Committee to decide how to handle new prisoner projections
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s finance committee is set to decide how to handle higher-than-anticipated growth in Wisconsin’s prison populations.
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, population growth estimates in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan are already outdated for both the state’s female and male prison populations.
The fiscal bureau says the state will have to house about 150 more female prisoners and about 800 more male prisoners over the two-year budget than Walker forecast.
The finance committee is set to vote Tuesday on plans that include opening a new wing at the women’s prison in Taycheedah, housing female inmates at a vacant girls juvenile prison, converting beds at the Sturtevant Transitional Facility for use by long-term male prisoners and contracting for additional beds in jails, federal facilities and temporary lock-ups.