Evers pleads to ‘get something goddamned done’ on prisons revamp as planning money approved

Gov. Tony Evers pleaded with lawmakers to “get something goddamned done” on an overhaul of the state’s prison system as he pledged to include lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in each step of the redesign.

Evers’ vow came after GOP members of the commission complained lawmakers weren’t involved in the redesign that the guv proposed in February. The Legislature rejected including the overall plan in the budget, instead setting aside the $15 million in planning money that the commission released yesterday.

Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, sought to pin Evers down on whether his pledge included having members of the Legislature involved in conversations with the design team, for example, rather than just having a final product brought back to the commission for an up-or-down vote with no opportunity for input. 

Evers affirmed his pledge, noting he was part of a discussion about overhauling prisons while still state superintendent under then-Gov. Scott Walker. 

Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, continued to press Evers on GOP participation, saying the guv’s office had previously sent signals that lawmaker input wasn’t welcome. 

Evers asked if Jacque was just “trying to make a point” and if Republicans only wanted to cast the guv as trying to run “roughshod” over the Legislature.  

“Let’s just get something goddamned done here, please,” Evers said.

Evers in February proposed a $535.5 million plan to revamp the system. That included closing the state’s second-oldest prison in Green Bay by 2029 while turning Waupun, its oldest, into a facility focused on job training by 2031. It also would close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, the state’s troubled youth prisons, and put a medium security adult facility there. 

Evers’ plan included reducing the number of beds by 700 and expanding an existing earned release program for non-violent offenders who are within 48 months of being released. That included expanding capacity for substance abuse treatment as well as job training programs.

At the time, Evers said his plan was contingent upon GOP lawmakers agreeing to every piece of what he proposed. He argued the provisions must build on each other closely in order to change the trajectory of the state’s overpopulated prisons.

Ahead of the commission meeting, GOP lawmakers slammed Evers for a go-it-alone approach to reforming the state’s prison system as they urged the guv to consider their ideas.

During the press availability, Republicans touted their suggestions, arguing the approach was simpler and less expensive. Still, Felzkowski said it wasn’t a substitute for Evers’ proposal. Instead, it was part of a push to begin talks on a bipartisan solution.

“It’s never been offered to us because we have a dictator in the East Wing who says ‘my way or the highway,’” Felzkowski said.

Evers’ proposal included a series of steps that would shift prisoners around state facilities to accommodate some of the work. That includes, for example, moving inmates now at Waupun elsewhere while the existing cell blocks there were torn down and new ones built. 

During the Building Commission meeting, Jacque proposed a motion that sought to require Corrections to include at least three projects in the realignment planning: expanding Taycheedah, a women’s prison; expanding the number of medium and minimum security beds at Jackson; and closing Green Bay no later than Dec. 31, 2029. It was rejected as the commission deadlocked along party lines.

Those options were included in the alternative that Republicans discussed at the availability Republicans did ahead of the meeting. Expanding Taycheeda and Jackson while converting Lincoln Hills to a medium security adult prison and closing Green Bay would have a price tag of $252.1 million, according to GOP backers.

Ten Republicans also sent a letter to Evers, Administration Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld and Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy calling for a transparent plan with a host of demands attached to the $15 million in planning money.

While agreeing with the guv’s push to close Green Bay — something some Republicans have supported for years — they balked at “another blank check to your administration without basic due diligence, design-level clarity and real cost estimates rooted in reality, not political spin.”

Evers told reporters after that many decisions remained to be made and legislators will be part of the conversation going forward.

“I understand the politics of it,” Evers said. “They want to be angry with me. I’m angry that we’re sitting here, how many years later. It’s going to get done. It’s going to get done in a good way.”

Evers was referring to conversations had under his predecessor to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake after reports that guards were mistreating youth offenders housed there. Walker signed a bill that set a Jan. 1, 2021, deadline to close the facility while allocating $80 million to fund a new juvenile system that included state facilities for the most serious offenders and ones run by counties for others. But the package proved underfunded; the 2025-27 state budget includes $130.7 million to build a new facility in Dane County housing the most serious juvenile offenders. Evers and GOP lawmakers have often blamed each other for the delays in closing the youth prisons and other changes to the system.

Evers also rejected Felzkowski’s suggestion during the GOP avail that he only now has an interest in addressing problems in the prison system “in the 23rd hour” of his time as guv and now that he’s a lame duck.

“This vote was really important because we had to get something in place where the Legislature can now have conversations, we can have conversations,” Evers said. “Everybody will get a kick at the cat here. There’s no question about that.”