Scott Walker’s Appalling 25-Year Record on Corrections and Prison Policy
Gov. Scott Walker Has Spent 25 Years Charting a Dangerous, Racist Course on Corrections Policy in the State of Wisconsin.
One Wisconsin Now, 10/15/2018
Prisons Category Archive
‘The Only Thing Scott Walker Cares About Keeping Safe Is His Own Job’
The former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) has released a book detailing his experiences in the administration of Gov. Scott Walker.
One Wisconsin Now, 08/10/2018Corrections Election? Walker Jumps on Dem Plans to Cut Prison Population
Scot Ross with the liberal activist group One Wisconsin Now notes Walker is lagging in polls. “He’s blowing that dog whistle loud and clear, and he’s trying to get every racist across...
Wisconsin Radio Network, 08/09/2018State Debate: Scott Walker’s Refusal to Visit Prisons Stirs Up Bloggers
One Wisconsin Now’s Scot Ross maintains that Walker’s refusal to visit prisons is a shirking of his responsibilities as governor. He adds that Walker took the same position and refused to visit...
Capital Times, 08/09/2018Scott Walker’s Absolutely Awful Record on Corrections
Scott Walker has an absolutely awful record on Corrections in the state and Mike Browne joins Bryan on 414Wisconsin to make sure we know the correct record.
WRRD-AM, 08/08/2018Scott Walker Accidentally Reveals the Truth With Press Conference on Public Safety
Gov. Scott Walker declared there was “no value” in him, as chief executive of the state, visiting a correctional institution.
One Wisconsin Now, 08/08/2018Scott Walker: ‘No Value’ to Visiting State Prisons
Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he has yet to visit a prison in Wisconsin and he doesn’t plan to if he’s re-elected because “there’s no value” in him doing so. He made...
La Crosse Tribune, 08/08/2018Scott Walker Cannot Defend His Racist Corrections Disaster
‘On Corrections, Scott Walker Always Makes the Wrong Decision and Always for the Wrong Reason’
One Wisconsin Now, 08/07/2018Walker: ‘There’s No Value’ To Visiting Wisconsin Prisons
Gov. Scott Walker said he’s yet to visit a prison in Wisconsin and he doesn’t plan to if he’s re-elected … Even before Walker spoke to reporters, liberal group One Wisconsin Now had already...
Wisconsin Public Radio, 08/07/2018Gov. Scott Walker Says He Sees ‘no Value’ in Visiting State Prisons As He Hits Democrats’ Promises to Slash the Number of Inmates
Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he sees “no value” in visiting the Wisconsin prisons that he runs and that cost taxpayers more than $1 billion a year. He made the comment at...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 08/07/2018Wisconsin’s Prisons Are a Mess, Which Governor Walker Has Made Worse. But We Can Fix This.
In Wisconsin, we spend more taxpayer money to lock people up than we do to educate them at universities. That should be a problem worth addressing for any politician. But so far,...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 07/06/2018Guards at 6 Wisconsin Prisons Don’t Have Body Cameras Despite Order From Scott Walker, Lawmakers
State prison officials haven’t yet put body cameras on correctional officers in six Wisconsin prisons, despite receiving an order last year to do so. Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers passed a state...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 07/03/2018Walker Appoints New Corrections Secretary
Gov. Scott Walker appointed a new Department of Corrections secretary on Wednesday, the agency’s third leader in less than three years as it struggles to recover from allegations of abuse at Wisconsin’s...
Associated Press, 05/23/2018Prison Workers Were Promoted After Teen Inmate Suicide Attempt That Is Costing Nearly $19 Million
Mistake after mistake led to a 16-year-old inmate suffering severe brain damage when guards neglected her request for help and she hanged herself in her cell. The 2015 episode is costing Wisconsin...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 04/27/2018Walker Signs Vukmir Crime Legislation
Gov. Scott Walker has signed a package of legislation cracking down on youth offenders and repeat criminals. The bills eliminate the three-year maximum sentence for youthful offenders in juvenile correctional facilities and...
Associated Press, 04/16/2018Lincoln Hills Teen Facility Gets Fourth Leader in Two Years
Gov. Scott Walker’s administration announced it was putting Jason Benzel, the deputy warden of Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution, in charge of Lincoln Hills School for Boys, which has been under a...
