Assembly lawmakers unanimously pass plan to replace Lincoln Hills teen lockup

MADISON - Assembly lawmakers late Thursday unanimously passed a new plan to replace the state's long-troubled facility for teen offenders and move it to the Milwaukee area while keeping the Lincoln County lockup open for adult inmates. 

The unexpected vote came days after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the idea was likely dead for now — a full decade after a county judge first sounded an alarm in former Gov. Scott Walker's office over dangerous conditions in the Irma facility. 

The Assembly bill makes the $42 million plan to replace the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls passed earlier this week by the state Senate subject to approval of the Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Finance. 

The Assembly bill also requires the Department of Administration to approve a plan to construct a new facility in Milwaukee County as long as it has a green light from the municipality's officials. The legislation also requires the Irma facility, north of Wausau, to remain open as a prison for adult offenders. 

Lawmakers in 2018 unanimously agreed to close the teen prison after years of controversy, allegations of abuse and more than $25 million in legal fees and payouts to those who stayed there. 

Democratic Rep. Evan Goyke of Milwaukee and Republican Rep. Michael Schraa of Oshkosh, the authors of the original bill, hugged outside of the Assembly chamber after the new legislation to overhaul juvenile justice passed and the house concluded its work for the year. 

"When you work across the aisle, and you work with somebody that is super passionate about an issue, and you develop friendships, that's really what our legacy is going to be," Schraa said on the floor about the initial bill he pushed with Goyke to close the facility, a plan that has stalled for years.  

In the four years since the initial bill became law, Republicans who control the Legislature have not followed up with funding for their closure plans and Lincoln Hills has continued to operate. 

Both Schraa and Goyke said they expect the plan to be successful despite previous delays in the finance committee. The Assembly version of the plan will return to the state Senate before it goes to Evers and the finance committee for full approval. 

The state Department of Corrections has considered the Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center as a location for the new teen facility despite opposition from some. 

Vos said earlier this week his house would likely not take up legislation to replace the Irma facility, despite unanimous support in the state Senate. 

Republican Sen. Mary Felzkowski of Irma then urged Vos to change course. Lincoln Hills is in Felzkowski's district and she said in a series of tweets she regularly hears from staff who say they do not feel safe working there. 

"Good policy IS good politics," she tweeted. "I urge @SpeakerVos and my Assembly colleagues, to please take action on this bill. Every day that we delay action is a day my constituents are risking their lives. Do the right thing."

Felzkowski thanked Vos Thursday night for changing course. 

"My constituents who work at Lincoln Hills will rest easier tonight knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel," she tweeted. 

As of Friday, there were 39 boys at Lincoln Hills and 13 girls at Copper Lake School for Girls, a companion facility on the same campus.

Vos also said Thursday the caucus changed course after receiving a last-minute letter from Republican candidate for governor Rebecca Kleefisch, who was lieutenant governor while the dangerous conditions at the teen prison grew unsustainable and went largely unfixed until 2018 when lawmakers and Walker agreed to close the facility.

In a 2018 court settlement, the state agreed to stop using pepper spray and dramatically scale back solitary confinement at Lincoln Hills. The agreement came months after the state reached an $18.9 million settlement with a teen who was brain-damaged after guards were slow to respond to her suicide attempt. 

A four-year-long criminal investigation of conditions at Lincoln Hills ended in 2019 without charges. 

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.