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.”