Milwaukee Business Journal, 01/11/2018Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Takes Democrats’ Ideas Into 2018 Election Fight With Them
In 2011, Walker closed Ethan Allen School in Waukesha County and transferred its inmates to Lincoln Hills. He also cut state aid to schools to help close a budget shortfall and reduced...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 01/05/2018Closing Lincoln Hills Does Not Absolve Gov. Scott Walker, Attorney General Brad Schimel of Responsibility For Failures
Scott Walker and Brad Schimel ignored and then repeatedly failed to act on the mounting crisis at Lincoln Hills.
One Wisconsin Now, 01/04/2018Walker Calls for Juvenile Prison Reorganization
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to move juvenile inmates out of a facility under federal investigation wouldn’t be implemented until after voters decide whether to re-elect him this fall. Walker announced the...
Associated Press, 01/04/2018Bill Requiring Lincoln Hills Guards to Report Signs of Child Abuse Heads to Scott Walker
Guards at the state’s youth prison would be required to report signs of child abuse under a bill Assembly lawmakers approved Wednesday — the first to pass the Legislature in response to...
Wisconsin State Journal, 05/11/2017Families, Experts Wary of Gov. Scott Walker’s Plan to Abolish Parole Commission
Beverly Walker doubts that the governor’s plan to abolish the Wisconsin Parole Commission will add efficiency to a sluggish system, and she suspects it would make qualifying for parole even more difficult.Her...
Wisconsin WatchDog, 03/05/2017Gov. Walker Proposes Cuts to Parole Agency
The state’s parole system for roughly 3,000 long-time state inmates would drop from eight employees to just one, under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal. As a lawmaker in the late 1990s, Walker...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/20/2017Walker Administration Reaches Cash Settlements With Guards Accused of Using Excessive Force on Juvenile Inmates
For the second and third times, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has given cash settlements to guards who it determined had used excessive force on juvenile inmates, state records show. The payoffs —...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/18/2017Gov. Walker’s Proposed Elimination of Parole Commission Creates Furniture Fiasco
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections will try to resell $37,000 of new furniture ordered by the state Parole Commission just days before the agency was targeted for elimination. Corrections Department spokesman Tristan...
Associated Press, 02/17/2017Gov. Walker’s Budget Plan Doesn’t Address Lincoln Hills Crisis
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget would keep Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison open but doesn’t provide nearly enough funding to meet federal staffing requirements. It also orders no systemic changes despite an FBI investigation...
Associated Press, 02/11/2017Gov. Walker Proposes More Staff for Lincoln Hills Amid Calls for Its Closure
Gov. Scott Walker is seeking more staff for the state’s troubled youth prison in his 2017-19 state budget proposal. Though Democrats and Milwaukee government officials have called for the closure of the...
Wisconsin State Journal, 02/09/2017More Dismay at Lincoln Hills | Former Lincoln Hills Psychologist Belittled Naked, Mentally Ill Girl
The former top psychologist at the state’s troubled juvenile prison faced no discipline last year after mocking the breasts of a teenage girl with mental illness who had run down a hallway...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 07/09/2016John Doe Investigation Into Lincoln Hills Abuse Allegations Closed
A state John Doe investigation into a troubled juvenile prison in northern Wisconsin has been closed under a law signed last year by Gov. Scott Walker that put time limits on such...
WPR, 04/19/2016Feds Looking at Whether Civil Rights Were Violated at Lincoln Hills
In February, Gov. Scott Walker’s office released records that showed Lincoln Hills staff in 2012 failed to take an inmate who was sexually assaulted to an emergency room until after a prison...
Wisconsin State Journal, 03/02/2016Sex Assault Allegation Mishandled at Lincoln Hills
Despite what a former state employee called a strong case, officials in 2013 abandoned pursuing charges against a juvenile inmate accused of sexually assaulting his roommate at a secure Northwoods facility now...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/23/2016Department of Corrections Secretary to Resign As New Information Surfaces on Lincoln Hills
A staffer at a troubled Northwoods youth prison has been put on paid leave pending an investigation of the medical treatment of a juvenile who was taken to a hospital this month....
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/22/2016Lincoln Hills Investigation Results in Resignation of Walker’s Secretary of Department of Corrections
Department of Corrections secretary Ed Wall has resigned amid a wide-ranging investigation of the state’s youth prison, now led by the FBI. The disclosure Friday of Wall’s resignation came hours after federal...
