Construction on a new youth prison for boys in Milwaukee is moving forward. But what does that mean for Milwaukee girls?

By Devin Blake

This story was originally published by the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find more stories about fifteen Milwaukee neighborhoods. Visit milwaukeenns.org.

Construction of a new youth prison in Milwaukee is progressing. However, the prison will only house boys; there are no plans for a similar facility for girls in the city.

This means that girls from the Milwaukee area who need to go to a Type 1 reformatory – the most secure type – are not incarcerated in Milwaukee and thus do not receive the advantages that boys enjoy by being closer to home.

Prison reform advocates have long argued that the relationship between girls and the prison system as a whole is not good.

The system is “not well designed to meet their needs,” says Melissa Ludin, coalition and human rights activist at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.

Reforms in juvenile criminal law

When Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced the site selection for the new boys' prison in Milwaukee, he said, “The goal for me and my administration from day one has been to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake and get our children closer to home safely and responsibly as quickly as possible.”

Evers added that this proximity to home allows children to maintain a bond with their families, improving their chances of success after discharge.

This is in line with research.

For example, a study by the National Institutes of Health concluded that the family is crucial to reintegration efforts because it provides not only emotional support but also material support, such as housing and financial assistance.

What do girls get?

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections views the upcoming expansion of the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Madison as an important step in reforming the juvenile justice system to include girls.

Mendota is a Type 1 facility for youth whose behavioral or mental health needs cannot be met by Department of Corrections facilities, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which has jurisdiction over Mendota.

Mendota has so far only admitted boys, but the law (Wisconsin Act 185 of 2017) that calls for the closure of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake and the construction of new youth prisons also requires funds to be made available to expand Mendota to accommodate girls.

The Ministry of Health expects the expansion to be fully operational by early 2025 and the completed facility will accommodate 73 boys and 20 girls.

But Mendota is in Madison, not Milwaukee.

And although Mendota would increase the state's overall capacity to house incarcerated girls, the Department of Corrections would still need to have its own Type 1 beds for girls, Beth Hardtke, communications director for the Department of Corrections, said in an email.

Other options

Law No. 185 requires the Prison Service to seek the construction of two new Type 1 juvenile prisons.

These prisons are part of what the agency calls a “regionalized” model for detaining juveniles, with the primary goal of keeping youth closer to home.

Current plans call for a prison complex in Dane County that will house 32 boys and eight girls, Hardtke said.

Another prison at an as yet undisclosed location in the northeast of the state is under discussion.

However, these prisons would not be able to hold girls from the Milwaukee area in Milwaukee, meaning the girls in the custody of the Department of Corrections or in Mendota would not be as close to home as the boys in the Milwaukee prison.

It is important to “note that the geographic background of the youth in Copper Lake is very different compared to Lincoln Hills,” said Britt Cudaback, communications director for Evers' office, in an email to NNS.

“Unlike the boys at Lincoln Hills, few girls from Milwaukee County come to Copper Lake,” Cudaback wrote.

“For example, the percentage of girls at Copper Lake School was consistently low, often in the single digits,” she said.

No girls from Milwaukee have been in Copper Lake since July 19, Hardtke said.

Devin Blake is a justice reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. His position is funded by the Foundation for Public Welfarewhich plays no role in the editorial decisions of the NNS newsroom.