Milwaukee County reduces number of inmates in youth prisons By: Associated Press March 1, 2021
6:36 am
EDGAR MENDEZ
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
MILWAUKEE (AP) Although most of the attention paid to juvenile justice has come in response to the state’s failure to meet the January deadline to close the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons, Milwaukee County officials continue to make strides to drastically reduce the number of local youth incarcerated in these institutions.
Mark Mertens, administrator of the Division of Youth and Family Services for Milwaukee County, said 22 local youth remain housed at these facilities.
“I’m hoping that the closing of Lincoln Hills is a moot point for us by the end of 2021,” said Mertens, who added that the total was 120 just a few years ago. “Our wildest hope was to get down below 50.”
Milwaukee County Reduces Number Of Inmates In Youth Prisons wuwm.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wuwm.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sweeping reforms would close youth prisons and end Serious Juvenile Offender Program. //end headline wrapper ?>Lincoln Hills School and Copper Lake School. Photo from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
Offenders who are 17 years old wouldn’t be automatically treated as adults in Wisconsin’s criminal justice system under a proposal by Gov.
That is one piece of Evers’ proposed state budget, which includes an overhaul to the state’s criminal justice system that has several changes to how youth are sentenced and receive treatment.
“Our justice system has put a strain on our state both in terms of costs for corrections and lack of investment in rehabilitation, treatment, and alternatives to incarceration,” Evers said during his budget address Tuesday. “We can’t keep throwing taxpayer dollars into a system that doesn’t help our state or our people thrive.”
48 Justice-Related Proposals by Evers urbanmilwaukee.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from urbanmilwaukee.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.