MADISON (NBC 26) — Governor Tony Evers is asking the State Building Commission to release $15 million allocated in the 2025-27 state budget to begin work on several prison reform projects across six Wisconsin Department of Corrections facilities, including closing Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI).
The governor is hoping the $15 million will fund preliminary plans and a design report for key components of the $500 million prison reform plan he proposed in February.
Evers' plan calls for:
- Closing GBCI and converting Stanley Correctional Institution in Chippewa County to a 1,500 maximum-security institution with the ability to be flexible as a medium-custody institution — allowing inmates at GBCI and Waupun to be taken there.
- Transforming the Waupun Correctional Institution into a medium-security "vocational village" — which is a prison-based training program that prepares inmates who are nearing their release date for careers in skilled trades.
- Closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools (the WI Department of Corrections' youth male and female inmate facilities) by early 2029, and turning them into a 500-bed, medium-security adult facility.
- Building a juvenile correctional institution in Dane County by late 2028.
- Converting John Burke Correctional Center to a female facility, adding 300 beds at no cost.
- Expanding Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center to allow for 200 more minimum-security beds.
“It’s pretty simple, folks—failing to release this investment will only delay our work and these projects and, ultimately, delay the closure of GBCI and Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, which have long been bipartisan goals," Evers said in the release. "Republican lawmakers cannot let that happen. If we want to save taxpayers millions, improve public safety, support our corrections staff, and make our facilities safer, this is the plan to do it, and we need these investments to be released so we can get to work.”
The State Building Commission is set to take up the governor's proposal on Oct. 28.
More details on Evers' new request can be found here.
