A new Milwaukee-area juvenile detention facility to help replace the troubled Lincoln Hills center north of Wausau is a step closer to reality. The state Senate gave final legislative approval Tuesday to borrowing up to $42 million for a facility in Milwaukee County that would take in some of the young people now sent up north to the school for boys and the school for girls in Irma, Wisconsin.
But Milwaukee Democrat Sen. Lena Taylor is trying to block the new building from being at what is now the Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center near N. 30th St. and W. Locust St.. That prerelease facility can house up to 100 adult men, and offers work release and tutoring programs for inmates.
Taylor told her colleagues those programs should not be lost. "If we're going to say we're going to change mass incarceration, you cannot say you're going to get rid of the facility that literally provides work-release options for people coming out — one of the only ones in the city of Milwaukee for men," she said during the Senate debate.
Taylor charged that former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and current scting Mayor Cavalier Johnson have tried to steer the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) and Gov. Tony Evers to choosing the Chaney site.
"The city of Milwaukee's former mayor and present have not provided DOC an opportunity to adequately look at the many sites in the city of Milwaukee," Taylor contended.
The Senate then rejected a Taylor amendment to prevent use of the Chaney site. Johnson's spokesperson said Johnson wants the state to prioritize establishing a youth facility in Milwaukee, and that for the programming at the Chaney Center to continue to be offered to adult inmates returning to the city.
A spokesperson for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said Crowley wants both children and adults to be served close to home and be given the resources they need to succeed.
But Crowley has concerns about adequate funding for the new juvenile facility. The governor's office said the new legislation provides less money for the youth site than Evers proposed in the state budget last year.
But Evers is expected to sign the measure passed Tuesday that also gives the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee power over final spending and local officials say-so over location.
Editor’s note: A portion of the audio is from WisconsinEye.
