IRMA, WI (WSAU) – Wisconsin has already missed a deadline to close the state’s only juvenile prison. Now there’s a proposal to fund a new youth facility closer to Milwaukee.
The Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls, both in Irma in Lincoln County, are the state’s only facilities for juvenile offenders convicted of serious crimes.
The state intended to close the facilities in July. The campus would have been turned into a treatment center for drug addicts and chronic drunk drivers.
Current and former inmates there have successfully sued the state over a series of cases involving guard abuse. A settlement already limits the use of pepper spray, solitary confinement, and other forms of punishment. Some counties no longer send youth offenders to Lincoln Hills because of problems there.
A new bill, with bipartisan support, would have the state borrow $42-million to build a new facility in southeastern Wisconsin. The funding hasn’t been approved yet, and the land for the new facility hasn’t been identified. A report from the Wisconsin State Journal says groundbreaking for a new youth prison is still years away.
