Governor Evers' Plans for the Wisconsin Prison System Move Forward

Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 -- 11:00 AM

(AP) Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ sweeping plan to overhaul Wisconsin’s aging prison system, which includes closing a prison built in the 1800s, moved forward Tuesday with bipartisan support despite complaints from Republican lawmakers that their concerns weren’t being addressed.

A bipartisan subcommittee of the state building commission approved spending $15 million to proceed with planning for the Evers proposal. The full building commission, which Evers chairs, was expected to green-light the spending later Tuesday.

Evers in February presented his plan as the best and only option to address the state’s aging facilities. Problems at the lockups have included inmate deaths, assaults against staff, lockdowns, lawsuits, federal investigations, criminal charges against staff, resignations and rising maintenance costs.

The building commission’s approval on Tuesday for spending the $15 million in planning money would start that process. The entire plan, once fully enacted, would take six years to complete and likely cost about $1 billion. Evers is not seeking a third term next year, so it would be up to the next governor to either continue with his plan or go in a different direction.

The multitiered proposal starts with finally closing the troubled Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake juvenile correctional facilities in northern Wisconsin, and building a new one near Madison at the site of a current minimum security prison.

The Lincoln Hills campus would then be converted into a medium security adult prison. The prison in Green Bay, built in 1898, would be closed. The plan also proposes that the state’s oldest prison, which was built in Waupun in 1851, be converted from a maximum-security prison to a medium security center focused on vocational training.

The Stanley Correctional Center would be converted from a medium to a maximum-security prison and the prison in Hobart would be expanded to add 200 minimum security beds.

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