Wisconsin State Journal, 02/13/2016Walker Was Notified in 2012 of Lincoln Hills Crisis
A Racine County judge warned Gov. Scott Walker’s office in 2012 of severe safety issues at the state’s youth prison, and later the county stopped sending its juvenile offenders to the Irma...
Wisconsin State Journal, 02/12/2016Walker Denies Prior Knowledge of Lincoln Hill Youth Prison Abuses As Corrections Secretary Resigns Amid Investigation
Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Wall has resigned amid an investigation into abuse allegations at the state’s youth prison, the governor’s office said Friday as news emerged that the FBI had...
Associated Press, 02/12/2016Walker Was Notified of Lincoln Hills Concerns in 2012
Four years before abuse allegations put a state prison for youth in headlines, the institution botched its response to a sexual assault of an inmate so badly that an entire county stopped...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/11/2016Lincoln Hills Youth Had Toes Amputated After Run-in With Staff
In recent days, Lincoln Hills inmates have fought with each other multiple times, refused to go into their rooms – at least once en masse – and in one case threw urine...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/16/2015Lawmaker Asked Corrections Officials in March About Problems at Youth Prison
Earlier this week Gov. Scott Walker said he didn’t think there was a connection between staffing issues and the Lincoln Hills allegations. “I think their concerns were not specific to that,” Walker...
Wisconsin State Journal, 12/11/2015Scott Walker: DOC Reviewing Safety at All Prisons in Wake of Criminal Investigation at Youth Prison
Gov. Scott Walker said Friday his administration is reviewing safety measures and policies at all state prisons as the Department of Justice investigates alleged abuse of inmates at a juvenile prison in...
Wisconsin State Journal, 12/11/2015Abuse, Misconduct, Intimidation at Center of Sweeping Investigation of Wisconsin Juvenile Prison
Under a law Gov. Scott Walker signed Oct. 23, John Doe inquiries cannot be used to investigate allegations of misconduct in public office. The John Doe request in this case was filed...
Wisconsin State Journal, 12/10/2015Admins Removed Amid DOJ Investigation Into ‘mistreatment of Youth’ at State Juvenile Facility
The facility, which is about 30 miles north of Wausau, is the state’s youth prison. Copper Lake houses female offenders — 36 as of Friday — while 228 male inmates were at...
Wisconsin State Journal, 12/08/2015Agents Continue Assault Probe at Juvenile Offender School
Speaking to reporters in Madison on Monday, Gov. Scott Walker said Wall and top agency officials had brought concerns to the Department of Justice and Lincoln County Sheriff Jeff Jaeger and that...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/08/2015Agents Raid School for Juvenile Offenders Amid Secret Probe
Speaking to reporters in Madison, Gov. Scott Walker said Wall and top agency officials had brought concerns to the Department of Justice and Lincoln County Sheriff Jeff Jaeger and had not tried...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/07/2015Scott Walker’s Record on Criminal Justice & Public Safety
As chair of the State Assembly Corrections Committee in his early years Scott Walker toed the early 1990’s GOP party line on crime.
One Wisconsin Now, 06/09/2015Walker Championed “Truth in Sentencing” Law While in the Legislature
Neighboring Minnesota has a similar crime rate to Wisconsin and similar demographics, but thanks in part to Walker’s harsh sentencing law, Wisconsin has two-and-a-half times as many people in prison. Minnesota has...
Truth-out, 06/23/2014Walker’s Budget Ended Early Release Programs for Prisoners
On the chopping block in Walker’s two-year budget proposal are early release programs for prisoners, in-state college tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, mandatory insurance coverage of contraceptives, college financial aid...
Associated Press, 03/09/2011Walker Pushed for Private Prisons
Rep. Scott Walker sees the future for Wisconsin’s overburdened prison system, and it doesn’t involve a massive building campaign by the state. Instead, Walker, R-Wauwatosa, the chairman of the Assembly Committee on...
Capital Times, 10/28/1999Walker Received Campaign Contribution From Private Prison Industry Executive Whose Company Did Business With State … Expresses Surprise It Took So Long
“Quite frankly, I was surprised that if he was going to give, he hadn’t given earlier. I’ve been a private-prison advocate for some time.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/18/1999Walker Authored Bill to Allow Private Prison Construction in Wisconsin and House Prisoners From Other States
The bill, “establishes the conditions under which a private person may construct and operate a prison in this state for the confinement of inmates from other states.”
1999 AB 519, 01/01/1999