Some Milwaukee residents felt blindsided by plans for a youth prison. Over a month later, Wisconsin officials gave them a forum to speak
A month and a half after state and local leaders fast-tracked key approvals for a new youth prison in Milwaukee, state officials say the location is "not a done deal" and point to opportunities for nearby residents to weigh in over the coming months.
Some residents have said they initially felt blindsided by plans to locate the youth prison near their north side neighborhoods and like their concerns had been sidelined, a situation that state officials hoped to ameliorate through informational meetings with area residents and businesses.
State elected and corrections officials held a public meeting with residents last week and have pointed to future city meetings as opportunities to make their voices heard.
It is unclear how much sway the residents and their concerns will have. Just a few days after Gov. Tony Evers unveiled plans to put the new youth prison at 7930 W. Clinton Ave., the Common Council held a special meeting during its August recess to give an initial green light to the project.
City officials still must approve a zoning change before the project may move forward.
"It's not a done deal because there's a lot of work to be done," said state Department of Corrections Secretary Kevin Carr.
The new facility will be one of the replacements for Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, the state's long-troubled youth prison north of Wausau that state leaders have been working to close since 2018. It was then that legislation detailing a plan for its closure and the construction of new facilities was adopted.
In front of a crowd of roughly 150 people at last week's meeting, Carr defended plans to put the new youth prison on Milwaukee's north side, and tried to ease safety and economic concerns voiced by neighboring residents.
Supporters of the facility extolled the benefits it could have on Milwaukee County youth and their families, who currently have to travel more than 200 miles to Wisconsin's rural north to visit young people at Lincoln Hills.
Residents opposed to the facility near their homes thought officials should have consulted them before picking the site.
"We knew how hard it is to locate a facility in anyone's community. Most people say, 'Not in my backyard,' " Carr said. "We try to do things in the best, most inclusive way possible."
Opponents outnumbered supporters at meeting
At least 74 people at last week's meeting, which was hosted by state Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, were in opposition to the youth prison being located near them, according to numbers provided by Michelle Bryant, Taylor's chief of staff. The meeting was held at the Abundant Faith Church of Integrity, which borders the Clinton site.
"Everything on the north side is going downhill," said Carolyn Allen, who read off a list of businesses, including Northtown Cinema and the Northridge Mall, that had closed in the last 20 years or so. "We have enough problems."
Tresha Lovell pointed to the same "decline" and said she didn't believe a youth prison would help to "turn this area around."
State lawmakers promised in 2018 to close Lincoln Hills and replace it with smaller, regional facilities around the state. The new facilities have been delayed for years, in part due to underfunding and earlier disputes over where to locate them.
When a bipartisan group of lawmakers passed $42 million in funding for a Milwaukee County facility earlier this year, the question became where the youth prison would be located.
Supporters of the new facility who were at last week's meeting included members of Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing, or EXPO, and the Felmers Chaney Advocacy Board, a group of private citizens who worked with corrections officials to identify the Clinton site.
Dante Cottingham, who was invited by the meeting organizers to speak, was confined at Lincoln Hills as a young teenager in the 1990s. He went on to spend more than 20 years in prison for a later homicide conviction. It could have been different, he said, if the workers at Lincoln Hills had been able to connect with him and redirect his path.
"They didn't have people there that looked like me," said Cottingham, who now works with EXPO and is a peer specialist. "The people that were there, they didn't understand me."
Corrections officials hope that by having the facility in Milwaukee, they will be able to hire workers and recruit volunteers who can easily relate to the youth at Lincoln Hills, most of whom are Black and from Milwaukee County.
Davina Jones also has a personal connection to the issue. Her nephew was held at Lincoln Hills for three years, and to visit, she had to take a four-hour bus ride to see him for two hours. She supports the new facility because it would mean families could support their children during their rehabilitation.
"I keep hearing, 'Not my backyard, not my backyard.' This facility is going to be in somebody’s backyard," she said. "This is bigger than each individual person here."
Officials say visitors will be vetted, releases will be minimal and done securely
Residents at the meeting expressed concerns the facility would make their neighborhoods less safe, bring more crime to the area and become a draw for lawbreakers. Opponents pointed to increases in crime in the area, and wondered whether other neighborhoods, say on the south side, were considered.
Beverly Wilson was not necessarily opposed to the facility but had concerns. She was worried about senior citizens like herself who are often the targets of robbery and assaults.
"The questions that I have are, are we sure this is going to be a secure facility?" she said. "We don't want anyone hanging around that could possibly cause us harm."
Carr, the corrections secretary, said he takes public safety very seriously and pointed out that some prisons across the state, including the maximum-security prison Waupun Correctional Institution, are right next to houses and residential areas.
"We make extremely good neighbors," he said.
The 32-bed youth facility would be secured, and would be staffed with over 70 correctional officers, said Lance Horozewski, assistant administrator of the DOC Division of Juvenile Corrections.
Visitation is done on a scheduled basis, and visitors go through a vetting process, he said.
"Not everyone can come and visit you," Horozewski said.
Given the facility's small size, releases would not occur often, likely only once or twice per month, he said. When released, young people would either be picked up by their family members or would be taken in a secure way to their next destination, whether that be their home, a group home or another correctional facility, he said.
"We're not going to give somebody a bus ticket and then kick them out the door and let them wander around," Carr said.
The facility will not look like a typical prison, Carr said. Officials hope to make the facility feel more welcoming and more conducive to the schooling, counseling and other services that will take place there.
The issue will go before the City Plan Commission and the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee, and then before the Common Council for a vote on a zoning change. No public hearing has been scheduled yet on the issue before the Plan Commission.
Reporters Tom Daykin and Alison Dirr, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff, contributed to this report.
Sarah Volpenhein is a reporter who focuses on news of value to underserved communities. Email her at svolpenhei@gannett.com. You can support work like hers through our newsroom's Report for America effort. More information can be found at JSOnline.com/RFA.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee residents blindsided by plans for youth prison air concerns
