MADISON – In another key step toward closing Lincoln Hills youth prison north of Wausau, a state committee on Tuesday boosted funding for future county-run secure facilities in Milwaukee and Racine counties.
The state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee provided $13.1 million to Milwaukee County on top of the $15.2 million that had been previously allocated to a secure residential care center.
The $28.3 million will be used to renovate and expand the Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center in Wauwatosa to include 32 beds for youths. Four of those beds will be for girls.
The county two years ago deferred acceptance of the original $15.2 million grant, which was about $8.4 million less than the county had sought.
The additional funding puts the project on track to move forward.
Milwaukee County Health and Human Services Director Shakita LaGrant-McClain told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after the committee meeting that the funding for the county-run facility and the first crucial moves last week on building a state-run facility in Milwaukee marked progress toward bringing Milwaukee County kids to their community.
“It’s an opportunity for us to serve the youth, to bring them closer to home and to give them the things that they need so they don’t reoffend and end up in the deeper end (of the justice system) later on in life,” she said.
State legislation enacted in early 2018 as part of the effort to close the troubled Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls mandated the creation of smaller facilities that would keep youths closer to their communities. New state-run facilities would be responsible for the most serious juvenile offenders, with county-run facilities for youths who committed lower-level offenses.
But those plans were long delayed until recent weeks.
The legislation approved Tuesday redirected about $21.1 million from secure residential care centers that had been proposed in Dane and Brown counties to Milwaukee and Racine counties. Racine county’s grant was increased by about $8 million, to $48 million.
State Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, told the Journal Sentinel that Dane County had asked to no longer participate and Brown County is not currently seeking a facility.
Born and his Joint Finance Committee co-chair state Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, in a statement called the secure residential care centers “an important component of the future of our juvenile corrections system, which provides essential rehabilitation services while protecting public safety.”
“Our JFC action today is one more important step toward fulfilling our promise to close Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake,” they said. “The updated plan we approved, created in collaboration with the counties where the (county-run facilities) will be located, will redistribute funding so these projects are able to move forward and bring those at Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake closer to their support systems.”
State Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, one of the main architects of the 2018 legislation to close Lincoln Hills, said in a statement that the new state and county juvenile facilities would make it possible to finally make that closure a reality.
In a statement, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said changes to the Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center would allow the county to provide its youths with services and programming they need to get back on track at home.
“Ultimately, the goal is to get our youth out of detention centers and back into the community leading full and successful lives,” he said. “Today’s vote helps us do just that while reducing barriers to accessing needed services or programming and promoting race and health equity.”
The committee’s approval came a week after Gov. Tony Evers announced plans to build a new 32-bed, state-run youth prison on Milwaukee’s northwest side and days after the Milwaukee Common Council on an 11-1 vote backed legislation expressing the city’s support for the proposed site.
The location needed the city’s support to move forward under a state law that approved $42 million for the new state-run juvenile facility.
The site was praised by local advocates and officials while neighbors, who did not have a chance to weigh in before the council vote, had mixed reactions to the location on a former vehicle emissions inspection center at 7930 W. Clinton Ave.
Additional steps in that process are anticipated, and elected officials have said neighbors will be able to provide their input.
Still, neither of the new facilities in Milwaukee will be open immediately, even as Milwaukee County’s juvenile justice system has been strained by rising costs of sending youth to Lincoln Hills and by overcrowding in its detention facility.
LaGrant-McClain said she did not expect the new county-run facility to be operational for at least 18 months.
A report from state Department of Administration Secretary-designee Kathy Blumenfeld to Born and Marklein anticipated that construction of the state-run facility would start in 2024, with completion coming 18 months to two years later. That site was chosen for reasons including its proximity to community services, regular bus service and its lack of known environmental issues, she wrote.
Before those facilities are built, LaGrant-McClain said the county would lean on funding allocated to build out mental health, education and recreation services to divert kids from the juvenile system in addition to directing resources to the Milwaukee County Accountability Program for serious offenders and a mentoring program for at-risk youths called Credible Messengers.
Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.
