Scott Walker’s Record on Criminal Justice & Public Safety

According to data from the state Department of Public Instruction there are nearly 982,000 Wisconsin students attending public and private K-12 schools in the state. With the National Rifle Association (NRA) dropping over $819,000 on television advertising for Gov. Scott Walker which started Friday, their total support for Walker’s gubernatorial campaigns since 2010 now exceeds $4.25 million.

Gov. Scott Walker has spent 25 years charting a dangerous, racist course on corrections policy in the state of Wisconsin, singularly serving as the politician most responsible for the catastrophe the adult and juvenile incarcerations across Wisconsin have become.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been with Scott Walker from the very beginning of his quarter century long political career, cutting their first check to a Walker campaign in 1993. According to information obtained by One Wisconsin Now, Walker’s gun lobby pals are hitting the airwaves with a nearly $740,000 ad buy, pushing their support for his gubernatorial campaigns to $4.25 million since 2010.

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'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 northern Wisconsin juvenile detention centers, which became an embarrassment to the state. 

At a press conference yesterday to ostensibly discuss 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 Executive Director Scot Ross said it’s clear from Walker’s statements and desperate ploy to scare the public that the only thing 25 year career politician Scott Walker cares about keeping safe is his own job.

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 the comments during a news conference to criticize Democratic gubernatorial candidates who say they want to reduce the state’s prison population by releasing some inmates early. A week before Democrats choose the candidate to challenge Walker in November, the Republican governor said “there cannot be a starker contrast” between himself and his potential opponents.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements about Gov. Scott Walker’s disastrous record on corrections in Wisconsin. Walker who was first elected in 1993, is returning to Milwaukee today to talk about prisons to stroke racial division in the hopes of getting four more years in office. His turn to negative campaigning comes after recent public opinion polls have found his electoral prospects grim, despite $3 million in television advertising spent on his behalf since May.

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 released a statement condemning Walker for “doing nothing” to address problems at the juvenile prisons.

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 a news conference where he took a swipe at Democrats who have proposed cutting the prison population in half. Walker said such a cut would mean releasing about 4,000 violent offenders.

The liberal advocate One Wisconsin Now contends that it's been Walker's 25-year relationship with the National Rifle Association that opened the doors to the Russian accused of spying to get personal access to Walker when he was running for president. OWN calculated that the NRA has funneled $3.5 million into Walker's campaign accounts during those 25 years.

A photo featuring Gov. Scott Walker and an accused Russian spy meeting at a National Rifle Association (NRA) event has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent days. According to One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross there’s more to the picture, namely Walker’s 25 year relationship with the NRA that has netted $3.5 million for his campaign coffers.

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, only the Democratic candidates for governor are talking about it. … How did we get to the point where our state’s prisons are more than 140% full? A big piece of the puzzle began in the 1990s when then-state representative Scott Walker took the lead in writing and passing Wisconsin’s harsh truth-in-sentencing law. Though it was softened by the Legislature in the following decade, Walker and the Republican majority Legislature in 2011 reinstituted it and made it even harsher. Truth-in-sentencing laws virtually eliminate parole, severely weakening early-release opportunities for qualified inmates.

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 budget in September that included $591,000 in new funds for the Department of Corrections to purchase about 200 body cameras to give to correctional officers working with inmates housed in isolation at six maximum-security facilities around the state.

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 youth prison… “Cathy Jess is an experienced leader with a strong background, and we welcome her to this new role,” Walker said in the release. “I also give my deep appreciation and thanks to Jon Litscher for his outstanding work as DOC secretary and for his many years of dedicated service as a state official and educator.”

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 nearly $19 million, but employee promotions – not discipline – followed it…Gov. Scott Walker’s administration began to shift its attitude toward the matter last month, when it forced out three guards. The change in approach came 21/2 years after the incident – and just before the administration reached an $18.9 million settlement with the inmate, Sydni Briggs.

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 create a mandatory five-year prison sentence for repeat offenders convicted of a wide range of crimes, including felony murder and carjacking. The measures also create a mandatory three-year minimum sentence for illegally possessing a firearm while on probation, parole or extended release; and make carjacking a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Gov. Scott Walker will not appoint an interim Milwaukee County sheriff to complete the term of former Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. Six months after naming five finalists for the job, Walker’s decision announced Wednesday will allow Acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt to continue serving through the end of Clarke’s term on Jan. 7, 2019. Schmidt was on the list of finalists. “I’m thrilled to death that I’ve received the backing of Gov. Scott Walker,” Schmidt said Wednesday.

