Eves wants Obmudperson funding to monitor Wisconsin’s prison system – Public Radio News Wisconsin

Governor Tony Evers wants to set up a new office to supervise the Wisconsin Ministry of Correction.

He asks the deputies to approve the funding of prison Ombudson as part of Wisconsin’s next two -year budget.

At least 19 countries have supervisory bodies for a prison with liabilities such as an investigation of complaints and audits and inspections, according to a review by the National Resource Center for Supervisor Supervision.

But Wisconsin is not one of them.

This would change according to the budget proposal revealed by Evers last week. Its nearly $ 4 billion dollar plan for the Wisconsin adjustment department includes about $ 2 million in two years to set up an Ombudperson office.

This office of 11 people will investigate the complaints “with respect to facilities, abuses, unfair acts and violations of the rights of persons who care for the department” in accordance with the budget proposal documents. The Ombudsperson will publish annual reports and will be able to make recommendations to the Wisconsin Ministry of Correction, according to the analysis of the legislative reference bureau of the Budget Bill.

“Work to prevent people from repeating when they are released into our communities must start a lot before leaving the corrective institutions,” writes Eves Britt Cudaback spokesman in an email to WPR. “The red and blue countries in our country have created similar offices in addition to the perception of evidence -based approaches based on data based on corrections that constantly indicate that people will repeat people when they are released, which ultimately improves public public Safety and saves taxpayers in the long run. “

Prison reform advocates call for Ombudsman

In the last year, a prison reform group, known as ladies from the Correctional Institution of Stanley, lobby civil servants, said Rebecca Obart, founder of the organization. Obart started ladies from SCI after her husband was imprisoned in Stanley prison.

Currently, people deprived of Wisconsin may file complaints through what is known as an internal testing complaints. But Obart said the internal process was insufficient and could make the prisoners be afraid of revenge.

“They cannot continue to be watched,” Obart told the Wisconsin adjustment department. “Our taxpayer dollars pay for all this and with the lack of transparency by DOC, most Wisconsinites do not even know the full degree of what is happening.”

Obart said that Ombudsportson’s office would provide more accountability by allowing an independent agency to investigate complaints filed by workers on correction and prisoners and their relatives.

Evers’s proposal is requiring funding for the Ombudsperson service as part of the budget of the Ministry of Correction. But Obart says he believes that effective Ombudson should not work at the Ministry of Correction.

“She is intended to be completely independent,” she said. “So, with the fact that there is part of the doctor, you will even have to be called something else. This is not a real ombudsman. “

Although SCI ladies were in discussion with state MPs on the law on the creation of prison ombudson, no such bill was introduced.

SCI ladies have shared preliminary design legislation with WPR, which has called for the creation of an Ombudperson cabinet, which will be housed in the Ministry of Wisconsin.

Officials with the EVERS administration have acknowledged that, according to the governor’s proposal, the Ombudperson office will be attached to the Ministry of Correction. But they said the service would work on “functionally independent”, like the Conditional Release Commission of Wisconsin.

Republican controlled legislation has promised major changes to the budget proposal

The Eves budget plan of $ 119 billion for the next two fiscal years of the state is in anticipation of approval by the legislative power controlled by WisConsin.

The chairman of the Assembly Robin Boss, the best republican of the legislature, did not answer on Monday a question about the Ombudson proposal to the governor. But at night the governor released his budget, the BOC said the general plan was “dead on his arrival.”

In a statement, Senate President Mary Felzkovski, R-Tomahawk, said he was open to working with the governor for “creative solutions” to “improve the results for correction, prisoners and taxpayers from Wisconsin.”

But she criticizes the potential structure of Ombudsportson’s office.

“De -Factical appointments for life (which the Ombudspers seems seem to be), almost a dozen new bureaucrats and millions of dollars are not creative solutions,” Felzkovski said.

Along with the government’s government, the Wisconsin Ministry of Corrections controls the probation of the state, the conditional complication and the community supervision programs. His previous secretary resigned last year, and the department was accepted by numerous scandals.

This includes a federal investigation into the smuggling of smuggling by staff and numerous lawsuits about the conditions that deprived people face.

In prison for maximum security of Waopun, more than half a dozen, former correction workers, have been faced with criminal charges, claiming that their neglect has caused the death of two prisoners. In Lincoln County, two prisoners are accused of murder at the death of a correction employee who worked in Lincoln Hills’s youth detention.

The budget application of the Evers’s Ministry of Correction involves reorganization of half a billion dollars on the crowded prison system of the country. This includes closing the prison for Green Bay and extending an early release program for non -violent offenders who complete the treatment of drug abuse.