Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake Youth Prison. MWC photo by Chris Conley
IRMA, WI (WSAU-WXPR) – Officials say the deadline to close the Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake youth prison in Irma will not be met, with the biggest issue being where to put the children and teens.
Representative Evan Goyke says legislation that would create new facilities have been sitting in the Joint Committee on Finance for almost two years. “You can’t just move the kids and put them in a hotel, you have to have the appropriate replacement facility open and ready to go. We could do that now. We could pass the funding for the facility in Madison and in this budget we could pass the funding for the remaining alternatives. While we won’t make the date this summer, the sooner we approve those replacement facilities the sooner that facility in Lincoln County closes.”
Goyke’s Republican colleagues on the JCF say they’ve asked the Department of Corrections for a detailed chronology of what they would like to see happen.
Representative Mark Born says he knows it’s a priority. “It’s important for this region to close that and move it toward adult facility and as Howard said we need to work on what the best place for these kids are. I think it will be a bipartisan solution like you’ve been in the last few years.”
The facility was originally set to close later this year under a state law passed in 2018 under then-Governor Scott Walker.
Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposal calls for spending $46 million to create a new youth prison in Milwaukee County. But it wouldn’t be ready for years, meaning the Lincoln County facilities wouldn’t close until 2024.
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