Gov. Scott Walker signed bills Wednesday to crack down on the straw purchasing of guns, give terminally ill patients the ability to try experimental medication and eliminate an air-quality monitoring station. One measure, Senate Bill 408, will make it a felony to buy a gun with the intention of passing it on to someone who is barred from possessing a firearm.

Gov. Scott Walker signed a $100 million school safety measure Monday that allows schools to apply for grants to make their buildings more secure following recent school shootings. State lawmakers passed the measure last week…Some have criticized the package for not addressing restrictions on gun sales in Wisconsin. Walker equated the plan to increased airport security after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He also reiterated that he is not interested in, nor does the bill include funding to train teachers to use guns as protection in the classroom.

The Assembly Education Committee is holding a public hearing today on the bills proposed by Gov. Scott Walker in his politically motivated special session, ostensibly called to address school safety after another mass shooting in February.

Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday called on lawmakers to take up a $100 million package aimed at providing more security in school buildings across Wisconsin. But the plan doesn’t call for imposing stricter controls on gun ownership as Democrats have called for, or for arming teachers as some Republicans have said could be a solution to gun violence in the classroom.

In a move sure to please the National Rifle Association (NRA), Gov. Scott Walker’s political stunt special session plan proposes giving Attorney General Brad Schimel authority over funding for school safety plans. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross noted that, in addition to spending $3.5 million to boost Walker’s political ambitions, the gun lobby was among the first special interest groups to meet with Schimel upon his taking office.

Gov. Scott Walker came out Wednesday against putting guns in the hands of teachers to defend against school shooters, but he’s also talking with lawmakers about passing a comprehensive school safety agenda this year.

As the nation’s governors gathered in Washington this weekend for their annual meeting, their conversations on the sidelines and even during a high profile meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday showed that they are as deeply conflicted as federal lawmakers on what to do about gun violence and safety in schools… Still, some governors avoided publicly talking about topic during the conference. Govs. Scott Walker, R-Wisc., Gov. Matt Bevin, R-Ky., and Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., refused to answer any questions on guns when asked by the media on Saturday.

Millions of dollars in campaign spending and political endorsements by the National Rifle Association (NRA) have bought the pro-gun lobby access to top state Republicans and locked down their opposition to common sense efforts to reduce gun violence. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross noted, in the aftermath of 30th mass shooting of 2018 in the U.S, top Wisconsin Republicans Scott Walker and Brad Schimel and state high court candidate Michael Screnock responding with inaction and silence.

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 criminal investigation for three years… Benzel comes on board as the criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills heats up. Last month, federal prosecutors notified two former guards they could be charged over allegations they broke a 16-year-old inmate’s arm and left him naked in a cell for hours. The inmate said in a civil rights lawsuit that he wasn’t taken to a doctor for a week.

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 teachers’ benefits to help schools absorb the cuts. Now, he’s reshaping the juvenile justice system and presiding over a budget that is delivering a funding increase to schools that covers some of the past decrease.

Gov. Scott Walker today announced the closing of the troubled Lincoln Hills juvenile correctional facility.

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 $80 million on Thursday. It calls for changing the Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake prisons into medium-security adult prisons. The state would also open five new regional juvenile prisons and expand a mental health facility in Madison to house youthful offenders.

Wisconsin has joined a club of 14 other states taking action on driverless cars — though unlike some of its peers, it’s taking the slow road toward regulating the technology. Gov. Scott Walker issued an executive order on Thursday creating a steering committee on autonomous vehicles and “connected vehicles,” cars that can communicate with wired infrastructure like traffic lights, or with other vehicles on the road. The committee — which will feature state Department of Transportation officials, law enforcement officers, industry representatives, legislators and University of Wisconsin researchers — is to submit policy recommendations to the governor by the summer of 2018.

Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday sought to advance the testing and operation of driverless cars in Wisconsin by creating a — wait for it — steering committee to study the issue.The executive order creating the committee asks the group to advise the governor on next steps for studying the technology safely. “This is great news for Wisconsin and has the potential to create jobs, spur economic growth, and strengthen mobility throughout the state,” Walker said in a statement. “We have a long history of contributing to advancements in the automotive field, and I know we will rise to the challenge in this instance as well.”

