Dane County Judge Says Department of Corrections is Complying with Ruling Regarding Program for Incarcerated Moms

Sunday, September 6th, 2026 -- 8:00 AM

(Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) A Dane County judge says Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections is complying with a 2025 ruling that ordered the prison system to implement a program for incarcerated moms and their infants.

According to Sarah Lehr with the Wisconsin Public Radio, that determination came last week, when Judge Stephen Ehlke denied a request from the American Civil Liberties of Union of Wisconsin.

The ACLU wanted Ehlke to reopen a case, which was first brought by the civil liberties group in 2024. Now, the group is weighing additional legal steps. That could include asking the judge for reconsideration, or filing another lawsuit in a different court.

“We’ll continue to fight to make sure that moms and babies are able to get the best start that they can,” ACLU Wisconsin attorney Ryan Cox said. The ACLU’s lawsuit stemmed from a 1991 state law that requires Wisconsin to operate a “mother-young child care program” for women who are pregnant or have a baby under one year old.

That law says the state shall provide the program to women who are “prisoners or on probation, extended supervision or parole.” Among other criteria, that law says the state’s mother-young child program shall allow “females to retain, during participation in the program, the physical custody of their children.”

Several states have prison nursery programs, which allow incarcerated moms to be physically present to care for their infants. But Wisconsin is not one of them. The ACLU filed its suit on behalf of two women who were incarcerated at the time.

At the time, the DOC acknowledged that it did not offer its mother-young child program to currently imprisoned moms. But, the prison system argued it was complying with the law because it offered programming to women who are out on supervision.

In his 2025 ruling, Elhke disagreed, and ruled that the prison system had to expand its mother-young child program to currently incarcerated mothers. In early 2026, the ACLU went back to the court, arguing that the DOC had failed to comply with Ehlke’s order even after nearly a year had passed.

The ACLU asked for the case to be reopened, so it could pursue sanctions against the corrections department. In filings responding to that request, the DOC argued that none of its women’s prisons can safely house infants.

“The evidence shows Corrections tried to obtain funding from the Legislature to build a facility within a prison to house women with their babies,” the state wrote in June. “The request was denied, through no fault of Defendants. And Defendants are still trying to get the funds needed to build such a facility.”

Additionally, the DOC argued that it was complying with Elhke’s order because it was taking steps to ensure that participation in a community-based residential program would be expanded to women who are currently “prisoners.”

That includes writing a policy and updating its vendor contract with Meta House, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit, the DOC said in court documents. The DOC says those steps will open up Meta House to certain women who qualify for what’s known as “community residential based confinement.”

To participate, the DOC says women have to be taking or have completed parenting classes, and they’ll be disqualified if they’ve been convicted of certain crimes. “Corrections is aware of one eligible prisoner who currently qualifies for participation,” state officials wrote in court. “Additional women could become eligible any day, as they receive new sentences or complete portions of their sentence.”

Cox, the ACLU attorney, says there are “dozens” of incarcerated women each year who should qualify for Wisconsin’s mother-young child program because they are pregnant or have an infant under one.

The ACLU contends that expanding Meta House is not enough to comply with Ehlke’s prior order. “They’ve not created a program for women who are actually incarcerated in DOC custody,” Cox said in an interview with WPR. “What they’ve done is try to game the rules to allow a very small set of women to have early release and participate in a program that already existed.”

In his order last week, Ehlke said he was sympathetic to the fact that the DOC’s “eligibility requirements may exclude some female prisoners.” Still, Ehlke said the ACLU failed to prove that DOC had “intentionally disobeyed, resisted, or otherwise obstructed” a court order.

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