Milwaukee County has submitted a $41 million proposal to the state for the construction of a new youth secure residential care center in Milwaukee and renovations at the Vel R. Phillips Juvenile Justice Center in Wauwatosa.
The new center is one of several facilities that are being planned to house juvenile offenders when Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls close. Those facilities are mandated by state law to shut down by January 2021, but Gov. Tony Evers has suggested that deadline should be extended.
Milwaukee County is seeking to build and operate a new secure residential care center, which would house non-serious juvenile offenders. It would have capacity for 40 beds and include a health clinic, educational, vocational and training programs and a secure perimeter.
The proposal also includes a request for funding to remodel areas of the Milwaukee County Accountability Program at the Vel R. Phillips Juvenile Justice Center on Watertown Plank Road, which includes 22 existing beds. Currently, 57 Milwaukee-area youth are at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake and 20 youth are involved in MCAP.
County officials have been working on their plan for a new youth center over the past year as part of a larger youth justice system reform effort, called Project Rise.
“Project Rise is moving Milwaukee County’s youth justice system to a model of restorative justice and reunification of youth with their families and communities,” said Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. “This new center is one step in Milwaukee County’s commitment to bring our kids closer to home and provide effective programming, trauma-informed care, and community partnerships that will help change the future for our kids.”
But the county faces uncertainty regarding state funding, project timelines and the site of the new center.
Under state law, counties have until March 31 to submit proposals to secure funding for their proposed county-run secure residential care centers. They are vying for the total $40 million allotted under state Act 185 for such centers. Evers has proposed adding $60 million in funding for those facilities in his budget.
“Based on our proposal alone, we’re at $41 million,” said Mary Jo Meyers, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.“When we hired our architectural firm and we had them work with us on renderings and started to look at all that was contained in Act 185 that is required to build a youth secure care center, we landed at the $41 million mark. We knew beforehand and we know even more now that the $40 million currently stated in Act 185 wouldn’t be enough for Milwaukee County, much less the other counties that will apply.”
Evers recently appointed a committee, chaired by Rep. David Crowley, D-Milwaukee, to determine the distribution of funding to counties.
Meanwhile, Evers’ administration has announced a separate plan to build a juvenile detention facility for serious juvenile offenders near the intersection of Teutonia Avenue and Mill Road on Milwaukee’s north side. It is one of two “Type 1” facilities planned by the state to replace Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. That plan has drawn opposition from residents in the area and neighboring Glendale, who say they weren’t given an opportunity to weigh in on the site selection.
Prior to that announcement, the county had narrowed the site options for its own facility to the Teutonia Avenue/Mill Road area, but officials have now dropped those plans.
The county is submitting its proposal to the state without a location for the secure residential care center. Meyers said the county is working with the city to identify a site and expects to announce other site options within the next few weeks.
The county estimates it needs about 5.5 acres for the new building and wants it to be located near a bus stop to make it accessible for visiting family members. The remote location of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, both of which are a four-hour drive from Milwaukee, has been a common criticism of the state’s current juvenile justice system.
Meyers said the county will continue to hold community listening sessions throughout the site selection process.
“It has to be right for the kids and families that will be most affected,” Meyers said. “…The sites we’re looking at now have fewer residents near them, but we still want to know how people feel. We still want to know what the community thinks because that’s really part of Project Rise. We will continue, even when we land on a site, to do community sessions. Because the only way we’re going to do true justice reform is to have the community understand what the real data is around recidivism and what you have to do to create safer neighborhoods.”