Sexual predators would have to live in their home counties when they are released but could be placed near schools, parks and day care centers, under a plan adopted Tuesday by the Legislature’s budget committee.The legislator behind the plan said he wanted to crack down on judges placing violent sex offenders far from their home counties, in part by putting the responsibility for finding housing for them in the hands of local officials. “There is a logjam in the system now where they’re having trouble placing people in the final phase of treatment,” said Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam). “We really need to remember this is treatment and the folks who are in it have constitutional rights.”

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 a two-year investigation into potential child abuse at the Irma prison. The bill now heads to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk for his signature. Doctors, child care workers and teachers are currently on the state’s list of occupations that are required by law to report suspected child abuse. The bill authored by Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, would expand that list to include guards at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls.

Cook County (Ill.) Sheriff Thomas Dart blasted Wisconsin’s child welfare officials for what he called a “shocking and disgraceful” refusal to assist his department last week with a runaway Dane County foster child.In an angry letter to Gov. Scott Walker, the sheriff asks the governor to “initiate an investigation into this matter to ensure that another child isn’t left alone, dependent on another state’s child welfare system for survival.” According to Cook County Sheriff’s Office records, officers stopped a car shortly before midnight Thursday in a high crime area on Chicago’s west side.

Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, indicated on Wednesday that he will not take any action against Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, the Chicago Tribune reported. Walker said that while he has the authority to remove Clarke, he did not believe it was just job to do so. “I’m not in a position to say,” Walker reportedly said, adding that it was up to voters to determine Clark’s fate. The conservative governor admitted that the surge of inmates’ deaths were concerning. Terrill Thomas, a 38-year-old inmate who died in April, was the fourth inmate to die in Milwaukee County in the past six months.

Every day, Jade Rising, a single mom from Wisconsin Rapids, is relieved and grateful her child isn’t dead from a suicide attempt. Her fears and difficulties are similar to many parents across the state. Rising’s child, Sam Baum, isn’t alone struggling to cope with the challenges of everyday life — Wisconsin is facing a suicide crisis among its youth.

Tip continue to pour in as the nationwide manhunt for Joseph Jakubowski continues. The Wisconsin Lottery is now helping in the search, and political officials are taking steps to keep themselves and their constituents safe. … That alert came out as word spread from Governor Scott Walker’s office that he would be keeping his public appearance schedule private, because of the possible threat Jakubowski presents. According to Walker, “We just don’t want our schedule out in advance not so much for me, but for others. I don’t want to put anyone else at risk figuring if that’s not noticed in advance that doesn’t make us or anyone else a target.”

Schimel didn’t ask lawmakers last year to fund rape kit testing as part of the Department of Justice’s two-year budget request and no proposal was included in Walker’s proposed state budget this year. The budget is now being reviewed by legislators before being sent back to Walker. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin asked Walker and the Legislature’s top four party leaders this month if they would support or oppose setting aside state funds for rape kit testing and if they are satisfied with the state’s handling of kits. One legislator responded. Walker’s office referred questions to the Department of Justice.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher is defending Republican Gov. Scott Walker against criticism that he has yet to visit a prison. Walker hasn’t visited any prisons since he first took office in 2011. Democrats have been pushing him to visit the state’s troubled youth prison in Irma.

Moore stressed the store did nothing illegal in selling the gun, but he pointed to a change in state law last year that made the events possible. The previous law required a 48-hour waiting period before a buyer would be able to pick up a gun. The new law, passed in June by the Republican-led Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker, put an end to the waiting-period law that was in effect for 40 years, according to news reports. Wisconsin joined a majority of states in eliminating waiting periods for gun purchases. As of last June, nine states and the District of Columbia still had them. Walker said at the time the instant national background check system made waiting periods obsolete, Reuters reported.

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 husband, Baron Walker, has been imprisoned for nearly 22 years on a 60-year sentence for two armed bank robberies. Since 2011, he has been eligible for parole under Wisconsin’s old sentencing scheme, which allowed inmates to petition for release after serving one-fourth of their time.

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 championed the state’s truth in sentencing law to ensure tough sentences on convicted criminals.

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 — including one totaling $9,000 — were reached as the FBI continues a criminal investigation of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year reported officials at the prison complex trained staff improperly, failed to preserve video evidence, didn’t document serious incidents and often shirked their duty to report matters to parents, police and social service agencies.

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 Cook first said Thursday that the furniture would be repurposed for use in the Corrections Department after the Parole Commission is eliminated. But he reversed himself 35 minutes after The Associated Press reported on the purchase, saying instead the order would be canceled or scaled back. On Friday, Cook said the bulk of the order wouldn’t be canceled because inmates who were making the furniture through the state prison system’s manufacturing program, Badger State Industries, had already begun the work.

