State lawmaker doubts Hortonia prison will be built

Project’s critics urged to ‘keep the pressure on’ legislators

By Scott Bellile

The chairman of the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Corrections predicted the state’s Joint Finance Committee will not fund a proposed youth prison along State Highway 15 in the town of Hortonia.

“I’ll just give you the reassurance that I do not believe that Joint Finance is going to approve any effort from the (Department of Corrections) to continue on this piece of property just because of the pushback that they’ve gotten so far,” Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, told a crowd of about 60 people during an anti-youth prison rally held outside Hortonia Town Hall Saturday, June 15. “If town officials feel like this is a good opportunity to have in your area somewhere else, I’m sure that the state would be open to that. But as it stands right now, in my opinion, I don’t really believe that there is much of a chance to have that prison built here.”

Schraa co-authored the legislation ordering the construction of Type 1 facilities and the closure of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls in Irma. The bill passed without a single “no” vote in both chambers of the Legislature last year.

Schraa also served on the Juvenile Corrections Study Committee, where he did not vote for Hortonia as a possible site.

On June 11, the Joint Finance Committee shifted $25 million in funding that had been allocated for construction of the state-run Type 1 juvenile correctional facilities to the construction of planned county-run juvenile facilities.

The reason was legislators are unhappy with how the Department of Corrections has handled the site selection process so far, Schraa said.

The Joint Finance Committee could return the money for state Type 1 facilities as early as this fall, Schraa said.

Calling the DOC’s handling of the situation “a horrible PR nightmare,” Schraa said the department failed to inform Hortonia residents of its plans or hold public hearings.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced via press release on March 12 that the DOC had selected Hortonia and Milwaukee as sites to build two juvenile corrections facilities. Hortonia town officials say they were not given notice of the state’s decision before the public announcement.

“I really wish DOC would have done their due diligence, had the meetings, showed you (renderings), got your input before they just came out and announced that we’re going to move a juvenile prison into your area, because I think your attitudes really would be different,” Schraa said.

Schraa said 80 percent of Wisconsin’s serious offenders come from Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties in southeastern Wisconsin.

He said he will push for relocating Hortonia’s proposed facility to Racine, Kenosha or Rock county.

That being said, Schraa said construction of a third state-run youth prison must be funded two years from now in the next state budget, and central Wisconsin needs that facility.

“When you’re not educated and informed as to what’s going to be built and it catches you by surprise, I can understand why you would be upset about it,” Schraa said. “But I would ask you just to reconsider (accepting a youth prison in the area). … In my opinion it is going to be a great opportunity for some community because it will create good-paying jobs.”

Questions over site selection

When the Juvenile Corrections Study Committee met last year to consider potential sites, all options presented were on state-owned property in order to save taxpayer dollars, Schraa said.

Considering the facility could already cost at least $25 million to construct, some people at Saturday’s rally felt the cost savings in using state-owned land would be minimal in the big picture. They favored the DOC buying private or county-owned property elsewhere.

A private property owner in New London has contacted the DOC willing to sell, Schraa said.

Hortonia resident Paul Bernegger said the proposed site, located between Frick Ford and R&L Electric southeast of U.S. Highway 45, is part of the Lower Wolf River Bottomlands Natural Resources Area. The river corridor flows from the Shawano Dam to Lake Poygan.

“The intent was to keep commercial building away from that area and preserve not only the wetlands but the adjacent uplands because of the uniqueness to that corridor,” Bernegger said.

A 2002 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources report describes the Lower Wolf River Bottomlands as an “ecologically important landscape” that “provides necessary habitat for various wildlife and aquatic communities.”

Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson spoke positively of the project weeks ago but has since joined in opposing it after listening to Hortonia residents’ concerns.

“There’s nothing special about that plat of land,” Nelson said. “The only reason why it was analyzed, assessed and ultimately got more green dots than red dots or whatever system (the Juvenile Corrections Study Committee used) is because it was state-owned land. That’s it. That doesn’t seem to me like a good reason. But it also tells me that the committee, that the legislature, they’ve got more options, and I think it’s high time that they start seriously looking at other options, that people here have spoken loud and clear, and it’s time to move on.”

‘We are not welcoming the prison’

Dan Mercer, co-chairman of Citizens for the Preservation of Hortonia, said the anti-youth prison group has amassed almost 600 signatures on a petition against the project and distributed more than 200 “No Prison in Hortonia” yard signs.

He is pleased the Joint Finance Committee put funding for the project on hold.

“We’re going to continue to do what we’re doing,” Mercer said. “Our sprint has turned into a longer foot race. We’re going to continue our conversations with the legislators. The nice thing is they are calling us; we’re calling them. We’ve got a dialog going.

“The takeaway from this is we need to continue to make our wishes known,” Mercer said.

According to site selection criteria, the Juvenile Corrections Study Committee favors a community where the DOC can build on existing relationships and draw upon the local volunteer base.

“When you talk about community partnerships, for any business, any industry or especially a prison, this has to be a cooperative, welcoming atmosphere. We are not welcoming the prison to Hortonia, and we’ve said that continuously since April 30,” Citizens for the Preservation of Hortonia Co-Chairman Tim Manion said, referring to the date DOC officials visited Town Hall to explain their project.

A former Democratic assemblyman, Nelson said local residents must continue calling and emailing their legislators if they want to see the proposed facility relocated.

“The best way that you can affect change here is to keep the pressure on. Focus on the state, focus on the legislators,” Nelson said. “That’s the path that I see.”