Damning report finds reason to replace Green Bay prison a step Evers says his budget won't take.

Byline: Nate Beck

A new report confirms what advocates of replacing Green Bay's maximum-security institution have long been arguing: the prison is overcrowded, out-of-date and dangerous.

It's a finding that comes just days after Gov. Tony Evers announced he has no plans to use his first biennial budget proposal, scheduled to be released on Thursday, to call for setting aside money needed for a replacement of the Green Bay Correctional Institution.

In a recent report looking at Wisconsin's correctional institutions, two consulting firms suggest state lawmakers should place a priority on replacing the Green Bay-area prison, which is actually in the village of Allouez. But the recommendations don't stop there.

The same report, which is dated Dec. 7 but was released just last week, calls for remedying deficiencies found in housing units and health-service centers throughout the prison system. Many of those same flaws were identified 10 years ago in a similar report and haven't been corrected since.

For Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay, the latest study is further confirmation that the century-old Green Bay Correctional Institution has been around much longer than originally intended. The report found that although prison staff employees have done an "admirable job" working in an obsolete building, the to-do list for repairs and improvements is almost insurmountable, touching on everything from tunnels and sewer lines to electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems.

Much of the building is without the sort of automatic-fire-sprinkler system now required by building codes. Its perimeter wall needs repair and its guard towers should be improved or replaced. Inmates at the overcrowded Allouez prison and other old prisons in the state are forced to share 50-square-foot cells designed to house only one person at a time. In all, the report found that almost 30 percent of the Green Bay Correctional Institution needs to be replaced, and nearly half of it is in need of major repairs.

"The draft version of the report was incredibly damning for GBCI," Steffen said. "It made it incredibly clear that it was the highest priority to be condemned and decommissioned."

"(This) indicates that we have lacked the leadership, courage and dollars to address the poor issues within our correctional facilities," he added. "We have spent the last decade kicking this expensive can down the road."

The report comes less than a week after Evers told reporters he wouldn't add...

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