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 into alleged inmate abuse and two lawsuits challenging conditions at the remote facility. The budget the governor unveiled last week makes no mention of problems at the prison in the woods outside Irma in northern Wisconsin. The spending plan lays out about $2 million to create eight new guard positions, three new mental health specialist positions for the prison’s female wing and convert nine contract nursing positions to state positions. Even with the new positions, the boys’ side of the prison would be about 50 guards short of staff-to-inmate ratios mandated by the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. Walker, a Republican, rejected a Department of Corrections request for $3.7 million for serious juvenile offender care and community supervision and made no move toward returning prison inmates to a facility in Milwaukee County, where most of the prison’s inmates are from, even though Walker said in December he was open to such a transfer.

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 Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, Walker is instead proposing to hire eight new staff members to push the Irma detention center toward compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. The facility needs about 50 more staff members to be compliant. Walker also proposes about three new staff to expand mental health services for female inmates at the facility, and nine new nurses to help dispense medication.

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration abruptly backed off Wednesday on plans to roll back a requirement for fire sprinklers, but the state might not adopt other safety standards that firefighters say would save lives. In recent weeks, Walker’s Department of Safety and Professional Services has quietly advanced plans to end the requirement that fire sprinklers be installed in apartment buildings with three to 20 units. Two hours after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin websites posted a story about the plan Wednesday, agency officials said they were dropping the idea.

 One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements about Gov. Scott Walker calling for a special session of the already-in-session Wisconsin state legislature to discuss opioid addiction.

Gov. Scott Walker is meeting with Milwaukee authorities to discuss public safety issues. Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said the governor met with Milwaukee aldermen and the Milwaukee police and firefighter union presidents in the state Capitol on Friday. Milwaukee Police spokesman Tim Gauerke said police Chief Ed Flynn also attended. A neighborhood on the city’s northwest side erupted in violence Saturday and Sunday nights after a police officer shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith.

Milwaukee police say they are battling continued unrest early Monday morning, making multiple arrests and rushing one shooting victim and at least one officer to the hospital in the second night of violence following a fatal police shooting. The skirmishes began on Saturday after a Milwaukee officer fatally shot a 23-year-old man, whom officials say was armed and had a criminal record… Earlier on Sunday, the Wisconsin National Guard was activated. “Following a request from Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and after discussions with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Adjutant General Donald Dunbar I have activated the Wisconsin National Guard to be in a position to aid local law enforcement upon request,” Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement. Walker also asked residents of his state to be respectful of law enforcement. “I will not comment on the specifics of the case as it is now under this investigation. I do, however, hope people will give law enforcement the respect they deserve for working so hard to keep us safe,” he said.

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 naked, records show. Vincent Ramos used graphic and crass language to ridicule the size and appearance of the girl’s breasts, according to the account of one of his co-workers… Documents about Ramos are the latest shedding light on the culture of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus north of Wausau and are the subject of an 18-month-long criminal investigation into prisoner abuse and staff misconduct… Cook emphasized that new leaders have taken over the Department of Corrections since Ramos was an employee and said Gov. Scott Walker’s administration is committed to making substantial reforms at Lincoln Hills. In recent months, Lincoln Hills workers have been equipped with body cameras and given more training.

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 cases… That coincides with the six-month time limit imposed by a new law that reduced the power of John Doe investigations in Wisconsin. John Does are semi-secret probes run by judges that give prosecutors broad power to collect evidence. Republicans in the state Legislature diminished their power following a broad John Doe that targeted Walker’s campaign and several conservative groups.

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 basketball game — three hours after the assault took place.

Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill that creates uniform restrictions on where violent sex offenders can live.Municipalities currently use local ordinances to create zones where sex offenders can’t live.The bill creates statewide regulations barring violent sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet of any school, day care, youth center, church or public park. Sex offenders who committed crimes against children can’t live next door to children. Sex offenders who committed crimes against an elderly or disabled person can’t live within 1,500 feet of a nursing home or other assisted living facility. Local ordinances will generally remain enforceable. Walker signed the bill privately on Monday.

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 at the center of an investigation into sexual assault, prisoner abuse, child neglect and other crimes.”It blew me away that no one was charged,” said James Townsend, the former supervisor at Lincoln Hills School for Boys who investigated the March 2013 incident.

