Governor Evers Facing Criticism Over Delay of Construction of New Youth Prisons
Thursday, February 28th, 2019 -- 8:05 AM
(WRN) -Governor Evers is considering delays in construction of new youth prisons, and that's drawing criticism from the legislature.Governor Evers is considering delays in construction new youth prisons, and that's drawing criticism from the legislature. Evers is looking to push back the creation of regional facilities by several months, and delay the closure of Lincoln Hills until the projects are finished. State senator Van Wanggaard says the request for a delay just shows the disfunction inherent in state government.
"Dealing with some of these issues, it's not so much that 'Oh this is going to take too long to do and blah blah blah', it's that they're not under the same time constraints, and so they push stuff off."
Wanggaard who helped author the bill to improve the youth prison system.
"These kids can't stay in this environment out there for another four and a half years before they start dealing with it."
Van Wanggaard rejects the idea, and says the state needs to stick to the timeline in building the new facilities.
"These kids can't be held in this environment for any longer period of time than we actually have to, because if we can get them into better programming and better environment, chances are we're going to have better final results."
Wanggaard says he's also disappointed that he had to read about this in the paper, rather than having the Governor talk to him before hand. Evers plans do include raising the funding for the renovations and construction, as well as eliminating the law that allows the state to try 17 year olds as adults. Evers previously said he'd want to hold off two years on the 2021 deadline, lawmakers told the governor they only wanted to see a six month delay.
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