The Wisconsin Policy Forum’s latest report examines how Milwaukee County’s youth justice system has evolved since 2018. Researchers compared data trends before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
WUWM's Eddie Morales spoke with Ashley Fisher, a senior research associate at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, about the report's findings.
Morales: This report is a follow-up to a 2023 report, Under Pressure, that focused on the justice system. What are some of the key similarities and differences considered when shifting focus to the youth justice system specifically?
Fisher: We looked at each stage of the youth justice system and that process starting from referrals all the way to disposition, which is how a judge sentences the youth in the Children's Court, and on through various things that the youth might be court ordered into, such as programs or detention alternatives, or if they are in secure care what's happening there. Once, they're out of secure care, do they recidivate later, and what does that look like?
Morales: What are the key takeaways?
Fisher: The number of referrals coming into the youth justice system are not a lot different from what was happening, say in 2023 and 2024 versus in 2018 before the pandemic. They're not a lot different. There's about 1,100 unique youth that come in, and then there's about 1,500 referrals that are still coming into the system each year.
What we did find is that the types of referrals have changed, so there are more felony-level offenses. At this point it's a referral, they have not actually been found to be guilty of anything, so it is just being accused of an offense. But what's coming in are more felony-level referrals and fewer misdemeanor referrals, somewhat. There's a 13% increase in the felony-level referrals and a 7% decrease in misdemeanor referrals, which suggests that the types of crimes happening are more serious, even if the same number of youth are coming in and out of the justice system.
"What we did find is that the types of referrals have changed, so there are more felony-level offenses...Which suggests that the types of crimes happening are more serious."
Morales: What are some of the challenges with assessing the collected data?
Fisher: We were able to track data on a number of fronts, like the referrals that I was speaking to. But when we started looking into program-specific data or recidivism data, what was available was more lacking. We have more questions coming out of this report than we have answers as far as: is the youth justice system creating better outcomes for youth? Are they recidivating later on in life, or are they becoming members of the community that don't come back into the justice system, whether as a youth or as an adult?
Morales: Based on the key takeaways from this entire report, is there anything that the Wisconsin Policy Forum is hoping the data can provide or inform the county on?
Fisher: It would be really helpful if the county tracked recidivism beyond the narrow parameters that it currently uses.
In 2015, the county sent 123 youth to state facilities — that's Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. By 2024, 18 were sent there. And that makes a big difference from a financial perspective, and it allows the county to use its resources, either funneling it back into other juvenile justice services or to other needs that the county has. We can't say where the savings went, but I can share that in 2015 with those 123 youth sent to a state facility, it costs $13.1 million.
By 2024, by reducing the number of youth sent there every year, and again, that's because of the wider array of services available to judges for dispositions — it was only $7.4 million that year. So every year, because of that consistent effort to lower the number of youth being sent away to a state facility, the county saved anywhere between $4-$7 million each year.
"We have more questions coming out of this report than we have answers as far as: is the youth justice system creating better outcomes for youth? Are they recidivating later on in life?"
There's another factor coming into play though, which is that Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake have seen a shrinking population as a whole over time. It's not just fewer youth going there from Milwaukee County. The cost of running those facilities has not changed. They still have to pay for their staff. They still have to pay to operate the buildings. So, there's a smaller number of youth to divvy those costs across and those costs are then charged back to counties.
In July 2021 we saw a big rate change. The cost per kid per day went from $615 to $1,178. The county has been continuing to adjust, continuing to work to drop the numbers of youth sent there.
I can share that in 2024 and coming into the spring of 2025 the numbers have started to increase again — the number of youths sent [to state facilities]. The county is really going to have to navigate cost increases in the future. The savings it had been seeing might diminish, particularly because the expected change in the cost per kid per day that would take place in July this year, might go up to over $2,300 per youth per day. That is a cost of over $800,000 a year to the county if it is implemented.