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. The situation comes amid a criminal probe of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. Corrections Secretary Ed Wall is stepping down next month, and other top leaders at the Department of Corrections could change soon as well, a spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker said Monday. About 50 agents and attorneys raided the schools in December as they investigate allegations of prisoner abuse, child neglect and sexual assault. More recently, the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation took over the probe.

Tougher penalties for repeat drunken drivers, once a tough sell to Wisconsin lawmakers, have won widespread backing in the state Capitol in recent weeks. But with stronger penalties now a step from becoming law, legislators have not addressed how they’ll pay for more prison time for repeat offenders — a figure that could top $100 million annually. The Assembly passed a bill Tuesday to make all fourth-time drunken driving offenses felonies and boost maximum penalties for subsequent convictions. The bill passed the Senate last month and cleared the Legislature with just a single dissenting vote. A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker, Laurel Patrick, said Wednesday that he plans to sign the bill.

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 officials confirmed that the FBI is leading the investigation of alleged abuses at the state’s only youth prison, Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls in Irma. It came less than a day after Gov. Scott Walker’s office acknowledged it was warned of safety problems at Lincoln Hills dating back to 2012 — which appeared at odds with Walker’s previous comments. Walker announced Friday that Jon Litscher, a former Corrections secretary appointed by Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, will take Wall’s place at DOC.

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 facility that is now the subject of a criminal investigation. The letter, sent to Walker in February 2012, appears at odds with Walker’s previous statements that he was made aware of allegations of abuse at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls within the past year. Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said the governor was not shown the letter from Racine County Circuit Judge Richard Kreul.

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 taken over the inquiry. Gov. Scott Walker’s staff said Wall submitted his letter of resignation on Feb. 5. He will be replaced by Jon Litscher, who served as the corrections secretary more than a decade ago. The allegations first came to light publicly in December when state DOJ agents descended on Lincoln Hills and a sister facility, Copper Lake, which shares a campus in northern Wisconsin. But two newspapers reported Thursday that a judge sent a letter four years ago warning Walker of possible criminal conduct at the Lincoln Hills School in Irma. Walker has said he was unaware of allegations of misconduct until recently. His spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, has said the governor never saw the judge’s note and that it had been referred to the corrections department.

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 sending offenders there. Their confidence shaken, Racine County officials pulled all their youth offenders from the state-run Lincoln Hills School for Boys in Irma and sharply criticized the handling of the 2012 incident to Gov. Scott Walker and high-ranking officials in the Department of Corrections. Records of the incident show clearly that despite Walker’s repeated statements that he was surprised by more recent allegations of abuse, his office and his administration were told of troubling conduct at the prison in February 2012. Then-Racine County Circuit Judge Richard Kreul sent a memo directly to Walker on Feb. 10, 2012, detailing the alleged sexual assault and the failure of Lincoln Hills staff to notify law enforcement, child protective services and county officials about it.

Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill legalizing concealed switchblades and knives. The governor signed the measure Saturday at the annual National Rifle Association and Wisconsin FORCE convention in Weston. Wisconsin FORCE, or Firearm Owners, Ranges, Clubs and Educators, is an NRA-chartered association that advocates for the right to bear arms.

Mayor Tom Barrett and Flynn say they will continue calling for tougher penalties when people are caught carrying guns in violation of the law. The two counted a victory late last year when Gov. Scott Walker signed a law boosting minimum prison time for felons possessing guns.Flynn and Barrett have continued to single out Wisconsin’s concealed carry law as a possible factor in rising violence. Felons cannot get a permit and are prohibited from carrying guns, but people with misdemeanor convictions can get one, unless the crimes involved domestic violence.

A drug that can stop a heroin overdose is becoming more available to the public, but police in Portage County won’t be carrying it anytime soon. The drug, known as naloxone, was the focus of a recent change to state law. The legislation, which Gov. Scott Walker signed Dec. 8, allows pharmacies to distribute the drug without a prescription when the pharmacies have permission from doctors.

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 on a staff member, said Towne, who has three family members who work at the school. Those incidents erupted in the days after Gov. Scott Walker said he believed Lincoln Hills was now safe, Towne said.

Two of the five district attorneys involved in an investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative groups are walking away from an attempt to revive the probe that the state Supreme Court terminated this summer. In a letter and court filing last week, Dodge County District Attorney Kurt Klomberg wrote he would not seek to intervene in litigation over the probe as a way to get the matter before the U.S. Supreme Court. Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey sent a nearly identical letter on Monday.

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 said. “But certainly we’ll have to wait until we see everything at the end.”

