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The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote today on whether to recommend a change in state law that would mitigate the impact of a state plan to close juvenile correctional facilities located in Waukesha and Racine counties. The proposed change would allow the county to refer kids to local facilities for longer periods of time as an alternative to committing them to the one remaining facility in Irma, Wis., about 220 miles north of Milwaukee.

Currently, state law only allows counties to place kids adjudicated as “delinquents” in local detention facilities for up to 30 days. Any longer, and the juvenile must be placed in a correctional facility. Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 biennial budget, however, eliminates some of those correctional facilities: It calls for closing the Ethan Allen boys school in Wales and the South Oaks girls school in Union Grove (in Racine County) and consolidating operations at Lincoln Hills (in Irma) to close a deficit in the state juvenile corrections division.

lincoln hills (photo by DOC)

Milwaukee County is considering asking the state Legislature to extend the limit on local placement to 180 days to keep more kids in Southeastern Wisconsin facilities and delay their placement in Lincoln Hills.

“There’s a tremendous advantage to keeping them closer to home,” says Supervisor Theo Lipscomb, who sponsored the legislation with county board chairman Lee Holloway. “These kids are often from families that don’t have a lot of resources,” making a trip to Lincoln Hills a challenge that could limit family visits, Lipscomb says.

Holloway says Ethan Allen’s pending closure “gives policymakers, at all levels of government, the opportunity to reconsider how we handle the placement of certain juvenile offenders.” He adds that allowing placement closer to home “can assist in maintaining those positive relationships that come from family and other community supports.  Sustaining these relationships is a best practice for community reintegration.”

As in many states, the rate of juvenile incarceration in Wisconsin has declined in the past decade, leaving many beds open in state correctional facilities. This is due, experts say, to both a decline in juvenile crime and efforts to find local alternatives to state facilities, which Lipscomb and Holloway would like to see continue. Their resolution calling for the change in state law passed both the county Health and Human Needs and Intergovernmental Relations committees.

lincoln hills (photo by DOC)

Consolidating juvenile corrections in the state began under former Gov. Jim Doyle, whose Juvenile Corrections Review Committee voted last year to close Ethan Allen School. The committee concluded that Lincoln Hills appeared to be better run than Ethan Allen, and committee members, juvenile justice experts from around the state, weren’t convinced that consolidating operations in Wales would lead to more family involvement.

“The committee received some differing data regarding visitation, some suggesting there is little difference in visitation rates between the facilities and other data suggesting higher levels of visitation at (Ethan Allen),” said the committee’s final report.  The committee concluded that there was not the “desired involvement of families” at Ethan Allen.

Some board members, according to the report, were of the opinion that distancing kids from Southeastern Wisconsin would actually be beneficial. “Some committee members voiced the idea that youth may actually benefit from a (Lincoln Hills) commitment simply because it is a considerable distance away from their home environment, providing youth the opportunity to reflect on their personal behaviors and provide the incentive to return to their community by successfully completing their program.”

The report also noted, however, that distancing children from other support services – ones that could help them after their release – is a drawback to placing Milwaukee kids in Lincoln Hills. Lipscomb agrees. “These kids are ultimately coming back here. They’re going to be part of our neighborhoods again,” he says.

Alternatives to state facilities include the Milwaukee County Detention Center, the county’s existing short-term juvenile facility, and the Racine County Juvenile Detention Center, where some juveniles from Milwaukee are already being placed in the Alternatives to Corrections through Education Program, a short-term program for non-violent juvenile delinquents designed to avoid commitment to a state facility.

With approval of the corrections consolidation plan, Ethan Allen and South Oaks would close by July 1.

Wisconsin isn’t the only state downsizing its juvenile corrections system. In California, officials are considering whether to shutdown all state juvenile lockups and direct funding to counties to run their own facilities. New York is considering a similar approach.

Two Midwestern states – Illinois and Ohio – have already reduced the number of juveniles in state facilities by offering incentives for counties to place them in local programs, according to USA Today.

And some cities are forging their own paths. In 2000, Detroit pulled out of Michigan’s state juvenile corrections system and began placing almost all of its kids in local facilities. New York City is now pushing to do the same.

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