via Maclver Institute by Matt Kittle
MacIver News Service | March 19, 2019
By M.D. Kittle
MADISON, Wis. — For a candidate who campaigned on halving Wisconsin’s prison population, Gov. Tony Evers sure wants to spend a lot of money on prisons.
The Democrat recommends nearly$259 million in bondingfor seven major Department of Corrections building projects — a six-fold increase from his predecessor, Gov. Scott Walker’s lastcapital budget proposal,which recommended $41.68 million in DOC capital borrowing. The brunt of the Evers recommendations, $194 million, comes in the form of General Funds Supported Borrowing, repaid with General Fund Revenue, with $65 million in Existing/Residual bonding.
Evers’ fulltwo-year capital budget proposal,which includes more than $2.5 billion worth of borrowing, goes before the state Building Commission on Wednesday.
Much of Evers’ corrections bonding would cover the costs of building and financing the juvenile detention facilities ordered to replace the troubled Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls in northern Wisconsin. Nixing those lawsuit-laden detention centers to make room for new and renovated state and county-run juvenile jails received bipartisan support in the previous legislative session, with Walker signing the bills into law.
But Evers’ capital budget proposal comes up with $150 million more for construction of the youth offender centers.
The complete story here > Evers, The ‘People Not Prisons’ Candidate, Borrows Heavily For More Prison Beds