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 Lincoln County. Also on Friday, the Department of Corrections announced it plans to purchase body cameras for staff at the Lincoln Hills boys and Copper Lake girls schools as one of several steps in response to the allegations.

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 a day before that law was signed. Previously, no parties involved in a John Doe could acknowledge even the existence of such an investigation. Under the new law, only judges, prosecutors, court officials and investigators are prohibited from speaking about the probe; witnesses may now discuss what they have been asked or testified to.

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 Lincoln Hills, according to Corrections data. Gov. Scott Walker told reporters Monday that DOC supervisors did not deliberately suppress assault records at the facility.

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 Walker didn’t believe they had tried to cover them up.

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 to cover them up. The governor said he had been briefed on the probe and met with Attorney General Brad Schimel last week about it. “What they reported to us is that they thought there was a failure in reporting in the chain of command,” and that the concern “doesn’t appear to be in the secretary’s office,” Walker said.

Instead, Flynn pointed to two more likely culprits: State budget cuts that reduced mental health services and other social programs, and a 2011 law that dramatically weakened the power of police to arrest people with guns. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is responsible for both developments. Flynn said the new gun law, which Walker said would make the state “safer for all responsible, law-abiding citizens,” has been particularly damaging. For the first time in nearly 150 years, it is legal to carry a concealed weapon in Wisconsin. People are supposed to register for permits, but carrying a concealed gun without a permit is a misdemeanor if the carrier isn’t a convicted felon or mentally unstable. So police can do little more than confiscate unlicensed guns, even from an offender who is stopped multiple times… Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick defended Walker’s record, saying he has recently increased mental health funding. As for the new gun law, Patrick said Walker will not apologize for being a strong supporter of gun rights. But the governor is also concerned about gun violence, she said, which is why he funded sensors last year that pinpoint gunfire and report the information to city police.

MADISON, Wis. – One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements on Gov. Scott Walker’s Wednesday press conference.

Just a few days before an unarmed, 19-year-old black man was shot and killed by a Madison police officer, Wisconsin's attorney general had asked lawmakers to fund more positions to investigate officer-involved deaths...Gov. Scott Walker last April signed into law a bill requiring outside agencies to investigate officer-involved shootings. The legislation was championed by Reps. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, and Gary Bies, R-Sister Bay, in response to three high-profile officer-involved deaths in the last decade. Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to pass such a law. In order to implement the law, the state Department of Justice under then-Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen requested $352,600 in 2015-16 and $386,000 in 2016-17, and 5 full-time positions annually, to investigate officer-involved deaths and review public records associated with those investigations. Walker did not fund the request in his biennial budget, introduced in February.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel wants the Legislature's budget committee to give the state Justice Department more positions in the state budget to deal with officer-involved death investigations. Lawmakers signed a bill last year that requires outside agencies to lead investigations of officer-involved deaths. Attorney General Brad Schimel told the Joint Finance Committee on Monday that more agencies are turning to the DOJ to handle such investigations. The agency asked Gov. Scott Walker to include funding for five new positions -- three agents and two records specialists -- to help with the workload. Walker didn't include the request in his budget proposal.

The National Rifle Association is trying to revive the flailing campaign of Gov. Scott Walker by placing a $1 million television buy for the next month in several markets around Wisconsin. The $1 million buy covers markets in La Crosse, Green Bay and Wausau.

Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said United Sportsmen's sole source of funding appeared to be a conservative political group and that its main spending went to a GOP campaign consultant. “It is clear, based on their track record, that had United Sportsmen gotten state funding as envisioned by Governor Walker and Republican legislative leaders, this would have been a publicly funded campaign organ of the GOP,” Ross said.

Just days before receiving the grant, the lobbyist for United Sportsmen offered free fishing excursions to Suder, the Journal Sentinel reported Monday. The day the trip began, Suder joined 17 other Republicans in urging a committee to give the grant to United Sportsmen.
The liberal group One Wisconsin Now filed an ethics complaint with the state Government Accountability Board over the matter.

Mere days before he was slated to start a $94,000 a year job in the Walker administration, it was announced today that former Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder has taken a different job as a special interest lobbyist.

The author of a sweetheart deal worth potentially millions of dollars for a politically-connected organization was offered a free, two-day Lake Michigan fishing excursion by the lobbyist and Executive Director for the group, according to a story in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One Wisconsin Now has filed a formal complaint with the state Government Accountability Board asking for an investigation of possible violations of state ethics laws based on the report, according Executive Director Scot Ross.

