense. These juveniles needs programs that will help them, not to be in a place where when they do ask for help they are just pushed aside like it doesn’t matter. Obviously Lincoln Hills has problems going on and shorting the budget is definitely not going to help.
I think it is extremely surprising that Governor Walker would propose this cut in the budget when it is against federal regulation. For legal reasons, but also because it is ab unjust cut. This cut will leave the juvenile offenders and guards worse off and in more danger. However, it is nice that Representative Joel Kleefisch and Senator LaTonya Johnson are working on a bipartisan bill to make the few guards (that are still at Lincoln Hills) be mandatory child abuse reporters. Although it is surprising to me that they are not already mandatory reporters. Thus it is nice to see that both sides of the aisle are working towards helping these children. Hopefully there will be more bipartisan actions in the future when it comes to criminal justice. As well as, backlash from both sides about Walker’s budget of cutting 1.7 million dollars from Lincoln Hills Juvenile School.
This article is very shocking to me and hard to believe. An already understaffed prison that is also being investigated by the FBI is not able to get the support it needs to do its job correctly. It also is concerning that if it does not get the money that the prison would not even be able to comply with federal codes. I would like to think that because the prison is for juveniles that people would at least take that into consideration. Also with less support more issues will arise than just the allegations of the child abuse.
The fact that Scott Walker is not going through with this proposal to keep the sole juvenile prison in the state of Wisconsin adequately functioning is both surprising and not surprising.He is lacking an understanding that not accepting the proposed amount for this prison is what will keep it functioning well as well as meeting federal standards. The other republican’s proposal towards making more crimes meaning prison time and these with longer prison terms is also a topic of concern. The fact that they want to take away staff members, yet add the possibility of more juveniles attending the prison and for proposed longer sentences, does not seem to have a positive outlook as well as not a satisfactory outcome for the workings of this prison as a whole.
It seems to me that Walker’s priority is with money, and not for the juvenile’s or C.O.’s safety, care, and rehabilitation. Especially after he eliminated two juvenile prisons in WI to save around $25 million a year. My question is, if the prison is 50 guards short of staff-to-inmate rates mandated by PREA is Walker running the risk of having this prison shut down?
The information written in this article (http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2016/12/17/crisis-lincoln-hills-juvenile-prison-years-making/95383518/) on the abuse that occurred at Lincoln Hills is very interesting and also depressing. This made me think of the abuse issues that is currently going on in Australian Juvenile Detention Centers.