Empower Wisconsin | June 9, 2022
MADISON — Despite bold campaign promises to fix and ultimately close the state’s troubled juvenile prison, Gov. Tony Evers has failed on both fronts.
State Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk), who lived for 20 years in Irma, the home of Lincoln Hills & Copper Lake Schools, says things have gotten much worse during Evers’ term.
In fact, Felzkowski, who knows several Lincoln Hills staff members, asserts the prison’s administrators and the Department of Corrections are covering up assaults and other incidents to protect a governor facing a difficult re-election campaign.
“This spring, a gentleman approached me. He’s worked there for 25 years and his son works there. They’ve had administrative turnover and the administrators that are now there, I will say, are very much in the pockets of DOC and management. And the employees are being singled out and reprimanded,” the senator told Empower Wisconsin’s M.D. Kittle on Wednesday’s Vicki McKenna Show.
A newly released report from a court-ordered monitor finds inadequate staffing levels are “having a profound negative impact on daily operations,
Felzkowski says part of the staffing problems have been caused by management firing employees who have raised concerns about the facility.
“People are very afraid to speak up,” she said.
State Sen. Mary Felzkowski is our guest on today’s edition of PowerUp, Empower Wisconsin’s podcast.