 As part of his 2013-15 state budget Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a provision directing a $500,000 taxpayer funded grant to United Sportsmen of Wisconsin, a group that endorsed him in his 2012 recall election.

 Almost daily new revelations have raised serious questions about the propriety and legality of Gov. Walker and Republican legislators inclusion of a sweetheart deal in the state budget that would have given $500,000 of taxpayer money to a group that endorsed Walker in his recall election. In the face of mounting questions and rising public outrage, Gov. Walker stopped payment on the first installment of the grant to United Sportsmen, after he signed it into law and it was approved by his administration.

According to a campaign spokesperson, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will be arriving back in the state today from a trip to the key GOP 2016 presidential primary state of South Carolina. While in the state for a short week before he jets off to Michigan for the weekend for another political appearance, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross called on Walker to answer questions about the sweetheart deal to send state tax dollars to a partisan political front group that endorsed him in his recall election.

 The scandal surrounding Gov. Walker's attempt to reward an organization that endorsed him in his 2012 recall election with $500,000 in state tax dollars in the 2013-15 budget continues to grow. Breaking news reports today reveal that the group in question may in fact be a for-profit corporation that received at least $235,000 in income in 2011, courtesy of the right-wing Citizens for a Strong America. Yet according to information from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, there is no record of the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin filing a tax return or paying any income taxes for 2011 or 2012.

 A $500,000 taxpayer funded state grant to United Sportsmen of Wisconsin has generated increasing controversy over the last several weeks as serious questions were raised about how the grant process was rigged to make sure it went to a politically connected GOP front group and the trustworthiness of the organization.

 Could a state grant slipped into the budget by the former Assembly Majority Leader, signed into law by Gov. Walker and rushed through the approval process by the Walker administration be used to help support partisan political activity? A loophole inserted into the budget provision authorizing the grant and the track record of the group in line to reap $500,000 in taxpayer dollars over the next two years certainly raises the possibility, according to One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross.

 Despite mounting questions and growing evidence that top Republican leaders went to great lengths to ensure a taxpayer funded grant went to a politically connected special interest group, the grant was approved on Thursday. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross lambasted the approval of the grant in light of the burgeoning scandal surrounding the provision creating the program in the 2013 state budget.

In the wake of the country's latest mass shooting, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday that more should be done to help mentally troubled individuals and that arming school officials should be "part of the discussion." Walker called for a summit involving top mental health professionals from around the state early next year...And Walker said that he would not rule out allowing school employees with firearms training to carry guns to fight back against armed intruders.

Scot Ross, the director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, couldn’t pass up a comment on the irony. He sent me Courtney’s letter, which is attached to this post, with the following comment: “With Scott Walker and the Republicans, you always follow the money. In May, they used the threat of guns in the Capitol to raise money. And in October they want to allow guns in the Capitol to raise money from the NRA.”

Walker signed into law SB 93, the “Conceal Carry” legislation, which allows individuals to go armed with a firearm, loaded or not, and concealed or openly carried. Loaded firearms are also now generally allowed in vehicles with a concealed carry permit. The law specifies that an individual carrying a firearm openly or concealed cannot be charged with disorderly conduct. The individual can even openly load a firearm. Handguns, but not other types of guns, are allowed in public parks and wildlife refuges, however all firearms are prohibited within 1,000 feet of school grounds. The bill passed the Senate 25-8 and Assembly 68-27, and was signed into law by Walker on 7/8/11. (2011 SB 93, introduced 5/10/2011; Senate Roll Call; Assembly Roll Call)

Police officers will no longer have to collect traffic-stop data to track possible racial profiling, under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Scott Walker. The bill, which passed the Senate in February and the Assembly June 8, will reverse a state mandate requiring Wisconsin's 600 law enforcement agencies to collect racial and other data on drivers pulled over by officers. Opponents of the mandate say the repeal will eliminate unnecessary paperwork for law enforcement and cut costs, while supporters of the mandate say the data-collection system helps keep track of potential racial profiling. "During tight budget times we need to set priorities in all areas of government, and this bill allows law enforcement agencies to focus on doing their job - protecting and serving the public," Walker said in a statement.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker has killed a statewide mandate on police to gather racial data during traffic stops. Walker signed a GOP bill Wednesday that ends requirements that officers collect the age, zip code, gender and ethnicity of drivers and passengers. Democrats passed the requirements when they controlled the Legislature, arguing the data will prove whether racial profiling exists in Wisconsin. Some police have countered the requirements are too time-consuming. Walker issued a statement saying the data-gathering effort is burdensome and police should be allowed to do their jobs.

