MADISON – The state budget will move forward a plan to close the embattled Green Bay Correctional Institution by 2029, according to Republican leaders.
The budget introduced during the Joint Finance Meeting on July 1 will provide $15 million for the planning of construction projects for a Department of Corrections realignment and will lead to the closure of the Green Bay prison. The funding will not build a new facility or move incarcerated people to other prisons, but facilitate a planning process for that to happen later.
Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, co-chairman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, said the planning would likely take several budgets to complete.
“We will provide funding for the planning that’s necessary to do infrastructure changes in the future in the Department of Corrections,” he said during a news conference before the July 1 session of the committee.
During the hearing, Born said closing the prison was a main goal for both caucuses throughout the budget process.
The plan to close the prison was not part of a negotiated deal with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, which included tax cuts, increased Medicaid funding and a boost for the University of Wisconsin System. Because the prison plan is not a part of the deal, Evers could veto the plan once the full budget reaches his desk.
Evers proposed roughly $500 million in his state budget to finance a series of changes to the state’s system of corrections that would have closed the maximum security prison in Green Bay by 2029 and spent $245 million to rebuild living quarters of a state prison in Waupun — both facilities built in the 1800s.
There have been calls for years to close the Green Bay Correctional Institution, due to conditions described as inhumane by people who are incarcerated there.
Those incarcerated there have reported infestations of mice and a lack of access to natural daylight and showers. Prison guards have struggled to stay safe in the facility due to its outdated design.
Evers said in 2023 that any plan to close the aging facility would have to be comprehensive and has pushed back on the idea of building a new maximum security prison, though Republicans have expressed support for the idea.
When it was introduced, Republicans quickly scrapped Evers’ plans, removing them from the budget and drafting their own. They laid out their plans on June 27, during a lengthy budget hearing at the Capitol.
Jim Rafter, the president of the Village of Allouez, said any budget that doesn’t include the closure of Green Bay Correctional is unacceptable.
“GBCI is a century-old, obsolete, overcrowded facility that puts staff, incarcerated individuals, and surrounding neighborhoods at risk,” he said in a media release. “Its continued operation wastes taxpayer money, hinders progress, and places a burden on the Village of Allouez that we should no longer be expected to carry.”
In the release, Rafter asked Evers to ensure the closure is included.
“This may not be the perfect solution, but it is the necessary first step towards a commitment to the Village of Allouez that this facility will close in the future,” Rafter said.
State Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, said during a media event that the budget should include “concrete steps” toward the closure, but supported the plan to close the facility by 2029.
“It’s a useful goal, but we missed a few tricks here. We missed a big opportunity to take some concrete steps to reform the state corrections system in a way that preserves public safety and allows the eventual closure of GBCI while, by the way, taking care of the people who work there,” Wall said.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, said during the finance committee meeting that the money for planning is a “good first step.”
“A five-year plan to close Green Bay Correctional is a significant first step,” he said.
He pointed to additional funding included in the budget for a new youth facility, which will eventually help facilitate the closure of Lincoln Hills and create more space for adult corrections.
Questions remain about Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls, which were supposed to close years ago.
Republican lawmakers over the years have delayed funding various portions of the plan to replace Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake with regional facilities and recently have questioned the Evers administration’s policies related to how staff at the prison can manage the behavior of teens who are incarcerated there.
DOC employees are bound by policies prescribed by a federal order as a result of a lawsuit filed over the conditions at the Lincoln Hills campus.
If closed, the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lakes facilities could be converted to a medium-security adult prison, allowing the state to move some people incarcerated in other facilities there, retool other facilities and eventually close Green Bay’s prison.
Under the plan, the state would renovate Waupun in hopes of being able to house more people there.
Earlier this month, Democrats criticized Republicans for not doing more to address the ongoing safety issues at Wisconsin prisons, which have resulted in multiple deaths over the last few years.
Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said that the money set aside for planning for the Green Bay prison would likely not get the facility shut down in time.
“The governor laid out a very detailed, reasonable plan that is the cheapest, that is the fastest, that is the safest way to to close that unsafe, unsustainable, expensive to run Green Bay Correctional Institution that all of us want to see closed,” she said.
“And rather than just engage with that and negotiate, Republicans just threw it right in the garbage and are doing this trick again to put it in a very fancy lockbox where it’s never going to happen.”
Also included in the Corrections budget was $1.5 million for a new 16-bed facility at the Grow Academy, $800,000 for toilet and shower reconstruction at Fox Lake Correctional Institution, $300,000 for a reverse osmosis water treatment system at Jackson Correctional Institution and $300,000 for an infirmary unit at Racine Correctional Institution.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Republican budget leaders moving forward a plan to close the aging Green Bay prison
Reporting by Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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