A state group representing more than 600 criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges and academics also opposes the castle doctrine bill. "AB 69 changes Wisconsin law by providing a defense for irrational people armed with deadly force. Under its provisions, malevolent, reckless, or paranoid people who shoot trick-or-treaters or repairmen on their porch will be presumed to be acting in self-defense," reads a statement issued this week on behalf of the criminal law section of the State Bar of Wisconsin…"At present, no member of the criminal law section of the State Bar, which is made up of judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and academics, can come up with a single case wherein a homeowner was charged with a crime for defending himself or herself from a home intruder," the memo reads.

“Unpaid furloughs ordered to help balance Milwaukee County's 2010 budget could compromise public safety, according to law enforcement and court officials. The impact of furloughs -- or other substitute budget cuts - -could range from slower prosecutions to delayed trials and criminal arrest warrants, the officials said. Restraining orders in domestic violence cases also might be slowed, they said. The furloughs may force him to make ‘triage decisions’ in which charges for lesser crimes are delayed or skipped so prosecutors can focus on serious felony cases, said District Attorney John Chisholm.”

“The board did not disrupt Walker's plan to place oversight of the House of Correction under Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and merge it with Clarke's operation of the county jail. Under the change, Walker would give up his management responsibility over the House of Correction and county work-release center. The center came under fire in a federal audit early this year. Holloway said he wasn't enthusiastic about that change, but noted supervisors had little choice because of some $3 million in savings linked to the merger. Supervisors ordered a specific merger plan by July 1 and use of the National Institute of Corrections audit as the blueprint for changes at the House of Correction.”

“Also Thursday, Malone released a report showing the House of Correction has mistakenly released six inmates since April 2005 and the downtown work-release center has had 54 inmates who left without permission since 2003. The minimum-security center downtown can't lock its doors overnight when inmates are supposed to be confined because the converted 1930s hospital building is a fire hazard.… The jail is run by Clarke, while the House of Correction and work-release center are the responsibility of Walker.”

Freddie Dudley was a work-release inmate when charged with reckless homicide for killing a man on the city's west side last August while he was supposed to be sleeping at the House of Correction center.”

“The Milwaukee County House of Correction in Franklin and the downtown work-release center come under severe criticism in a new federal report, which calls the operations seriously flawed and marred by security lapses, bad management, poor employee morale and crowded conditions. Both facilities also have serious fire safety shortcomings, including inoperative alarms and no sprinklers at the work-release center. The report, by the National Institute of Corrections, calls for a major overhaul of operations and suggests that the county plan to build additional lockups and consider merging the county jail with the House of Correction under management of a single department.”

What Walker tells the voters today doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to what he might tell them tomorrow. Example: Walker has been a co-sponsor of a bill in the Legislature that would allow people to carry concealed weapons. Never mind that the bill would increase the guns on the street at a time when homicide is the leading cause of death among young African Americans. Never mind that the bill would endanger the lives of police officers, who oppose concealed carry laws. Well, just plain never mind. When the state Assembly recently passed concealed carry, Walker voted against it. Apparently, when you're running for an office that includes Milwaukee, which regularly loses its children to gun violence, you suddenly don't believe in concealed carry anymore. Walker's position on cutting state shared revenue to Milwaukee County is even more of a hypocritical flip-flop.

The bill would have granted, “firearm importers, manufacturers, dealers and trade associations immunity from civil liability in any action brought by an individual or group for an injury or death caused by a firearm or by firearm ammunition.” (Assembly Journal)

“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.”

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.”

The bill made numerous revisions to the juvenile justice code including providing, “a uniform age of 15 years at which DOC may transfer a juvenile prisoner to an adult prison.”

The bill prohibited, “any city, village, town or county (political subdivision) from enacting an ordinance that regulates firearms in a way that is more stringent than state law. (Assembly Journal )

Under the bill, a court could determine a serious child sex offender should be ordered to undergo pharmacological treatment aka “chemical castration”

Walker’s bill increased “the general obligation bonding authority for the prison expansion project by $50,000,000, from $25,000,000 to $75,000,000.

The bill granted bill adult courts “original jurisdiction over a juvenile who is alleged to have attempted or committed first-degree intentional homicide or to have committed first-degree reckless homicide or 2nd-degree intentional homicide on or after the juvenile's 10th birthday.” (1995 WI Act 77)